Charleston, South Carolina Railyard Plans are Steaming Ahead

The railroad business’s revival to facilitate US and world-wide commerce is seeding the strategies of state commerce departments to enhance port infrastructure-as many states want to dedicate railway connections from the logistics hubs for the marine ports. As plans for the new Intermodal Railyard get underway after much battle of interests and public / private sector land disputes, South Carolina and also the city of North Charleston are in detente. Background of Difference with North Charleston and S.C. Commerce Department This Season, the town of North Charleston was not initially on board with the South Carolina Department of Commerce’s airy plans for the proposed rail yard to be situated on the former Charleston Naval Base where it would be accessible by the Norfolk Southern and CSX Corporation rail lines. The S.C. Commerce department’s position projected the Intermodal Railyard development would reinforce state and local organizations, bringing increased commerce to the port of Charleston. However, North Charleston had various issues. The city’s contention was to maintain private ownership of the land and its particular vested interest was residential safety and its riverfront attractions. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey brought a suit against the S.C. Commerce department, citing the state’s disregard of… read more »

Technological Trends in Port Management: Manmade Deepwater Offshore Island Ports

The interconnectivity of the whole world’s major ports is broad scale. Many public and private sector capital investment has backed programs, design, and building of global logistics infrastructure of these hubs over the past few years. As international trade continues to boom with high-demand commodities and customer responsiveness, design technologies of new ports is shape shifting to fulfill the demand. Transportation sector specialists, financial investor homes for example JP Morgan, and important firms like US Contractor Bechtel, are moving forward – using reclamation technology within the development of man-made island ports with at least 3 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) annual container capacity and managing boat capacity of around 400,000 dwt (dead weight tonnage). Abu Dhabi Khalifa Port Container Terminal The official launch of The Abu Dhabi Khalifa port on December 12, 2012 at 1200 hours, marking the 5-year end of Bechtel’s land reclamation project, was successful; inaugurated by its own namesake, President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan along with royalty, diplomats, and other business leaders. All container traffic of Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed port was routed, a couple of months before schedule, for the Khalifa terminal. The port’s Phase One container capacity is 2.5 million TEUs.… read more »

Tons of New Responsibilities Present Problems for Inland Terminals

As it pertains to global trade inland port terminals diversify the US supply chain. The escalation of e-commerce sales is affecting Intermodal logistics and taxing ground shipping of businesses such as UPS and Federal Express. The railway – to – maritime port part of inland ports relieves the over – the – road capacity tension on those businesses when obtaining inbound shipments. With the revival and growth of the railway industry giving rise to augmented rail-to-rail and Intermodal (rail-to-truck) cargo capacity methods, dry port terminals have facilitated the circumvention of rising diesel fuel prices and retrenchment in the trucking/carrier business over recent years. Throughout the last five years, truck carriers like J. B. Hunt, Werner Enterprises and CRST/Malone (Cedar Rapids Steel Transport’s flatbed division) have cut over-the-road capacity to 15 percent from a previous 12 percent cutback. According to Logistics Management’s September 2012 online problem, cost developments for trucking carrier sector specialized services, like LTL or less-than-truckload, general freight, tanker and other specialized freight solutions, are declining, down 9 percent just in June and July. Correct to forecast, retail giant JC Penny, consolidating its East/West coast operations, set up a 1.1 million square foot retail distribution center on site. JCPENNEY’s… read more »

The 411: Basic Requirements for Inland Terminals

Dry ports or inland terminals, although not a new theory within the global supply chain, are newer, in a demand wave of intermodal, global transportation as global trade rises. With the increase of global trade taking a toll to the capability of coastal or marine ports, for instance, many US coastal ports, inland terminals shoulder loads of the burden of sea port terminal inbound/outbound transport traffic. The inland port is interchangeable with hinterland logistics; the ‘hinterland’ being any nation’s interior logistics zones which coastal ports have difficult access. This frees the sea ports to obtain the next boat of inbound freight, as well as railway and expedites truck outbound shipments to these ports. Three basic demands of inland terminals encompass ‘co location’, a principle of multi-function capacity which cements the inland port’s energy in its integral role for the international supply chain for a dedicated connective part of logistics zones, military bases and maritime terminals. Success within the effective operations of accurate inland terminals is contingent upon the state and municipality ‘prime directive’; legislative support of inland port development and association of logistics infrastructure incentives. Additionally, a deal seal of approval of investor/stakeholder collaborative port direction ensures the paramount worldwide… read more »

Small Business, International Trade, and the Blue-print Forward

International commerce has become an extremely large factor within the operations of smaller businesses. Advances in technology supplied by computers and mobile communication devices have enabled small companies to tap into this lucrative market. The web provides a platform to get access to markets throughout the planet that previously only large scale businesses had the resources needed to make use of. Courses can even be located online outlining the business etiquette to be utilized in such processes. They’re going to walk the neophyte through every step needed to produce such an operation a success. Numerous governmental agencies are specialized in helping small business operators in this aspect. In the United States, the Small Business Administration comes immediately to mind, however a search engine request will unlock an abundance of other departments offered to help small business expand within this domain. Additionally, there are many trade associations accessible that can provide invaluable insight in to the logistics and funding had a need to make a success of aforementioned endeavors. Global trade is helping to stabilize small enterprises by providing a significantly improving customer base which will inherently be less susceptible to cyclic downturns that often happen in more localized markets. Special… read more »