Posted on Fri, Sep 03, 2010
Pack n send is monitoring Freight and Cargo Shipments both within the United State and worldwide. This article taken from Handy Shipping Guide highlights new strengths seen in US shipping markets.
Long Beach, California based UTi, a non asset based 3PL supply chain specialist turned in better than expected results yesterday following a general upward trend for the industry. With over 23 million square feet of warehousing in 23 countries the US company shows a pattern that seems fairly typical for the freight market at the moment. The CEO however offered a customary word of caution in today’s volatile conditions.
Eric W. Kirchner, chief executive officer, speaking of the second quarter results said in a statement:
"Our improved results were primarily driven by strong volumes and better operating margins. Airfreight and ocean freight volumes continued to grow faster than the market and were higher than volumes recorded in the second quarter two years ago, prior to the financial crisis. Results remain tempered by yield pressure due to continued high transportation rates, and we expect these rates to remain volatile on many trade lanes for the rest of the year. We are also expecting volume growth to moderate during the second half of the year due to a slowing global economy and more difficult comparisons to the prior year.
"We continue to be encouraged by improvements in our contract logistics and distribution business, which reported solid revenue growth and higher operating margins. Client volumes improved in the quarter, particularly in retail and consumer markets, and we continue to manage our operations more efficiently. Our transformation initiatives remain on schedule and we are making good progress in all areas."
UTi saw increased operating costs, up 9% against last year but it seems although traffic volumes were higher, rates were more competitive dragging profits back somewhat. Net revenues were up 12% for the half year against 2009 at $379 million.
For more information on Houston shipping, freight and cargo shipping, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Wed, Sep 01, 2010
This article is taken from Handy Shipping News. Why is this so interesting? With changes happening so quickly in container shipping, Mitsui OSK Lines is once again thinking ahead and changing the cargo that they carry via ocean.
JAPAN – When international oil prices jumped in the 1970’s Mitsui OSK Lines cancelled tankers and moved swiftly into container shipping, just as the seemingly unstoppable rise in trade using 20’ and 40’ boxes gathered momentum. Now, with much of the world in the grip of recession, the Japanese group seem, once again, to be ahead of the game.
Although known by most freight executives today as a container carrier MOL have rebranded and changed markets several times in their long life. Now, with uncertainty surrounding both bulk and container markets the company has made some strategic changes regarding its carriage of natural gas vessels.
Tokyo LNG Tanker Co. is a company jointly owned by MOL and the Tokyo Gas Co. and today they announced that Tokyo LNG Tanker will receive a minority stake (1.5%) in two SRV companies owned by MOL (48.5% shareholders) and Höegh LNG (50%). This means Tokyo LNG Tanker have a share in two SRV vessels, the “GDF Suez Neptune” and “GDF Suez Cape Ann”, both on long term charter to serve the Neptune LNG Deep Water Port terminal off Boston on the U.S. East Coast. The Lief Höegh line was the first shipping group to venture into gas carriage and they have unrivalled experience in the field.
For those not familiar with SRV carriers (Shuttle and Regasification vessels) these ships take on liquefied natural gas (LNG) at loading terminals and upon arrival at destination, regasify it onboard, and transfer it to shore via pipelines built on the seabed. SRVs can also serve as conventional LNG carriers, transporting LNG to discharge at receiving terminals.
This versatility allows SRVs to serve LNG importing nations without requiring the construction of new or additional LNG terminals on shore, a key point for today’s emerging markets. The SRV is considered by many as a cutting edge innovative LNG transport and delivery technology.
Posted on Tue, Aug 24, 2010
Pack n send usually discusses international news on our blog. Since we have customers calling in to ask about our international shipping services, we are making a change for this blog and discussing some of our international shipping services.
We do pack and load household goods for shipping out of the Port of Houston. We do ship all over the world. We have a network of shippers and do arrange shipments for our customers out of other ports as well. We will determine if you need a twenty foot or a forty foot container for your shipment.
