Freight Carrier

Business Briefs

Hvide Marine/Sun State Christens New Ship Hvide Marine Incorporated (HMI) and subsidiary Sun State Marine Services, Inc., recently christened the first in a series of new cargo ships at its U.S. shipyard facility in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Constructed entirely on-site by Sun State Marine Services, Inc., the 190-foot 'landing craft' type freight vessel is specially designed and ideally suited for conducting trade with Bahamian and Caribbean markets that have minimal or unimproved facilities. "The landing craft has a reinforced hull that allows use of unimproved landing sites such as beaches or boat ramps by actually grounding the forward part of the vessel," noted Robert J. Coppedge, vice president of Sun State Marine Services, Inc. "This 'ability-with-stability' gives the operator tremendous flexibility in accessing a wider diversity of service areas." Christened the M/V Caribbean Express in an early June ceremony, the vessel was built for G & G Marine, Inc., a Dania Beach-based ocean freight carrier located adjacent to Port Everglades in Southeast Florida. The M/V Caribbean Express will work mainly in the Bahamas for both private and U.S. Governmental entities. G & G Marine, Inc. services fifteen ports in the northern Caribbean and Bahamas. Collision Causes Oil Spill Near Panama Canal Two ships collided on the Atlantic approach to the Panama Canal June 1, spilling an "undetermined" quantity of bunker oil, the waterway's administrators said.

Sause Brothers Towing Repowers Ocean Tug

Based in Coos Bay Oregon, Sause Brothers Towing has been towing between Pacific Northwest and Southern Californian ports for over 50 years. A new double-hulled 105,000-barrel oil barge, Sunset Bay, is currently alongside at the company shipyard in Coos Bay. With the hull built at the Gunderson yard in Portland it is being outfitted by Sause. Also at the yard, the ocean going tug Powhatan is undergoing an extensive repower that will see a pair of 850 HP engines replaced with a pair of

Pilot Freight Wins Logistics Award

Pilot Freight, worldwide transportation & logistics provider, picks up its seventh 'Ryder Transportation Management Carrier Quality Award'. Every year Ryder recognizes carriers through this award who demonstrate excellence in on-time performance, claims handling, customer service, technology applicants, economic value and innovation. The Ryder awards recognize excellence through a variety of metrics including: on-time performance, claims handling, customer service, technology applicants

Ocean Freight Shipping Rates on the Rise

After a downtrend in the freight shipping tanker market since the middle of 2007, the industry has seen nothing but rate increases in the last month. This freight rate increase can affect consumers across the board, according to the freight transportation The cost of freight shipping can mean an increase in the cost of many consumer products, according to FreightBrokering.info, which is why it's so important to keep freight transportation costs down

Payload Pivotal to Fast Sealift Ship

By David Tinsley, Technical Editor While catamaran and multi-hull vessel technology is increasingly being explored for its potential in high-speed military and logistical support applications, Rolls-Royce has unveiled a proposal for a fast naval sealift ship based on a monohull RoPax ferry design. The impulse for developing a vessel type with that rare combination of exceptional speed and relatively high payload capacity originates from the changing emphasis in military support

Drewry Expands Container Freight Rate Benchmarking

Drewry Maritime Research, the global leader in freight rate benchmarking, has expanded its flagship Container Freight Rate Insight publication and now provides freight rate benchmarks on 550 international trade routes. Published monthly, the report provides all-in spot rates on all the key shipping routes of the world, including both headhaul and backhaul trades. In  addition to the monthly report, subscribers also have access to an online database of both current and historical freight

LPG Fleet Rates Rise

The world LPG carrier fleet is forecast to expand from 14.5 million cu. m. at the beginning of 2005 to 24.6 million cu. m. by 2015. World seaborne LPG trade (including ammonia and petchems) is forecast to increase from 73 mt to 132 mt over the same period. These are some of the findings in the new detailed report – entitled ‘LPG Carriers: Market Prospects to 2015’ – which analyses the current and historical developments within the LPG carrier sector and examines the prospects for trade

The Hearsay Portal: part 1 of 2

Dr. Jim Giermanski (Chairman, Powers Global Holdings, Inc.) and Chris Giermanski (Director of International Operations, Transportation Services, Inc.) weigh in on the balance between facilitating trade and guaranteeing cargo identity and quantity - and what CPB needs to do to achieve just that. Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Modernizing the flow of Customs data and improving security began many years ago

FedEx To Enter Ocean Shipping Business

FedEx Logistics Inc reportedly will enter the oceanshipping business. FedEx Logistics, a unit of FedEx Corp., will become a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC), meaning it will send freight by sea but not own any ships, Mark Gunn, of the Akron, Ohio-based logistics firm said, "We aren't going to own any ships." FedEx Logistics will arrange the global logistics of ocean freight but Gunn did not say when this will start.

FMC Compromise Agreements

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) issued a Notice reporting that it entered into nine compromise agreements with vessel-operating common carriers (VOCCs), ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIs), freight forwarders, and proprietary shippers regarding alleged violations of the Shipping Act of 1984. Under the agreements, the FMC will recover an aggregate amount of $549,000 in civil penalties. Source: HK