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The Cargo Letter
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Section A: Section: Trade, Financial & Inland News|
Section B: FF World Air News |
Section C: FF World Ocean News | Section D: FF in Cyberspace |
Section E: The Forwarder Broker World
FF World Ocean Briefs
The Cargo Letter Cargo Damage Dispatches
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Filling The Hole ........ as U.S. Senate unanimously passed
legislation Dec. 21 that calls for significant security improvements to the
country's 361 sea & river ports. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., chairman of
the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, called the U.S.
seaports "a gaping hole" in national security. "Our agents at the Mexican
border near Tijuana will tear the seats out of a car to search for drugs --
while a crane just up the coast in Los Angeles lifts thousands of truck-sized
cargo containers onto the dock with no inspection at all," he added. "For the
1st time we will require approval of seaport security plans, better
coordination of law enforcement, more information about cargo, and directly
fund more U.S. Customs agents & security screening equipment to protect
against crime & terrorism threats," he said. Hollings added that like the
airport ticket tax, the users of the ports will directly pay for greater
security. Cargo ships currently pay a tax on the gross registered tonnage the
ship can carry. That tax rate is expected to decline starting in 2003.
However, the seaport security bill would extend the tax rate until 2006, and
direct all revenue (US$219M) to increasing seaport security.
Highlights of the Port and Maritime Security Act, S.1214, are:
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Creation of local port security committees to coordinate efforts between
federal (FBI, Coast Guard, Customs, & Immigration), state, local, & private
law enforcement agencies;
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Mandatory comprehensive security plans for all ports;
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Limited access to "security-sensitive" areas in ports, restrictions on
firearms & other weapons, evacuation plans, & employee background checks;
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Electronic cargo manifests sent to ports before cargo is cleared to enter, &
prohibitions on improperly documented cargo;
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Improvements to requirements for reporting of crew members, passengers,
&imported cargo to better track illegal activities;
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A Sea Marshall program and Coast Guard authorization to board ships entering
U.S. ports to deter hijackings or other terrorist activities.
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For in-bound shipments, the draft bill requires NVOs to provide full shipper
& consignee information on their house bills of lading along with the vessel
manifest submitted to Customs. For export shipments, the draft bill requires
NVOs to tender to the ocean carrier a copy of their house bills of lading, in
addition to what was already submitted to Customs through the Automated
Export System. Experts say the move clearly puts NVOCCs at a distinct
disadvantage, & even puts the NVOCC in peril with regard to their continued
existence.
Sen. Hollings & Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are credited with spearheading the
seaport security legislation in the Senate. The House of Representatives is
expected to take up seaport security legislation after Congress returns to
session in late Jan.
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Turkey Joins The War Effort ........ as a special coastguard force
began patrolling the winding Bosphorus straits on Nov. 21, tightening
security against possible attacks on the busy waterway that connects the
Black Sea with the Mediterranean. NATO member & close U.S. ally Turkey
announced the measures in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.,
fearing the 50,000 vessels crossing the straits each year could come under
attack. Up to 7,000 of those ships carry crude oil & other flammable cargo.
The new security force, called "Saget", will escort such vessels during their
passage.
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10,000 FEU Over Side? ......... as the Alliance of Maritime Regional
Interests in Europe (AMRIE) has added its voice to calls for reduced deck
cargoes on container ships. Quoting P&I club claims that 10,000 containers
are lost overboard each year leading to insurance claims totaling Euro 4Bn,
AMRIE has called for port authorities to abandon gross tonnage-based port
fees which exclude deck cargoes and provide an incentive to design vessels
with relatively high deck cargo capacities. At their Annual General Assembly
in Brussels, AMRIE members have decided to launch a campaign to persuade
governments in Europe to address the problem.
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Historic Voyage .......... as M/V Ikan Mazatlan loaded at an Archer
Daniels Midland port a few miles up the Mississippi River & was brought to
New Orleans on Dec. 13, sailing for 2 day voyage to Havana -- 1st commercial
export of U.S. food to communist island nation since 1963. An anti-Castro
group said shipment would be used as wedge to end embargo. Minutes later,
Illinois Gov. George Ryan & other officials said they hoped shipment would
lead to increased U.S.-Cuba trade. Under law passed last year by Congress,
humanitarian shipments can be made to Cuba. The Cuban government says the
24,000 metric tons of corn will be used to replenish reserves lost when
Hurricane Michelle struck Nov. 4, destroying crops & thousands of homes.
Shipment of frozen chickens to Cuba expected to depart later this month.