Besides house hold goods, we also load and pack machinery, airplanes, cars and assorted other items into containers for both individuals and companies.
We also freight furniture through out the fifty United States as well as through out the world. If you do not have enough furniture for a twenty foot container, then we can ship your furniture on a pallet. We ship this by the cubic meters. After you have over ten cubic meters, it becomes more cost effective to order a twenty foot container for you.
We fill in the paper work for you, as well as prepare the bill of lading for your shipment.
We will try and answer more questions for you on our blog or you can call us at 713 266 1450 so that we can help you.
Posted on Thu, Aug 19, 2010
Photo by Wang Yish/Imaginechina
Pack n send has been following alternative uses for containers used in freight and cargo shipping. This article from NBC news caught our attention because the the term “pod” housing.
Huang Rixin, a spritely 78-year-old former engineer turned Beijing landlord, has made a name for himself in recent months producing cage-like, 21.5-square-foot living spaces dubbed “capsule apartments” for the capital’s burgeoning class of jobless and underemployed college graduates.
Two Chinese men sit in their own small spaces in capsule apartments in Beijing, China, in a photo taken June 12, 2010.
Taking Japan’s famous capsule hotels for inspiration, Huang has improved on previous iterations of his pod houses by doubling the size of the rooms and including more shelf space. Huang views his pods, with rent of about $51 a month, as a cost-effective way to house the estimated 3 million recent university graduates seeking employment or earning less than the average starting salary of approximately $400 a month.
In many ways his capsule apartments highlight the social and economic problems that belie China’s gaudy GDP numbers.
Even as the national economy surges, China’s per-capita income has simply not kept pace, and millions of people have been left out of the nation’s economic miracle.
China’s per-capita income, at around $6,600, is closer to that of Turkmenistan or El Salvador, rather than to the U.S.’s $46,000 or even Japan’s $33,000.
While China’s liberalized economic policy has certainly pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and transformed the country into an industrial dynamo, little of that prosperity has trickled down to the majority of would-be Chinese consumers – the very people who many economic experts insist will fuel China’s growth well into the 21st century.
In essence, China is still the largest market in the world for virtually everything, and despite claims otherwise, Chinese consumers are very willing spenders. However, Chinese wages are currently so low that consumers simply are unable to contribute to domestic consumption unless serious wealth redistribution or salary adjustment occurs.
Whether that economic stature is fleeting – as it was for the Japan – or relatively more long-term, as it has been for the U.S., will bear close watching.
Pack n send has reproduced portions of this story from NBC News' Arata Yamamoto contributed to this report from Tokyo.
For more information on shipping freight and cargo from the United States, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Mon, Aug 16, 2010
The Port of Houston offers an up close look at cargo shipping. Pack n send is posting the information taken from the Port of Houston website as a service to our customers.
Get ready for an unforgettably spectacular waterborne tour of one of the busiest ports in the world aboard the Port of Houston Authority's free public tour boat!
Named for the legendary military commander who led the fight for Texas independence from Mexico and later statehood, the M/V Sam Houston offers free leisurely 90-minute round-trip cruises along the Houston Ship Channel.
Embarking from the port's Sam Houston Pavilion, visiting sightseers can enjoy passing views of international cargo vessels, and operations at the port's Turning Basin Terminal. Measuring 95 feet in length and 24 feet in width, the boat carries a maximum capacity of 90 passengers with air-conditioned lounge seating and additional standing room on the boat's rear deck.
The M/V Sam Houston has been operating as the Port Authority's public tour vessel since its inaugural voyage on July. 30, 1958. By 1979, a total of 1 million passengers had taken the tour.
No food or beverages are allowed to be brought aboard the boat or into the pavilion. However, a free beverage is provided on the boat during the trip. We want all of our visitors to enjoy the tour experience in a clean and safe environment, therefore picnics in the pavilion are not allowed.
The tour is free; however reservations are required 24 hours in advance of the planned tour. Enhanced port security measures require government-issued photo identification for passengers ages 18 and older. Examples of acceptable identification are state-issued drivers license, state of Texas Identification card, or passport.
