"Alternative Shippers Move Full Speed Ahead:

[bobwilcox]

QUOTE: Originally posted by smalling_60626

Thank you, bobwilcox, for your inspiring and technically unexplainable quote of the article. We're grateful to you.

I bet Crozet is beautiful now it's high summer. I went to school in C'ville.

It is nice this time of year. The empties go back to WV in the back yard and the Blue Ridge is seen from the front yard. It sure beats Omaha.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, bobwilcox, for your inspiring and technically unexplainable quote of the article. We're grateful to you.

I bet Crozet is beautiful now it's high summer. I went to school in C'ville.

[bobwilcox]

Here is the Tribune article. It goes to show a couple of things. Frist, we are in a system with world wide interconnections. If you just think about a carload or trainload from A to B you are probably going to miss a great deal. Secondly, government regulation will put up barriers to shipers finding better paths to their customers. As an example the US has the Jones Act. If you move something between US ports it must move in a US flag ship. The resulting high costs helped me keep a lot of chemical traffic on the SP between the TX/LA Gulf Coast and the LA Basin. If a foreign flag chemical parcel tanker had come into the lane several thousand cars of petochemicals per year would have been going via the Panama Canal.

"TRENDS
NEW ROUTES FOR FREIGHT
Alternative shippers move full steam ahead

Heavy road and rail traffic, plus delays at Pacific ports, prompt firms to find other ways to move freight. That's boosting some all-water shipping s

By Geoff Dougherty
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 27, 2005


ABOARD THE M/V SEA TRADER -- As the sun rose over the Port of Tampa's deserted wharves, Second Mate Rusty Smith maneuvered his 278-foot ship into a berth. With a pop and hiss from the ship's bow thrusters, the Sea Trader glided smoothly to the dock.

Longshoremen pounced on the ship, making short work of 800 tons of cargo the Sea Trader had brought from Houston.

"We'll be gone by nine o'clock," said Smith. "Just enough time to get a newspaper."

Meanwhile, a local radio deejay complained about Monday morning traffic backups that would only worsen as rush hour began.

While annoying for some, that traffic represents the Sea Trader's future. The ship is one of few container carriers running port-to-port ocean routes in the United States. The ship's route was designed to circumvent the country's increasingly congested highways, rails and Pacific ports.

Highway congestion in the nation's largest cities increased 17 percent over the last decade, and shippers were roiled last year as labor shortages kept some cargo waiting for a week or more off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"We are running out of infrastructure capacity," said Pete Swan, professor of supply chain management at Penn State University. "The more you concentrate your supply chain on a single carrier, a single port or a single city, the more likely you'll have an event that will bring dire times upon your firm."

Today most companies depend on just-in-time delivery of goods, merchandise and parts to reduce warehousing costs. So they've had to figure out alternative means of shipping.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is building a sprawling distribution center near the Port of Houston, which will allow the company to ship some goods through the Panama Canal, avoiding Pacific Coast ports. Home Depot Inc. opened a nearby distribution center three years ago.

Others have begun using air freight for goods that previously traveled by ocean; FedEx's air-cargo volume out of China increased by 50 percent last year.

Similarly, a consortium of transportation firms and governments in Europe and Asia has been working for a decade to create a rail network that will haul products from China to a port in Norway. From there, container ships would ferry cargo to New York and other Atlantic ports.

Bob Gernon, vice president for logistics at Pacer Global Logistics, an Ohio-based transportation firm involved in the deal, expects a trial run of freight bound for the United States to depart China later this year.

Wal-Mart and other major retailers have "expressed a huge interest" in the network, Gernon said.

Wal-Mart declined to comment.

La Porte, Texas-based Osprey Line LLC, which operates the Sea Trader's route, has built a shipping network that offers customers an all-water service from Asia to the Midwest.

The company can load goods arriving in Houston on the Sea Trader for a trip to New Orleans. From there, the company's container barges move cargo to inland river ports, including one in suburban Chicago.