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Coming China Shipping Boom? ......... as easing of foreign investment
rules will combine with a cargo boom at Chinese ports as membership in the
WTO blossoms, according to Ministry of Communications officials. Officials,
quoted by the China Daily, predicted a flood of foreign firms would enter the
domestic China shipping market. "Bans on foreign investment in some
businesses will be lifted gradually, including logistics services & Int'l
shipping agencies," the officials said. WTO guidelines will also allow joint
ventures to be set up in shipping services as shipping agencies, and as
operators of terminals & container freight stations. China now has 230,000
cargo ships, with a transport capacity exceeding 50 million tons. It is
estimated that the demand for freight handled by Chinese ports will jump to 3
billion tons by 2005, according to the report.
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New Cruise Giant ........... as P&O Princess Cruises Plc & Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd. agreed to a surprising Trans-Atlantic merger Nov. 20,
pushing out Carnival Corp. as the world's largest cruise group. The
combination of the 2nd & 3rd largest cruise groups, which comes amid a severe
downturn in global travel, would create a 41-ship fleet with 75,000 berths,
or 25% more than Carnival's roughly 60,000. The tie-up between No. 2 Royal
Caribbean, with 23 ships & 47,700 berths, and P&O Princess, with 18 ships &
27,370 berths, will also generate annual savings of more than US$100M. The
deal drew applause from investors, who bid up the shares of both P&O Princess
and Royal Caribbean, taking their aggregate market value of US$6B.
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No CP Buy ....... as CP Ships' planned takeover of Nordana Line,
announced in mid-Nov, has been canceled. The London-based expansionist
shipping group said it & Dannebrog, the Danish parent company of Nordana,
have decided not to proceed with the planned acquisition. CP Ships is the
parent company of Australia-New Zealand Direct Line, Canada Maritime, Cast,
Contship Containerlines, Lykes Lines & TMM Lines.
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Truckers, Grab Your Oars! ........ as the European Commission will not
object to the extension of the British Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) that
will encourage freight forwarders to take heavy trucks off the roads by
helping them to invest in coastal/short sea shipping freight facilities. The
UK will put into effect a new 10 year aid plan extending existing Freight
Facilities Grant scheme to freight transport by coastal/short sea shipping.
The total aid for the 1st 3 years amounts over 80 million euro. Public grants
will be awarded for up to 50% of the total project cost for facilities that
will accessible on non-discriminatory terms for all existing & potential
operators.
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Sea Space Collision Avoidance ......... as space shuttle U.S.S.
Endeavour fired rockets early Dec. 15, while still attached to the Int'l
Space Station. A Soviet rocket booster, launched in 1971, was headed for
close call with Int'l Space Station, so NASA ordered evasive maneuvers.
Endeavour fired its rockets to boost the space station out of harm's way so
that booster missed the 150-ton space station by 40 miles (64 km). It is
perhaps interesting to note that the Soviet era rocket originally was
launched at a time when Russian & U.S. astronauts were often seen as pitted
against one another in Cold War competition, but now live as partners on
space station. Endeavour had 2 Russians on crew when it departed the Int'l
station, part of Russo-American expeditionary crew ending 4 month stay on
orbiting outpost.
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E Bill ....... as APL, working with encryption company Electronics For
Imaging, has launched an industry 1st way to help smooth trade by dropping
the need for paper a Bills-of-Lading. It's a new, secure process that permits
exporters to automatically & safely transmit encrypted negotiable
Bills-of-Lading via Internet directly to multiple 3rd-party providers such as
forwarders, consignees & the customer's own bank, according to APL, a unit of
Singapore-based NOL Group. While APL has offered remote printing capabilities
for B/Ls since 1996, this is the 1st product that allows electronic
documentation from the beginning of the process right through to the bank,
according to APL. Ed. Note: While we have not seen the new electronic B/L,
U.S. COGSA (Title 46 U.S.C.) still requires a paper B/L on U.S. moves.
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Very Classy Chassis Venture ........ as Interpool, Inc. & Maher
Chassis Management, LLC, an affiliate of Maher Terminals, Inc., have agreed
to form a joint venture (JV) company to market & provide chassis
revolutionary management services to steamship lines, railroads & others in
the intermodal community. The JV will combine Interpool's real-time
Internet-based "PoolStat" chassis management service with Maher Chassis
Management's knowledge of terminal port operations, extensive logistics
experience. The framework of the JV will offer chassis users the opportunity
to swiftly move toward a "gray" chassis on a national basis by allowing them
to "pool" chassis at common locations such as marine terminals & railroad
depots. Interpool's proprietary "PoolStat" software will compile data from
each location & report levels of chassis contribution as compared to levels
of chassis usage by each contributor/user to the cooperative pool. Chassis
users will benefit from both lower overall inventory requirements at each
location & reduced repair & management costs. Ultimately, this platform will
be positioned to allow carriers to withdraw from chassis ownership & supply
in the future.
www.interpool.com
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Long Beach Feels The Pinch ....... as Nov. container volumes fell 9.5%
to 372,085 TEUs, compared to Nov. 2000. The peak season for West Coast ports
usually tapers off by the end of Oct. Port officials said the Nov.
year-over-year decline was due to fewer last-minute shipments of holiday
merchandise -- as Christmas shopping forecasts were correctly down. Imports
declined 9% to 193,861 TEUs. Exports fell 16% to 75,879 TEUs, the 13th
consecutive month that year-over-year volumes have declined. The port blamed
weaker Asian economies.