Register online anytime, or call 713-670-2416, Monday through Thursday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Please note: a maximum of 45 reservations is allowed for any one group. Also, a maximum ratio of one adult per four children under the age of 12 will be enforced.
SECURITY NOTICE
Because of heightened security measures, regularly scheduled tours aboard the M/V Sam Houston may be canceled without advance notice. Before making the trip to the Port of Houston for a tour aboard the Sam Houston, please consult this Web site for information on the status of your tour.
Security regulations also prohibit the carrying of any camera equipment aboard the M/V Sam Houston and the taking of photographs from aboard the ship is strictly prohibited.
Also, large baggage such as backpacks and oversized purses are not allowed on board. Passengers' personal belongings may be subject to searches in accordance with federal regulations. The PHA reserves the right to refuse passage to board the vessel to any person for any reason at any time.
We advise that you arrive at least 15 minutes, preferably half hour, before your tour launches to assure that you have plenty of time to check in through security and to board the vessel.
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Tour Times
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Monday
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Closed
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Tuesday
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10 am & 2:30 pm
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Wednesday
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10 am & 2:30 pm
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Thursday
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2:30 pm only
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Friday
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10 am & 2:30 pm
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Saturday
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10 am & 2:30 pm
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Sunday
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2:30 pm only
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Holidays
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Closed
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For more information on international shipping, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Wed, Aug 11, 2010
Now that a one hundred square ice piece has broken off a glacier, the cargo ships now face a new peril.
After dealing with pirates and colliding ships this floating island is another worry for boat captains.
This ice island break off follows six months of unusually warm record. These past six months have recorded the warmest temperatures since 1962.
Since glaciers are melting faster than any one had anticipated, they are adding to threats of flooding coastal cities all over the world.
It should take approximately two years for this latest breakaway piece of ice to melt. At this point, the worry is that the iceberg may head toward shipping lanes off of the Canadian Coast, and also in the North Atlantic Ocean.
By monitoring the progress of this large ice mass, ships should be able to adjust their course during the next two year time period.
For information about freight and cargo shipping, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Mon, Aug 09, 2010
Two ships registered to Panama have collided off the coast of India. The cargo on one of the ships has been seen floating in the water.
We do not have any more information a bout the collision at this time, but will keep you updated as we receive more information.
Pack n send regularly ships out of the Port of Houston. For information about our container loading and freight shipping, please call pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Thu, Jul 29, 2010
CANADA – After harsh words had been exchanged over what the Innternational Transport Workers Federation (ITF) called last week “a needless overreaction” it seems talks are to resume at the Port of Montreal which will possibly mean an end to the labor dispute which commenced in June. On the 27th of that month the dockworkers claim that employers changed the working conditions of 169 dock workers with the least seniority. The longshoremen responded by refusing to work overtime as of the 9th July.
On Sunday the 18th July the union and employers met all afternoon and planned to continue ongoing negotiations during the following week. During the next 48 hours however there was a lockout preventing access to the port and infuriating union officials. The lock out was described as “incomprehensible and pointless. News of the lockout reached them they were in the middle of a general meeting to cancel the planned application of pressure tactics. They pointed out that overtime is voluntary and no reason to be excluded from work.
Now it appears common sense has prevailed on both sides and they have agreed a protocol to return to work enabling the port to function whilst negotiations continue, with union representative Michel Murray saying that with both sides talking an agreement could be reached in the next few weeks.
Shipping through the port, Canada’s second largest behind Vancouver and capable of handling one and a quarter million TEU’s per annum, has been diverted to other ports, principally Halifax, since the dispute started and the problems are causing delays and possibly the cancellation of new contracts and investments.
Pack n send has reproduced portions of this article from Handy Shipping News as a service to our customers.
Pack n send monitors port operations throughout the world. While most of our cargo shipments go via ship to ports in Central America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, any port closure or slowdown can affect freight shipments throughout the world.
