Author: admin

As the Aug. 1 deadline for a potential boycott looms, disagreements persist between members of the South Florida trucking community and Port Everglades Terminal LLC.

The dispute arose earlier this year from truckers who handle cargo delivered by Chiquita, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Maersk Line and Zim, which are the primary oceangoing carriers whose ships call at the Fort Lauderdale terminal, known as PET. They complained of poor working conditions there, including long wait periods and slow cargo processing.

Richard Rovirosa, president and CEO of PET, and terminal manager Javier Miranda on July 11 met with representatives from Ace Transport, Palmetto Transport, Nighthawk Trucking, Delta Trucking and Southern Global to address concerns and discuss improvements. Rovirosa reported last week that the meeting had ended positively and that the two sides had reached an agreement.

In a July 12 e-mail memo to the trucking firms, he wrote: “The Trucking Community and PET have as part of their communication commitment agreed to remain in contact on a regular basis to ensure what was started in good faith on the 11th continues and in fact improves the services provided by everyone to the mutual benefit of all concerned.”

Read more…

In recent times, the technology of hyperloop has created quite a stir across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. The attention is now on China, as Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) inked a deal with the province of Guizhou to bring in the country’s first hyperloop track. Hyperloop, the brainchild of Elon Musk, is a revolutionary transportation technology where train pods travel within a vacuum tube at speeds close to 760 miles per hour (mph).

Though the potential of the technology is above question, the speed the pods can generate is still under contention. The initial pilot runs over limited distances have been far from what has been promised, with the recorded highest speed bordering at 300 mph – which incidentally happened yesterday at the SpaceX pod contest in Hawthorne, California.

HTT’s foray into China augments well for the country as it on an aggressive path to expand its transportation networks and bring down the costs related to freight hauling. Being a developing country, China spends about 15% of its GDP on logistics, which makes it inefficient compared to the West where the average stands at around 10-12% of the GDP. Hyperloop could be a way out, as it can transport goods at a fraction of the time taken by conventional road or rail transport and also does not cost a lot in the process.

Tongren in Guizhou, where the track is planned is big on tourism and HTT is planning a commercial track in the place, unlike most of its ongoing projects which are primarily test tracks. Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of HTT, explained that ten kilometers are being planned initially to comply with the certifications and regulations set in place at the local level, and hoped to see revenues flowing in soon.\

 

Read more… 

Late last month, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries made a decision to expand the amount of oil that it would supply to the rest of the world, ending an 18-month period which saw output capped to boost prices in the oil market.

The increase in oil supplies has brought some stability to oil prices, which had climbed from nearly $25 per barrel at the end of 2016 to over $80 per barrel in May of this year. Prices have since retreated slightly in recent weeks, but remain elevated relative to recent history. This, in turn, has stoked some concerns that the high cost of oil and gasoline may curb the momentum in the economy.

 

Read more…

The Trump administration will seek to revoke California’s authority to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions — including its mandate for electric car sales — in a proposed revision of Obama-era standards, according to three people familiar with the plan.

The proposal, expected to be released this week, amounts to a frontal assault on one of former President Barack Obama’s signature regulatory programs to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. It also sets up a high-stakes battle over California’s unique ability to combat air pollution and, if finalized, is sure to set off a protracted courtroom battle.

The proposed revamp would also put the brakes on federal rules to boost fuel efficiency into the next decade, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the proposals before they are public. Instead it will cap federal fuel economy requirements at the 2020 level, which under federal law must be at least a 35-mile-per-gallon fleet average, rather than letting them rise to roughly 50 mpg by 2025 as envisioned in the plan left behind by Obama, according to the people.

 

Read more..

A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is in an unusual place this year as the world’s biggest shipping company finds itself the target of an attack by hedge funds.

For years, there’s been no speculation against Maersk to speak of. In September, short positions represented just 0.8% of the Danish company’s stock. But with a trade war upending the outlook for the global container shipping industry, investors are reviewing their options.

Short interest in Maersk has jumped to about 6% of the share capital this year, according to data compiled by IHS Markit. That’s the highest level on record, with the data going back until 2006 (the numbers have been adjusted for the effect of dividend payments).

The global economy is now firmly in the grip of an escalating trade war. On July 19, President Donald Trump said he’s “ready to go” with new tariffs on $500 billion of Chinese goods destined for the U.S., which roughly corresponds to the value of all imports from China to America.

