US Navy to Christen Littoral Combat Ship Cincinnati
The Navy will christen its newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship, the future USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), during a 10 a.m. CDT ceremony May 5 in Mobile, Alabama. The principal speaker will be Cincinnati Councilmember David Mann, also a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio. Former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will serve as the ship's sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, she will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow. "The future USS Cincinnati is a symbol of the strong connection between the people of Cincinnati and the Navy and Marine Corps team," said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. The future USS Cincinnati is the fifth U.S. Navy ship to honor Ohio's third largest city.
Port of LA and GE Transportation to Digitize Shipping
The Port of Los Angeles and GE Transportation are partnering to digitize maritime shipping to help goods reach consumers faster. First-of-its-kind port information portal delivers fast, data-driven insights to enhance maritime supply chain performance and better serve ultra-large container vessels. With consumer spending on the rise, U.S. businesses need greater reliability and visibility from the supply chain to maintain their edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Given that 90 percent of global trade moves on the ocean, seaports are critical nodes of the supply chain. However, today’s major ports face the growing challenge…
USC, Ports Partner to Improve Supply Chain Technology
A strategic partnership with the USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management aimed at improving the global competitiveness of the nation’s supply chains was signed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker on October 14 at the University Park campus. “Through this new partnership, we hope to encourage ports around the country to increase efficiency by adopting new technologies that will provide more information on the flow of goods to port users and stakeholders,” said Secretary Pritzker. The partnership with USC Marshall will allow for collaboration on digitalization of the nation’s supply chains, including applications related to IoT (Internet of Things).
DSC Dredge Receives President’s E-Star Award
DSC Dredge, LLC, based in Reserve, La., has received the 2016 President’s “E-Star” Award for exports. In a ceremony held on May 16, 2016, at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said, “These companies demonstrate the opportunity inherent in selling Made-in-America products to the broad customer base that exists outside our borders. During her remarks, Secretary Pritzker singled out several companies, including DSC.
US Ports Require Investment Uptick
U.S. U.S. ports and our marine transportation system – and the hardworking men and women behind these operations – are essential drivers of the American economy. Every day, our ports and waterways handle millions of tons of domestic and international cargo, including food and agricultural products, petrochemicals and automobiles. In 2014 alone, $1.7 trillion worth of U.S. goods moved through our ports, representing 75 percent of imports and exports by weight. But ports, like our highways and bridges, face challenges.
South China Sea Takes Center Stage at US-ASEAN Summit
U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders turned their attention to China on Tuesday on the second day of a summit intended to improve commercial links and provide a united front on maritime disputes with Beijing. After a first day discussing trade and economic issues at the Sunnylands resort in California, Obama and his Association of Southeast Asian Nations counterparts were to try to arrive at a common position on the South China Sea, where China and several ASEAN states have conflicting claims. Not all the 10 ASEAN nations agree on how to handle the disputes and U.S. officials want a statement calling for China to follow international law and handle disputes peacefully.
U.S.-ASEAN Summit: South China Sea on Center Stage
U.S. President Barack Obama and allies from Southeast Asia will turn their attention to China on Tuesday on the second day of a summit intended to improve commercial links and provide a united front on maritime disputes with Beijing. After a first day focused on trade and economic issues, Obama and his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will try to arrive at a common position on the South China Sea during a second day of talks at Sunnylands, a California resort. China and several ASEAN states have conflicting and overlapping claims in the South China Sea, but not all the Southeast Asian nations agree on how to handle them. U.S. officials want the summit to produce a statement calling for China to follow international law and handle disputes peacefully.
Senator Urges Obama Admin to Detail Oil Swaps with Mexico
One of the U.S. Senate's top advocates for lifting the ban on domestic crude exports urged the Commerce Department on Thursday to disclose whether any oil swaps with Mexico have actually been finalized after the agency approved the transactions in August. Administration officials told Reuters in August that the Commerce Department was "acting favorably on a number of applications" to export U.S. crude in exchange for imported oil from Mexico, in a step seen as loosening the ban on most crude oil exports.
U.S. West Coast Ports Reach Tentative Deal
A group of shipping companies and a powerful dockworkers union clinched a tentative labor deal on Friday after nine months of negotiations, settling a dispute that disrupted the flow of cargo through 29 U.S. West Coast ports and snarled trans-Pacific maritime trade with Asia. The settlement, confirmed in a joint statement by the two sides, was reached three days after U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday to broker a deal with the help of a federal mediator who had joined in the talks six weeks earlier. The White House called the deal "a huge relief" for the economy, businesses and workers. President Barack Obama urged the parties "to work together to clear out the backlogs and congestion in the West Coast ports as they finalize their agreement…
Pressure Mounts to Settle West Coast Port Dispute
LOS ANGELES, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Two U.S. Cabinet secretaries joined congressional leaders, three governors and a big-city mayor on Wednesday in pushing shipping lines and the dockworkers' union to settle a contract dispute that has led to months of turmoil and cargo backups at 29 West Coast ports. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker weighed in as emissaries of President Barack Obama, who has come under rising political pressure to intervene in a conflict that has reverberated through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain and could, by some estimates, cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars. Worsening cargo congestion that the union and shippers blame on each other has slowed freight traffic since October at the ports, which handle nearly half of all U.S.
Finances Very Strong; Steel Drives Tonnage Growth
PHA Signs Memorandum of Friendship & Trade Cooperation With Port of Marseille-Fos, Provence Promotion Economic Development Agency. Finances are very strong for August, Executive Director Len Waterworth shared in his report to the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority at its monthly meeting today. "I am very pleased to announce that we had another $20 million+ month, that's four out of eight this year, extremely good," Waterworth said. Waterworth also reported August's net income of $11 million, up $7 million or 212 percent.