For more information on overseas shipping, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Wed, Jul 07, 2010
While the cargo shipping is beginning to pick up in the United States and exports have increased during the last quarter, Subway has come up with an ingenious use for cargo containers.
The New York Times recognized this ingenuity, and pack n send is posting parts of their article to our website. Our hats are off to Subway for pushing the American Dream to new heights.
Most of the patrons are drawn from an elite group of high-beam artists, namely ironworkers laboring hundreds of feet above the street. The dress code is severe: hard hat, overalls, safety vest and glasses. Security clearance and a union card are a must.
The restaurant, a Subway franchise, opened its door at the top of the steel honeycomb that forms 1 World Trade Center, the skyscraper rising at ground zero. The building will be the city’s tallest when finished in 2013, and the sandwich shop, currently sitting on the 27th floor, will rise along with it.
The sandwich shop is one of four movable “pods” on hydraulic legs sitting on either side of two tower cranes; the other pods house offices, a shanty where workers can change clothes, and bathrooms for men and women.
But despite advances in engineering, materials and safety, when it comes to lunch, ironworkers and other laborers are used to eating the way their literal and proverbial forebears did during the skyscraper boom of the 20th century: out of a lunch bucket, with a plastic cooler doing the job of the old metal pail.
The array of pods cost $3 million, but the contractor hopes to recoup some of the expense in saved time. “The days of eating on top of a steel beam are long gone,” said Bill Grutta, a DCM vice president.
Each pod is made of nine cargo containers welded together and stacked three levels tall. In the dining pod, the Subway sits on the top level.
It is no different from any other Subway, with a kitchen, a walk-in freezer, a service counter and refrigerators for drinks. One level down, there is a heated and air-conditioned lounge with tables and chairs. A compost tank and an evaporator in the bottom container take care of all the solid and liquid waste.
The menu, for now, is instantly recognizable to any connoisseur of the chain. But Mr. Schragger may add ready-to-heat lasagna, burgers, hot dogs and pretzels to the usual $5 footlongs to infuse the shop with a sense of variety. There is also talk of adding Papa John’s pizza. After all, he must cater to the whims of his clientele.
“I don’t think the veggies will be a big seller,” said Mr. Schragger, who owns four other Subways in Manhattan. “I imagine most of the guys will want protein. Philly Cheesesteaks and the Feast.”
The shop is open to ironworkers, who work at the top of the building as it goes up, as well as laborers, concrete workers, electricians and others on the lower floors; at any time more than 1,000 people can be on the job site. But they are not required to eat at the Subway. Business was a little slow Wednesday for what Mr. Schragger called a “soft opening,” but he and DCM are hoping the shop will catch on.
But it is probably the only one whose 500-gallon water tank is replenished weekly by an even larger tanker lifted by a crane. DCM expects — or hopes — that the compost container will not have to be opened until the building is finished. The waterless toilets and urinals are cleaned by negative pressure that pulls the waste into an evaporator that turns much of the sewage into steam.
“As the building goes up,” he said, “the views will be pretty nice. I’m sure it will be one of the most talked-about sites to come have lunch.”
For more mundane uses of cargo containers, please contact pack n send for both cargo shipping and freight preparation at 713 266 1450.
Posted on Fri, Jul 02, 2010
The Los Angeles Times has reported that clerical workers went on strike at several terminals in both Los Angeles Long beach. These workers are responsible for critical paperwork for ocean cargo in California.
While the ports are fully functioning, there have been some picketing by workers at the port.
An arbitrator declared that the strike was improper and ordered the employees back to work.
The clerks who have walked off their jobs are responsible for export paperwork as well as transport documentation.
This job action along with the governor call for minimum wage for all California state employees not currently under contract, could set a double whammy for the already beleaguered economy in California.
Other ports around the nation that handle freight and cargo shipping have not been affected by this labor dispute.
For information on shipping freight and cargo from the Port of Houston, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.
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