Category: Uncategorized

President Donald Trump said he’ll likely push forward with plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, indicating he would also slap duties on all remaining imports from the Asian nation if negotiations with China’s leader Xi Jinping fail to produce a trade deal.

Trump, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Nov. 26, said he’s prepared to impose tariffs on a final batch of $267 billion of Chinese shipments if he can’t make a deal with Xi when they meet at the Group of 20 meeting in Argentina, which starts Nov. 30. The rate could be either 10% or 25%, Trump said.

Trump said that Apple Inc.’s iPhones and laptops imported from China could be hit by new tariffs. Americans could “very easily” handle a 10% duty, he said.

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Crane Worldwide Logistics opened a facility in Savannah, Ga., to expand its footprint on the East Coast, according to a Nov. 21 company release. The location was added because Savannah has the most monthly arrivals of all East Coast ports, company officials said.

Crane Worldwide Logistics will hold a grand opening Nov. 27. The Houston-based company specializes in supply chain solutions. It has 120 locations in 26 countries.

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With its 180-degree bends, 7% grades, dangerous drop-offs and strong wind gusts, the hazardous material truck drivers hauling heavy petroleum loads who make the 9.5-mile journey though Colorado’s Loveland Pass call the drive a “white-knuckle experience.”

Were it not for the flammable loads they carry, those same truckers would not have to divert off Interstate 70. Instead, they would be able to travel though the 1.7-mile Eisenhower Tunnel that cuts through the mountains, shaving as much as 90 minutes from taking the dangerous two-lane U.S. 6 that travels over the Continental Divide.

No wonder executives with the Colorado Motor Carriers Association and Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers Association have for years been pressing members of the state Legislature and Colorado Department of Transportation to use the tunnel route for the up-to-200 tankers that each day are forced to take the dangerous road.

So far, they haven’t succeeded, but another attempt for resolution began last month at a meeting in Austin, Texas, with American Trucking Associations’ hazmat policy committee.

 

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The U.S. average retail price of diesel dropped 2.1 cents to $3.261 a gallon the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Nov. 26 as crude oil prices continued to stay low.

The drop marked the sixth consecutive weekly decline in the price of trucking’s main fuel. The price has fallen 13.3 cents during that period.

Yet diesel costs 33.5 cents a gallon more than it did a year ago, when the price was $2.926, EIA reported.

Average diesel prices fell in all regions of the country, led by California with a 3.6-cent drop to $3.964 per gallon.

The Midwest had the biggest drop last week, and the second-biggest drop this week, falling to $3.185 per gallon.

New England had the smallest decline, 0.3 cent to $3.344 a gallon.

The national average price for regular gasoline dropped 7.2 cents to $2.539 a gallon, according to EIA.

The average is 0.6 cent higher than a year ago. Average gasoline prices fell in all U.S. regions.

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Composite pressure cylinder supplier Hexagon Composites ASA signed an agreement to acquire the remaining 50% of Agility Fuel Solutions Holdings Inc., which promotes the alternatives of natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, propane and electrification to power a range of industries.

Senior managers will stay on at Agility, which will keep its name and be a business unit within Hexagon.

Agility Fuel Systems and Hexagon’s medium- and heavy-duty compressed natural gas vehicle businesses merged in 2016 to create Agility Fuel Solutions, resulting in Hexagon owning 50% of Agility.

The latest transaction values Agility’s equity at $250 million. The agreement was signed on Nov. 8, with closing expected in January.

The U.S. average retail price of diesel dropped 2.1 cents to $3.317 a gallon Nov. 13 as the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell to an 11-month low. Investors see demand softening, supplies building and potential global tensions.

It was the fourth consecutive weekly decline in the price of diesel.

Still, trucking’s main fuel costs 40.2 cents a gallon more than it did a year ago, when the price was $2.915, the Department of Energy said a day after the Veterans Day holiday.

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In the Georgetown Crossroads district of south Seattle, the next generation of American distribution center design is being ushered in.

There, logistics development giant ProLogis (NYSE:PLD) has erected the nation’s first multi-story industrial warehouse, a three-level, 590,000 square-foot facility located minutes from downtown, near the Port of Seattle, and close to multiple rail nodes. It has not yet announced any customer sign-ups. The price tag wasn’t disclosed and company officials were unavailable today to comment.

The bottom two levels are dedicated for fulfillment. The first floor, occupying more than 239,000 square feet, has a 28-foot clear height, 130 truck courts, and 60 truck aprons. The second floor, with more than 170,000 square feet, has a 24-foot clear height and an elevated 130-foot court served by two ramps that can accommodate big rigs. Level 3, at more than 180,000 square feet, has a 16-foot clear height and two loading docks supported by three forklift-accessible freight elevators. The floor has been designed for office, manufacturing and light warehousing use, but not for heavy-duty fulfillment.

