Critical Cargoes
In today’s global environment, all shipments are mission critical. With that in mind, Burnson's blog will address core trade and transport concerns expressed by logistics and supply chain managers worldwide. He'll share exclusive intelligence on waterborne carriage, services and seaports as well as risk mitigation and deployment strategies. Other areas of focus will be on air cargo and regulatory issues.
Art of the deal for shoppers and shippers
Retailers are about to embark on the holiday season of the serious bargain hunter. According to National Retail Federation’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday-related shopping, a 3.2 percent drop from last year’s $705.01. According to NRF researchers, this should come as ...... Read More
Comments (0)Are You Listening, Senator?
California State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D- Long Beach) may be sounding a bit more conciliatory these days, with the realization that his constituents care more about jobs than a quick fix for the environment. In a luncheon address before a select audience of The National Industrial Transportation League conference attendees last Sunday, the senator is said to have softened his rhetoric. “A ...... Read More
Comments (0)Trade Protectionism Must Go
Looking beyond recovery, say leaders of 21 economies comprising the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) demands “a new growth paradigm and an expanded trade and investment agenda that will strengthen regional economic integration in the region.” At its summit in Singapore, APEC announced that resisting trade protectionism would remain a key objective. “We reaffirm our com ...... Read More
Comments (2)Scary Story
Today is Friday the 13th, and coming on the heels of Halloween, gives us pause to consider some of the scarier aspects of the air cargo industry. Security will remain top of mind, of course, but the industry’s financial health, too, remains a real concern. Fortunately, we are not the only ones concentrating on this issue. The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade a ...... Read More
Comments (0)Mending Maersk
Despite dramatic workforce downsizing, scrapping tonnage and ending its ship-building, A.P. Moller-Maersk in on the ropes. That doesn’t mean that its stopped fighting, however. In a letter to shareholders, the Danish shipping giant said that it lost $706 million in the first nine months of 2009 on a 31.7 percent drop in container shipping revenue. Furthermore, said officials, ...... Read More
Comments (0)New generation of vessels will be greener
There’s a significant “green” angle to today’s announcement of the new Mega-ship launching. CMA CGM “Christophe Colomb” is the first vessel of the Group equipped with a Pre-Swirl Stator. This ingenious new device, together with the twisted leading-edge rudder, maximizes propulsion efficiency and optimizes the vessel’s hydrodynamics to cut fuel consu ...... Read More
Comments (0)Manning the Barricades
Now that DHL has been restructured to remain competitive in a global marketplace, it is facing a fresh challenge within its own ranks. Union organizers are encouraging employees – or in the Marxist vernacular, “workers” — to engage in a dialogue with DHL management about how the company should be run. So here’s a suggestion: How about profitably? & ...... Read More
Comments (0)Shipper-driven initiative to create jobs
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is reminding shippers and policymakers about the central role the nation’s free enterprise system must play in turning around the country’s jobless rate. The comments come in response to new Labor Department statistics released late last week that put America’s national jobless rate at just over 10 percent—a threshold last pass ...... Read More
Comments (0)U.S. seaports brace for Panama Canal expansion's impact
Considered to be one of the most important…and game changing…public works projects of the century, completion of a third set of Panama Canal ship locks in 2014 will provide many of the world’s largest vessels a crucial “intercontinental shortcut” to lucrative markets. To examine the potential impacts of this project and other major trade pattern developments-and ...... Read More
Comments (0)Sustainable Strategy...or Else
Not everyone in the our globalized industry is buying into the “Green” model, it appears. A recent study of the supply chain and logistics practices of a number of industries in South Africa has revealed that more than 40 percent of the companies surveyed nationally are not implementing environmentally sustainable business strategies - thereby jeopardizing their own long-term sustai ...... Read More
Comments (0)Seaports Poised for "Change"
When one is asked to name a thriving U.S. East Coast cargo gateway, the Massachusetts Port Authority does not immediately spring to mind. Still, there must be a significant measure of leadership coming from this corner of the world for its current director to be named (for the second time, no less) as the American Association of Port Authorities’ (AAPA) Chairman of the Board for 2009-2010. ...... Read More
Comments (0)Made in America
With the long-anticipated arrival of the USS New York today, Americans everywhere have a genuine reason to rejoice. Built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow, the vessel will be commissioned in New York City on November 7 and will then head out for duty five days later. Before that occurs, however, the public will be welcomed aboard to pay tribute to a truly great s ...... Read More
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