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Goods Or Services News

09 Jan 2024

US Trade Deficit Shrinks on Falling Imports

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The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly narrowed in November as imports of consumer goods fell to a one-year low amid slowing domestic demand, a trend that, if it persists in December, could result in trade having no impact on economic growth in the fourth quarter.The report from the Commerce Department on Tuesday also showed exports declined in November amid cooling demand overseas. Demand is slowing both in the United States and abroad following hefty interest rate increases by global central banks since 2022 to tackle rampant inflation.The Federal Reserve's rate hiking cycle has likely ended…

20 Dec 2023

China’s First Domestically Built Cruise Ship Delivered

Adora Magic City, China’s first domestically built cruise ship (Photo: CSSC SWS)

The first large cruise ship ever to be built in China has been delivered, potentially leading the way for a new market player to rise within the global cruise shipbuilding industry.The 5,246-passenger Adora Magic City, built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) based on Fincantieri' Vista-class design, will commence its maiden voyage from Shanghai in January 2024, operated by Asian cruise line Adora Cruises.The Chinese-built ship will service the domestic market with four-to-five day sailings…

30 Nov 2023

US Ferry Services to Receive New Funds Through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

© susanne2688 / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) on Thursday announced grants totaling $220.2 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to modernize the nation’s ferry systems. The program focuses in part on expanding ferry service in rural communities, helping communities acquire modern ferry boats (including electric boats that reduce carbon pollution), and upgrading shore infrastructure to support high-quality, low-emission ferry service.“For many communities around the U.S.…

21 Nov 2023

Equinor’s Economic Boost to Local Industry Increases

Employees at the Mongstad refinery near Bergen.
(Photo: Ole Jørgen Bratland / Equinor)

A new report shows that deliveries to exploration, operation and modification of Equinor-operated fields and onshore plants in Norway exceeded 93 billion NOK in 2022, an increase of approximately 13% from the previous year.The report was presented at Equinor’s autumn conference by the company’s executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway (EPN), Kjetil Hove, together with the five trade unions in Equinor: Industri Energi, SAFE, the Norwegian union of managers and executives (Lederne), NITO and Tekna.“Our activities create substantial national and local ripple effects.

09 Nov 2023

US Shipbuilding: Policy and Progress

© Maxim Khalansky / Adobe Stock

When asked about the top issues facing shipbuilders, executives at the Shipbuilders Council of America (SCA) listed a number of topics and concerns. SCA is the only national trade association representing U.S. shipyards engaged in the building and repairing of military and other government and commercial vessels, and companies providing goods and services to the shipbuilding industry.Shutdowns have consequencesMatthew Paxton and Paula Zorensky are, respectively, SCA President and Vice President. Their top federal concern at the end of September? A U.S.

07 Sep 2023

Global Container Freight Still Stalled

© moofushi / Adobe Stock

Global industrial production and containerised freight flows remained in the doldrums at the start of the third quarter, confounding predictions earlier in the year for a strong rebound.Manufacturers and distributors in North America and Europe were struggling to reduce excess inventories after the post-pandemic rotation from goods to services spending.Rising interest rates and a cost-of-living squeeze have also dampened expenditure on expensive long-lived durable items.Global industrial output was up by less than 1% in the second quarter of 2023 from the same period in 2022…

28 Jul 2023

Attracting More People of Color to the Maritime Workforce

© Igor Kardasov / Adobe Stock

In the United States, marine transportation is responsible for $361 billion, or 1.7% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Marine transportation, a key part of global logistics and responsible for 40% of international trade, goods and services, is the backbone of U.S. trade. In the U.S. in 2021 alone, ships have transported more than 1.5 billion tons of cargo valued at more than $1.5 trillion; in that same time period, U.S. ports have facilitated approximately 450,000 ships, which is more than 10% of the global amount (McLean, 2021).

07 Jun 2023

Seaspan Cuts Steel on ‘Prototype Block’ for Canada's New Polar Icebreaker

(Photo: Seaspan Shipyards)

Seaspan Shipyards on Tuesday cut steel to build a “prototype block” marking a critical step in the Vancouver, B.C. shipyard’s Polar Icebreaker Program.Seaspan, which is designing and building the first heavy Polar Icebreaker in Canada in more than 60 years, said assembling the prototype block before full rate construction will allow it to test the new systems, processes, people and tools that are required to work with some of the very thick, specialized steel that needed to manufacture the complex vessel.

