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Port of Long Beach container traffic volumes jumped 20.7 percent in May, as the total number of loaded and empty boxes that crossed the port's docks increased to 564,886 TEUs from 468,029 TEUs in May 2004.
Inbound loaded traffic was 288,031 TEUs, up 18.6 percent compared to May 2004. Outbound loaded box volume rose 25.5 percent to 106,034 TEUs, while empty container traffic increased 21.5 percent to 170,821 TEUs.
Today’s retailers are constantly looking for cost savings opportunities, as well as faster more efficient supply chains. One of the ways FMI is helping to enable this is by providing their wholesale import customers domestic consolidation services at their facilities in San Pedro, CA, Carteret, NJ and Miami, FL.
At the request of our customers and the as approved by the retailer, FMI is currently consolidating multiple customer’s shipments into full trailer loads for expedited delivery to the DC or direct-to-store, thus eliminating the need to deliver parcel lots to consolidation points, This allows for more timely delivery, quicker sell throughs for our customers, and expense savings for the retailer.
This process is saving some of our customers, and their customers, hundreds of dollars per shipment and speeding up delivery by eliminating a step in the supply chain. FMI will scan the pallets for load and count verification, and pass this information on to the retailer. While there are some inherent risks to the retailer on load and count issues, the cost savings outweigh the risk.
If you would like to learn more about FMI’s consolidation services, please contact us at 732-750-9000 or visit us on the web at www.fmiint.com
The average retail price of diesel fuel rose 4.2 cents to $2.276 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.
Following last week’s 7.4-cent jump, the increase boosted the price of trucking’s main fuel by 11.6 cents over the past two weeks, DOE’s figures showed.
The $2.276 diesel price is just 4 cents below the all-time record of $2.316 a gallon set April 11 and is the highest weekly average since April 25, when it was $2.289.
Meanwhile the price of self-serve regular gasoline rose 1.4 cents to $2.13 a gallon, DOE said, marking the 42nd consecutive week in which diesel prices have topped gasoline.
That stretched a record that topped a previous 38-week streak, set from August 1996 to May 1997.
Diesel is 56.5 cents over the same time last year, meaning the industry was spending about $375 million more than the same week last year. Trucking burns an estimated 665 million gallons of diesel every week.
Following increases last week, crude oil prices surged more than $2 a barrel Monday, closing at $55.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported. The all-time record of $58.28 was set on April 4.
Diesel prices rose in all five national regions, led by 5-cent spike in the Midwest to $2.248 and a 4.2-cent jump in New England, to $2.276.
The Rocky Mountain region’s rise was the smallest, at 1.9 cents, rising to $2.21.
The West Coast remained the highest regional price, rising 2.5 cents to $2.364. The price in California, which DOE breaks out separately from its regions, rose 3.6 cents to $2.457.
DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations every week to compile a national snapshot price.
The latest data released by the US Commerce Department shows that US imports of textiles and clothing from China continued to surge in April. For the first four months of this year, China’s exports are up by 1.46 billion square meters.
Marine terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach are encouraging importers and exporters to sign up soon for the PierPass extended-gates program in order to avoid a last-minute rush when the program is launched next month.
Importers who are not registered and have not submitted a credit application to PierPass will not be able to remove their containers from the terminals beginning July 23.
"You have to sign up with PierPass unless you will dray 100 percent of your shipments at night," Doug Tilden, president of Marine Terminals Corp., told the annual Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition meeting in San Francisco last weekend.
Terminal operators next month will keep their gates open for a second shift on Mondays through Thursdays, and during the day shift on Saturdays. All 14 container terminals in the harbor will offer five extended gates each week in an attempt to encourage shippers to move more freight in the off-peak hours.
Shippers who move their containers during the daytime shifts Monday through Friday will pay a peak fee of $40 per TEU or $80 per FEU. In order to pay the fee, importers and exporters must register online with PierPass and establish a credit arrangement or payment plan. No money will be collected at the gate.
Exporters who have failed to register will be allowed to drop off their containers, but the terminals will then bill them at a higher rate to be determined, Tilden said.
Registration for PierPass began on May 23. Terminal operators are concerned that during the ensuing three weeks, only about 500 of the tens of thousands of beneficial cargo owners who ship through LA-Long Beach had signed up with PierPass.
"We want to avoid a last-minute surge of registrations," he said.
PierPass, was developed by the private sector in response to pressure from elected officials to reduce the traffic and emissions at the ports. It aims to shift 40 percent of the truck moves in the harbor to the off-peak hours.
Terminal operators hope PierPass can be phased out after three years, Tilden said.
©2005 FMI International