Emirates Railway is currently undergoing an expansion plan that will increase the scope of the company’s railways across the desert regions of the emirates. The companies Etihad Rail and JBC Express Freight LLC announced in October of 2013, a joint effort to create an intermodal network across the desert regions. Stage one of the plan is the completion of the Shah-Habshan-Ruwais Railway Project which is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. This rail line is 264km in length and will end all the way from the Shah gas fields to the port of Ruwais in the north. The second stage of the project will be to serve the ports at Jebel Ali and Khalifa from Mussafah and also to connect to the Saudi and Omani borders. The final stage of the project, stage three, will be to create connections up to the Northern Emirates. Upon completion, the entire network will be about 1,200 km in length and will span across the entire Emirates. The network is also being designed to serve passengers as well as freight. It has been designed with the purpose of hastening economic development in the region and to also bridge the gap between…
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The Panama Canal is currently undergoing a major expansion plan which began back in 2007. The purpose of this expansion plan is to make it possible for larger ships to pass through the canal. The expansion involves the placement of two new set oflocks. One set each will be placed on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal. The basins in Gatun Lake and Culebra Cut will also be widened and deepenedto allow for the passage of larger ships. The plan is being financed by the port taxes collected which is current estimated at $32,000 per ship. As a result port cities such as Baltimore, Miami, Jacksonville, Fl., and Charleston, S.C. have initiated projects to expand their ports and related infrastructure however experts are warning that the demand may not be as highas these cities are anticipating when the Panama Canal expansion plan is completed. Experts are saying that the cities are likely not to benefit because they do not have the distribution channels that these large ships need in order to dealwith their cargo loads. The expansion plan was originally anticipated to be completed in 2014, however due to some issues with the current plans involving the delivery…
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As the demand for oil continues to increase around the world, oil transport companies are increasingly competing with freight companies for space on the railroads. Oil demand is only continuing to rise as is the demand for reliable freight transportation. As a result both industries are left fighting for the same space.In North America, railway companies are experiencing a boost thanks to the competition which has mainly been caused by the lack of oil pipelines. Oil producers in Canada and the United States have limited options as existingpipelines are currently at full capacity. In addition, the producers are having trouble getting authorization from regulatory bodies to install additional pipelines such as the current Keystone XL project which is currently on hold. As a result, oil producers are increasingly looking to the railways and are raising prices for freight carriers in the process. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is one of the largest railway systems in the United States and maintains more than 32,000 miles of railroad. From 2011 to 2012 alone,BNF demonstrated a 22 percent increase in revenuethanks to the revenue from transporting shale and tanks containing crude oil. Other railway companies such as Union Pacific and CSX saw similar…
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The usage of reefer containers has been increasing at a rate of 30% year over year and this trend is slated to continue in the near future. As a result reefer containers were a major topic of discussion at Intermodel Europe this past October. Intermodel Europe took place in Hamburg, Germany and brought togethermany of the industry leaders in intermodal shipping across Europe. The hot topic surrounding refrigerated containers was regarding improving their efficiency. Thermo King, an exhibitor at Intermodal Europe 2013, unveiled upgrades to its Thermo King MAGNUM PLUS® transport temperature control system which was originally released in 2009. This company has dominated the industry for more than 20 years and the company’s products are ranked as the lightest, most efficient and most powerful. In addition, there is also discussion that more needs to be done to improve the sales of second-hand reefer containers in order to address the growing quantities of oldreefer containers that would otherwise be retired from use. Maersk Container Industry also announced their efforts for 2014 to help reduce food waste in refrigeration container shipping by joining the United Nations’ SAVE FOOD Initiative. The program aim to increase the efficiency of food logistics. The Food…
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In an increasingly environmentally aware world, going green is getting great for business and having an environmentally friendly community account can now be crucial. Due to the huge amount of fuel that they consume and also the size of several shipping lines, maritime industries are currently coming under closer scrutiny for the impact they are having on the ecosystem. In addition, the execution of the carbon tax in several states has had shipping companies looking critically at how they can manage their carbon footprint. Even though this may seem like a tiny amount when compared with other sectors it still represents the comparable CO2 output of the tiny country and it is also thought that unless the issue is addressed now that it could ultimately increase to around five or six times that amount by 2050. Another problem facing the marine freight business is really one of public perception. Even though transportation by boat is the most carbon efficient system for moving freight, mostly as a result of economies of scale, the boats themselves are known to produce large quantities emissions and to consume enormous levels of fuel. In the face of the many of the greatest shipping lines have…