30 Jan 2023

Venezuela's PDVSA Tightens Oil Prepayment Rules

Copyright Alexander Sánchez/AdobeStock

Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA is toughening terms for buyers after a month-long halt to most exports of crude and fuel, demanding prepayment ahead of loadings in either cash, goods or services, company documents showed.PDVSA's new Chief Executive Pedro Tellechea put the move in place this month. It reinforces measures implemented last year after several buyers skipped out on payments for oil, which provides most of the South American country's income.After taking the helm, Tellechea launched an extensive audit of supply contracts…

06 Jan 2023

Diesel Consumption to Fall with US Manufacturing Downturn

Copyright JEGAS RA/AdobeStock

U.S. manufacturers reported business activity declined for the second month running in December and the sector appears to be on the leading edge of a recession. The slowdown in manufacturing and freight has already dampened consumption of diesel and other distillate fuel oils, and consumption is likely to fall if the manufacturing downturn deepens.The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing activity index fell to 48.4 in December (19th percentile for all months since 1980)…

16 Nov 2022

US Container Freight is Shrinking

© BKP / Adobe Stock

Container freight volumes at the largest U.S. ports were down 3.8% in September compared with the same month a year earlier, confirming the slackening of merchandise trade and downturn in the business cycle.The ports of New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Savannah, Houston, Norfolk, Charleston, Seattle and Oakland account for the overwhelming majority of container ocean freight into and out of the United States.The total volume of loaded containers handled by these nine ports amounted to 2.67 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in September 2022…

14 Nov 2022

Louisiana Gets US DOT Loan to Launch New Ferry Service

(Image: Elliott Bay Design Group)

Louisiana is set to launch a new ferry service with the help of a low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).The DOT said on Monday its Build America Bureau will provide nearly $41 million in loans to the Louisiana State Bond Commission for the benefit of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) that will go toward the ferry project as well as a bridge improvement program.The Bureau, which was established during the Obama Administration…

09 Nov 2022

Inflation Hits Vessel Operating Costs -Drewry

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Vessel operating cost inflation has accelerated in 2022 on mounting worldwide macroeconomic price pressures, despite some receding of Covid-19 related costs, according to the latest Ship Operating Costs Annual Review and Forecast 2022/23 report published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.Drewry estimates that average daily operating costs across the 47 different ship types and sizes covered in the report rose for the fifth consecutive year to reach $7,474 in 2022, a rise of 2.2%.

13 Oct 2022

Supply Chain Snarls Loosen, But Problems Remain

© Debbie Ann Powell / Adobe Stock

John Ehresmann loves that the cost of shipping an ocean container from Asia to a U.S. port or buying a load of lumber has fallen back to earth.If only that were true for everything he buys — but it’s not.Some parts of his supply chain have clearly improved, said the vice president of global supply for Graco Inc, the Minneapolis-based maker of fluid handling equipment such as paint sprayers. But the complex nature of global supply chains means that companies like Graco are still struggling…

15 Sep 2022

Maritime Risk Symposium 2022: The Importance of Inland Systems to the MTS

Russia's invasion of Ukraine emphasizes the importance of efficient maritime traffic to national security and the world economy. Pictured is an aerial cityscape of Kiev and river Dnipro at sunset, with a tugboat and barge heading down river Dnieper. Copyright Kirill Gorlov/AdobeStock

The 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium (MRS) is scheduled to be held Nov. 15-17, 2022, hosted by Argonne National Laboratory at the Argonne campus in Lemont, Illinois. MRS is an annual international event focused on risks involving the global maritime transportation system (MTS). For the MRS, the U.S. Coast Guard partners with the sponsor, the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and the hosting agency. MRS began in 2011 and has grown in size, scope and interest. The MRS event will be followed by the U.S.

03 Jun 2022

MARAD Designates Four New Marine Highway Projects

© Betty Sederquist / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) today announced the immediate designation of four new Marine Highway Projects as part of the America’s Marine Highway Program (AMHP). Projects in North Carolina, Alaska, and Puerto Rico will receive these designations. They can now apply for record levels of funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help address supply chain challenges.A Marine Highway Project is a planned service, or expansion of an existing service, on a designated Marine Highway Route.