For a company that controls about a fifth of the world’s container fleet, which transports goods worth $4 trillion a year, the new wave of protectionism could be devastating. Maersk has already lost more than 20% of its market value this year as investors try to digest the changing landscape.

 

Read more…

CSX Corporation’s turnaround, which began in March 2017 with the appointment of the late Hunter Harrison as CEO, still has room for further improvements, CSX executives told investors during their second quarter earnings call on Tuesday afternoon. After taking the helm, Harrison quickly implemented his signature precision-scheduled railroading, which essentially converted CSX’s network from a hub-and-spoke model to a leaner point-to-point system by closing many of the railroad’s hump yards. When Harrison died a day after taking medical leave on December 16, Jim Foote was made acting chief executive officer and is the president and CEO today.

Foote and CSX EVP and CFO Frank Lonegro led the earnings call. The most impressive financial metric cited by Foote was CSX’s operating ratio of 58.6% for the second quarter of 2018, which improved 490 basis points from the previous quarter and 880 basis points from the second quarter of 2017. Foote said that he believed that OR number was a record for any Class 1 railroad. The improved operating efficiency yielded a 58% growth in earnings per share year-over-year, from $0.64 in the second quarter of 2017 to $1.01 for the current quarter, easily beating the Street’s expected $0.87 per share. CSX brought in $877M in net earnings for the quarter, a 71.9% improvement over the $510M net earnings for Q2 2017.

“These [record financial results] are due to the hard work of all CSX employees, who are really excited about what has been accomplished,” said Foote.

Read more..

The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled a combined 8.26 million TEUs in the first half of 2018, according to the latest figures from their respective port authorities, a 4.1 percent increase from the same six-month period in 2017, a year in which both set records for cargo throughput.

Read more…

Intermodal rates climbed another 10.9 percent in June compared with the same 2017 period, the largest year-over-year increase since August 2011, according to the latest Cass Intermodal Price Index, which measures all-in per-mile costs.
According to Cass, last month’s growth brought the index to a reading of 136.7 and represented the 21st consecutive month of year-over-year increases for intermodal rates.
The strong performance also brought the three-month rolling average growth rate for intermodal pricing up to 8.8 percent, indicating that tight truckload capacity and higher fuel prices are “creating incremental demand and pricing power for domestic intermodal.”
“Longer term, we continue to foresee oil trading in the $45 to $65 range and diesel in the $2.50 to $3.25 range throughout 2018 (without the refining interruption pressure produced by hurricanes or other catastrophic events),” said economist Donald Broughton, who analyzes the intermodal rate index and the North American freight transportation industry at large for Cass.

Read more…

Despite his lame-duck status, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is ordering a $10 million study on placing electronic tolls on the state’s highways and finding ways to fund needed transportation improvements.

“As Connecticut’s General Assembly and next governor consider how to address the future of our state’s transportation funding, this study and plan will prove to be invaluable in their endeavor to make an informed decision,” Malloy said in announcing the study on July 17.

Although Malloy will be out of office — the Democrat is not seeking a third term — by the time the study is completed, its results could have a lasting impact on how Connecticut pays for improvements to relieve congestion and bring its highway, rail and bridge systems into good repair.

 

Read more..

Low-carbon products will make up at least half of the products and services of many of the world’s biggest companies within a decade, a new survey has revealed, while a fifth of those questioned said that every single one of their products would be low-carbon by 2028.

The survey defined low-carbon as “causing only a relatively small net release of CO2 into the atmosphere.”

The survey, on behalf of the Science Based Targets Initiative, shows that most businesses that have signed up to the initiative expect to decarbonize their products or the services they offer by 2028.

The Science Based Targets initiative mobilizes companies to set targets based on the targets agreed in the Paris climate change agreement that was agreed in the French capital in December 2015, in which 195 countries agreed to work to keep average temperature rises below 2°C to prevent dangerous climate change. “This signalled an acceleration in the transition to a low carbon economy,” the initiative says, and companies that want to gain a competitive advantage, avoid falling foul of more burdensome regulations and make their companies more resilient to the physical impacts of climate change and the switch to a low-carbon economy are signing up to the initiative.

Targets adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C compared to pre- industrial temperatures, as described in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The initiative defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting, offers resources and guidance to reduce barriers to adoption, and independently assesses and approves companies’ targets.