Domestic manufacturers also rely on the Sea Trader's regular departures from Houston to Tampa and New Orleans to avoid rail and road hassles.

Rick Couch, a former terminal manager for ocean carrier Maersk Sealand, founded Osprey four years ago with an investment from Cooper/T. Smith, a privately held stevedoring company. Last year marine heavyweight Kirby Corp. purchased a one-third share of Osprey.

Osprey shipped the equivalent of 41,297 20-foot containers last year, nearly double the 2003 total.

The company booked 2004 revenue of nearly $14 million, up 18 percent from the year before.

"We are having some pretty good luck with it," Couch said. "We're not as flexible as a truck or train. But a lot of this stuff is going into inventory. Speed isn't a huge concern. Consistency is."

On its recent voyage from Houston to Tampa, the Sea Trader carried air conditioners, roofing shingles for hurricane-damaged homes and plastic resin for manufacturers.

The ship left Houston on a Friday afternoon and arrived in Tampa Monday morning, taking only a bit longer than a truck would have to cover the 635 miles.

Marc Marino, transportation manager for Goodman Global Holdings Inc., which makes Goodman and Amana air conditioners, said the Sea Trader's reliability was key in his decision to ship air conditioners from the company's Houston facility to customers in Florida.

Meanwhile, Marino said he has 20 truckloads of air conditioners bound for other parts of the country that have been sitting in Houston for days because no trucks can be found to move them. "Driver shortages and truck shortages are the main issue," he said. "From April through July, it's very difficult to find trucks."

And with traffic tie-ups sending driver pay and fuel costs on a steady climb, ocean shipping can save money.

"It's much less [expensive] than trucking," Goodman said. "About 30 percent less."

With Asian imports expected to double over the next 20 years and few plans for major highway expansion, congestion is likely to get worse, which is good news for Osprey.

On its Houston to Tampa trip, the Sea Trader seemed to have the Gulf of Mexico to itself.

Dudley Elwin, the Sea Trader's second-in-command, kept the throttle on full and maintained a careful watch.

Once the ship cleared the oil rigs dotting the Gulf near Houston, the crew spotted whales, flying fish and dolphins, but no other cargo vessels.

"This is like driving in Arizona," Elwin said. "It's an open road.""

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by smalling_60626

. . . "Heavy road and rail traffic, plus delays at Pacific ports, prompt firms to find other ways to move freight. That's boosting some all-water shipping services and air-cargo volume, and spurring new rail networks." [bow]

The Chicago Tribune ran that title and caption on Monday, June 27, and if you can go online or want to (tribune.com) it might be worth your while. The article does not go out of its way to beat up Class I RR's or the trucking industry, but views the enormous boom in shipping--particularly from the PRC--as a problem that is partially surmounted by alternative modes of shipping. (Even a renewed emphasis on the Panama Canal. [oX)]) The article specifically singles out a small shipping line called the Osprey Line for its innovative approach to freight expediting (or should I say "logistics")?[wow]

I'd highly recommend the article. Although only about 20 "cut" paragraphs long, this mini-feature says what it means and means what it says, and is well researched and written. [2c]

smalling,

Could you either provide a link to the story, or perhaps cut and paste some of the more intriguing quotes? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

. . . "Heavy road and rail traffic, plus delays at Pacific ports, prompt firms to find other ways to move freight. That's boosting some all-water shipping services and air-cargo volume, and spurring new rail networks." [bow]

The Chicago Tribune ran that title and caption on Monday, June 27, and if you can go online or want to (tribune.com) it might be worth your while. The article does not go out of its way to beat up Class I RR's or the trucking industry, but views the enormous boom in shipping--particularly from the PRC--as a problem that is partially surmounted by alternative modes of shipping. (Even a renewed emphasis on the Panama Canal. [oX)]) The article specifically singles out a small shipping line called the Osprey Line for its innovative approach to freight expediting (or should I say "logistics")?[wow]

I'd highly recommend the article. Although only about 20 "cut" paragraphs long, this mini-feature says what it means and means what it says, and is well researched and written. [2c]