The Seattle facility may be the first of its kind in America, but it will not be the last. Two multi-story facilities will open in New York City either late this year or in early 2019. One is located in Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, where ground will be broken in the first quarter, according to real estate and logistics services giant JLL Inc., which is managing and leasing space for both projects. The other is near Bruckner Boulevard off I-95 in the borough of The Bronx. That project is slated for groundbreaking in the second quarter.

Others are planned or have been proposed in San Francisco and Los Angeles, though, according to industry sources, plans to build a two-story facility in Los Angeles were scratched because of high costs and a challenging design to support 53-foot trailer moves in the available space. Building a two-story structure can cost $150 per square feet more than the traditional single-level facility because of higher material and construction costs that come with double-decking, according to ballpark estimates from CBRE Services (NYSE:CBRE), which brokers industrial transactions between landlords and tenants.

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Virgin Hyperloop, which has lately been in the midst of a power change at its helm, announced a new chief executive, Jay Walder, who replaces Rob Lloyd, the man who headed the company for over three years. By selecting Walder, Virgin Hyperloop is marrying its futuristic technology of hyperloop to the administrative skills of a veteran who has run some of the oldest metropolitan transportation networks in the world – case in point, New York, London, and Hong Kong.

Then again, Walder is not entirely new to the futuristic transport scene, as prior to joining Virgin Hyperloop, he was the CEO of Motivate, an e-bike sharing company which has a strong presence across several U.S. cities. While at the company, Walder was instrumental in Lyft’s acquisition of Motivate, for a deal worth around $250 million, with Lyft observing that Motivate accounted for 80% of all bike-share trips made in the U.S.

“I have focused my career on using technology to advance innovation in transportation, so I could not pass up the opportunity to lead the company that has pioneered hyperloop,” said Mr. Walder of his intent in heading Virgin Hyperloop. “I look forward to joining the company at this incredibly exciting time and working with our partners to revolutionize sustainable urban development and travel.”

Walder has made a name for himself as being a visionary and a doer – traits that are of paramount importance to a technology that has promised a lot and still has not delivered a single commercial track, except a few short length test tracks across the world. That apart, the speed disparity between the theoretical one versus the actual achieved speed is also of concern, as the latter is more than twice as less as the former.

The reshuffling of power at the company does not stop with the exit of Lloyd. Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, who had been the chairman of Virgin Hyperloop over the last year, had quit last month citing reasons of his inability to find time in running the company from up close and that the startup would need a more “hands-on” chairman to scale faster.

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Intermodal shipments grew 4.7% in the third quarter as companies stepped up imports ahead of promised U.S. tariffs on foreign goods and domestic shippers shifted from highway to rail in response to rising freight rates and constraints on truck capacity.

International volume increased 4.4% to 2.5 million containers in the three months ended Sept. 30, domestic containers grew 3.9% to 2 million and truck trailers increased 12.1% to 359,850 over the same time period a year ago, based on data collected by the Intermodal Association of North America.

“We saw some trail-off in growth during the third quarter, relative to the first half of the year,” said Joni Casey, president and CEO of Calverton, Md.-based IANA, “but intermodal’s market expansion was still respectable.”

Casey, as well as other industry officials, expect growth to continue into the fourth quarter in what has already been a banner year for global trade.

IANA put intermodal growth in the fourth quarter in the range of 2% to 3% and full-year growth between 5% and 6%.

 

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A new Kenworth W990 has the honor of hauling the 54th U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The approximately 3,000-mile journey to Washington will start Nov. 9.

Central Oregon Truck Co., is this year’s designated hauler of the tree. CEO Rick Williams watched as the tree was lifted by crane and set on the 80-foot-long trailer. Williams and other executives will be driving the truck and its special load as a part of a company effort that will involve other driving team members. Central Oregon Truck transports freight across the 48 continental states and Canada, and purchases its Kenworth trucks from The Papé Group, a major sponsor of this year’s tour.

“It was a great sight. You don’t see an 80-foot tree loaded on a trailer every day, and they had to take great care to secure the branches,” Williams said.

The Kenworth W990 transporting the tree is adorned with a distinctive and festive graphics package. Featuring a 76-inch midroof sleeper, the W990 was spec’d with the Paccar Powertrain — a Paccar MX-13 engine rated at 455 horsepower and 1,650 pound-feet of torque, 12-speed automated transmission and 40K tandem rear axle.

 

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