25 May 2022

World’s Biggest Port is Returning to Normal, but Supply Chains Will Get Worse Before They Get Better

Credit: evening_tao

Shanghai is slowly emerging from a grueling COVID lockdown that has all but immobilized the city since March. Although Shanghai’s port, which handles one-fifth of China’s shipping volumes, has been operating throughout, it has been running at severely reduced capacity. Many shipments have either been canceled, postponed, or rerouted to other Chinese mega-ports such as Ningbo-Zhousan.With the city due to fully reopen on June 1, the port is going to be in overdrive as manufacturers try to fulfil backlogs, with serious knock-on effects around the world.

18 May 2022

China Lockdowns Impeding Supply Chain Recovery -US Treasury Secretary

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that COVID-19 lockdowns in China appear to be impeding the flow of goods and hampering global supply chains and a broader slowdown in growth in the world's No. 2 economy could have global spillover effects that warrant close attention."Certainly the lockdowns look like they are impeding the production and flow of goods and services, given how extensive they are, and compounding supply chain difficulties that we have had that have boosted prices…

10 May 2022

Fuel Tax Repeal Victory in New York State

Copyright MishaelPervak/AdobeStock

The New York State Petroleum Business Tax (PBT), Article 13-A levies a tax on fuel consumption of commercial vessels operating on the waters of New York State. The PBT has long been a source of contention for operators of tug boats and towing vessels transiting New York State waters because of the difficulty to accurately calculate the tax due the state. This led to many long drawn out audits of vessel operators by the state, resulting in unacceptable additional taxes, interest and fines.Over the years, multiple efforts were made by industry groups to repeal the PBT legally without success.

21 Apr 2022

Rising Calls for U.S. LNG Revive Stalled Export Projects, but at Higher Costs

New Fortress Energy earlier las year bought two jack-up rigs from Maersk Drilling to use them for non-drilling purposes as part of its planned Fast LNG project. NFE is also thinking of using similar floating infrastructure for its Fast LNG Project - Image for illustration only - Credit Maersk Drilling

Soaring demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) as buyers steer clear of Russian fuel is putting some long-stalled U.S. export projects back on track. But rising costs for materials and labor threaten to snarl these plants once again.Two developers with projects sidelined due to the U.S.-China trade war – Energy Transfer with its Lake Charles LNG and Tellurian Inc with its Driftwood LNG – have begun talks with construction provider Bechtel Group over costs, according to a…

03 Mar 2022

New Deputy Chief of the Contracting Office at NSWC Dahlgren Division

Michael Brian Donaldson (Photo: NSWC Dahlgren Division)

Leadership has added a new face in the contracting department at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD). Michael Brian Donaldson assumed the role of deputy chief of the contracting office (DCCO) in December, with management responsibility for a team of more than 110 contracting specialists, contracting officers, cost analysts, policy analysts and other contracting professionals.The contracting department at NSWCDD executes several thousand contract actions in a typical year, with a collective value of approximately $950 million.

08 Feb 2022

US Posts Record Trade Deficit in 2021

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The U.S. trade deficit surged to a record high in 2021 as imports increased sharply amid the restocking of shelves by businesses to meet robust domestic demand.The sharp widening in the trade gap reported by the Commerce Department on Tuesday mostly reflected a shift in spending towards goods from services during the COVID-19 pandemic. With businesses eager to rebuild depleted inventories against the backdrop of stretched global supply chains, the deficit is unlikely to shrink much this year…

27 Dec 2021

Brent Oil Rises Toward $77

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Brent crude oil rose towards $77 on Monday due to hopes that the Omicron COVID-19 variant will have a limited impact on global demand in 2022, even as U.S. crude came under pressure from flight cancellations amid surging cases.More than 1,300 flights were cancelled by U.S. airlines on Sunday as COVID-19 reduced the number of available crews while several cruise ships had to cancel stops.Global benchmark Brent crude rose 76 cents, or 1%, to $76.90 by 1505 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 22 cents, or 0.3%, at $73.57. The U.S.