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All Grown Up ........ as China's 3rd largest port, Qingdao Port in
eastern China's Shandong province, has joined the ranks of the world's top 20
ports in terms of throughput, according to the China Daily. The port topped
last year's throughput by half a million containers, to reach 2.6 million by
Dec. 26 this year. The Qingdao Port Affairs Bureau claims that the port has
recorded an annual growth of 30% for the last 10 years.
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Galveston Says "No" ........ as it's residents have rejected a
proposal that would have given control of the city's 184-year-old port to the
Port of Houston with a promise of badly needed upgrades. The proposal called
for the Port of Galveston to become a unit of the Port of Houston, which has
long bypassed Galveston in importance. The Port of Houston had promised to
invest US$30M to repair Galveston's dilapidated waterfront.
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Rolling Along The Big Dig ........ as the ports in Panama City & Colon
are now connected by a new railway for freight with a capacity to move up to
500,000 containers a year. Shipping industry sources report that the company
is more likely to transport 30,000 tot 40,000 containers the 1st year. The
Panama Canal Railway Co. has signed a contract with Maersk Sealand to
transport 800 to 1,000 20-ft & 40-ft containers a week between Balboa, on the
Pacific side, and Manzanillo Int'l Terminal on the Atlantic.
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The Next Generation .......... as with a capacity for 7,500
containers, M/V Hamburg Express, is one of the largest containerships in the
world & the new flagship of the Hapag-Lloyd fleet. The new building is 320
meters long & 43 meters wide, with a capacity of 100,000 tons. The main
engine has an output of 68,640 kilowatts or over 93,000 horse power,
providing a speed of over 25 knots, or over 50 kms per hour. The propeller,
with its diameter of 9.1 meters & weight of 100 tons, is currently the
world's largest driving a containership. Hamburg Express was built by Hyundai
Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. Construction began on Feb. 14 this
year when lasers began to cut the 1st steel plates, up to 78 mm thick.
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What A Wonderful World ........ as according to our favorite
newsletter Bow Wave, It costs just 75 cents to ship a bottle of wine from
Europe to Japan & it costs only US$1 to ship a camcorder from Japan to
Europe. Indeed, shipping is a bargain the world should appreciate. For more
on Bow Wave, see our "E" Section: The Forwarder/Broker World, below.
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This Month In U.S. Naval History .......... as on Dec. 16, 1907,
President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the "Great White Fleet" to sail on a
worldwide show-of-force to demonstrate the Navy's global reach. The ships, 16
battleships assigned to the Atlantic Fleet in Hampton Roads, were painted
white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows. They returned home Feb. 22,
1909.
www.history.navy.mil
Visit our new Vessel Casualties & Pirate Activity Database ......... where
daily updates of these ship news are posted.
Stay up to date!
www.cargolaw.com/presentations_casualties.html
We're sorry, but there were so many sinkings, explosions, pirate attacks,
fires, cargo mishaps, -- the British Special Boat Service storms a suspected
"Terror" freighter as it nears London, -- a Japanese naval battle sinks
"mystery" ship , -- a 1st shipment from the U.S. to Cuba -- & other disasters
at sea that we do not have room to print even the highlights this month. Many
lost their lives at sea this month!!
Indeed, at this hour Australian Antarctic supply ship M/V Polar Bird is
trapped in the Antarctic ice pack! Read the whole interactive story!
But you can read all this month's disasters at our special Internet web
feature which provides full details of each event.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Cargo Letter has received exclusive photos of new
transport disasters. Please view these dramatic pictures at our special
"Gallery of Cargo Loss" website feature.
www.cargolaw.com/gallery.html
Our Daily Vessel Casualties & Pirate Activity Database is updated for you
twice daily! You can also search ship wrecks & losses of the past in our
extensive index.
Bookmark the site and visit every day! Thousands of visitors can't be wrong!
www.cargolaw.com/presentations_casualties.html
NOTE: The historic dangers of carriage by sea continue to be quite real.
Shippers must be encouraged to purchase high quality marine cargo insurance
from their freight forwarder or customs broker. It's dangerous out there.
Please click below for other sections:
Section A: Section: Trade, Financial & Inland News|
Section B: FF World Air News |
Section C: FF World Ocean News | Section D: FF in Cyberspace |
Section E: The Forwarder Broker World
The Cargo Letter Correspondents:
Michael S. McDaniel, Esq., Editor
(Countryman & McDaniel).
Cameron W. Roberts, Esq. (Countryman & McDaniel).
Written from wire stories, the Associated Press,
Reuters, Hong Kong Shipping News Lloyds & other world sources.
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