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After bulk cargo, transport containers account for about 90% of all of the goods transported into the planet. There are currently over 5 million shipping containers in passage to the whole world’s oceans transporting most of the buyer things that we purchase and use in everyday life. While this is just a tiny percentage of the total amount of containers that are shipped each year it comes with an estimated price of $370 million which adds appreciably to freight prices overall. However, there are also other costs related to losing shipping containers to the sea. On the surface this looks alright but many containers feature noxious materials which slowly leach into the environment over time having a long term adverse effect. Additionally it is believed that these new artificial reefs might be creating highways in the shipping lanes for the migration of species into environmentally-sensitive areas. The potential for smaller boats and pleasure craft to collide with one of these loose containers increases every year but they are difficult to locate and salvage. Floating containers also frequently wash up on-shore and get broken up to create another type of environmental risk. Although containers have these downsides they remain the most…
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Ships and railroads operate nicely together in providing effective, economical means for moving products. While ships are the most affordable means for transporting goods abroad, railroads are the least expensive kind for overland transportation. Because of this, the growing quantity of global trade has prompted several countries into building new ports and expanding old ones while also undertaking the job of constructing railroad lines to service the ports. Australia is building a brand new deep water port along its west shore to facilitate development of its own mineral resources. The Okajee Port and Train project will haul coal, iron ore, and other bulk supplies in vast quantities from the Australian interior to the coast. The material will then be loaded onto other growing regional economies anxious for the substance, and bulk carriers destined for Japan, China. A brand new railway project in Los Angeles is intended to ease up the blockage caused by tens of thousands of trucks lining up to load and unload their containers in the Port of LA Long Beach complex. The rail line will remove the need for tens of thousands of short haul truck trips transferring containers a short distance to nearby rail yards. Not…
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While the global market grows more integrated, it’s becoming increasingly important for organizations to take into account the manner in which they ship their goods and services. All sorts of transportation are growing in volume world-wide. While moving goods by truck and by train is experiencing a similarly rapid increase transit by ship and by air is expanding quickly. The net is merely one more tool which helps the procedure of transportation products from suppliers to customers. Orders can be more specific and more quickly processed. Goods can be tracked more closely. Delays may be identified more easily, and corrected more swiftly. Production can be keyed to need in accelerated manner. Billing can be achieved instantaneously. All kinds of transport have been helped by the internet. The overwhelming majority of world trade is carried on ships, and while the net and also computers have surely helped efficiency here, of increased significance has been the development of container technologies. Cranes now quickly transfer them from ship to truck or rail cars. The machine is faster and cheaper. There is far less likelihood of pilferage of merchandise or mix-ups of goods going for the wrong place. Almost all organizations will opt to…
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Rising fuel and labor costs have made it increasingly hard to squeeze a gain out of road transportation in the last couple of years, but the price per mile of trucking has always been more complicated than simply paying the fuel bill and the motorist. Figures released by The Truckers’ Report places the operational cost per mile of truck transportation at $1.38 but anecdotal evidence suggests it is closer to $1.50 per mile. With the tendency in recent years for this particular cost to increase by around 10c per mile each year, it may oftentimes be profitable to reevaluate using road transportation to be certain it is still cost effective. When the basic transport rate for a truckload of products provides $ 1, 500 per 1,000 miles then your sale price of the goods potentially must be large enough to cover that expense and more. For a few goods, particularly principal goods, this expense makes road transport less affordable than other alternatives like rail or sea. Another factor that really needs to be taken into consideration is the location to which the cargo will be delivered. This can increase transport costs due to the necessity to get loads from docks…
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