Quick News : Tuesday 29 Nov 2005
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a report yesterday detailing the top 10 U.S. International Gateways in terms of value. Who was number 1 ? JFK International :
John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York was the top international freight gateway by value in 2004, displacing the Port of Los Angeles, which was the top gateway in 2003, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
Here is the full list of the top 10 gateways :
1. JFK Airport, NY
2. Los Angeles, CA Seaport
3. Long Beach, CA Seaport
4. Detroit, MI (Land)
5. Ports of NY/NJ (Ocean)
6. Laredo, TX (Land)
7. LAX Airport, CA
8. Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY (Land)
9. Houston, TX Seaport
10. Port Huron, MI (Land)
There is growing pressure from members of Congress and the public to do more about screening air cargo :
Only 900 Transportation Security Administration workers oversee private-industry security workers who screen a fraction of the 23 billion pounds of goods transported within the U.S. on passenger and cargo planes.
This “is a disaster waiting to happen,” said Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who’s co-sponsoring legislation to improve cargo security. “We’re checking luggage but not cargo? It only takes a pound or two of explosives” to blow up a plane.
More than four years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, critics such as Shays, as well as industry groups, say mismanagement, a multibillion-dollar price tag and pressure from airlines and shippers are preventing the U.S. government from adopting stricter air-cargo inspection rules.
I believe that more needs to be done to screen air cargo that is put on passenger planes, but would have to agree with Andrea McCauley :
While the percentage of cargo currently screened is classified, examining every box and crate — some as big as 12 feet long and 8 feet high — would cost an estimated $3.6 billion over 10 years, said Andrea McCauley, a spokeswoman for the transportation agency. Most of this expense would be borne by airlines such as AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, freight companies such as United Parcel Service Inc., cargo-scheduling companies known as freight forwarders, and their customers.
—————————————————————
The transportation agency is aware it must tighten cargo security, McCauley said. “We know we need to do more,” she said. “We’re working on it.”
————————————————————–
Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association, a Washington-based cargo-carrier trade group, said companies were trying to help, not hinder, efforts for better security. “You can’t put a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on it,” he said. Alterman said his group supports an overhaul of the cargo-inspection system and the administration was to blame for the delays.McCauley said the delays in beefing up security have more to do with the difficulty in screening different-sized packages carrying everything from frozen fish to machine parts and medical products without slowing down commerce. “It’s a monumental task,” she said.
Cargo theft is a growing problem everywhere in the world, but apparently Chicago is serving as a center for cargo theft.
Ok, so we have outsourced manufacturing to China and call centers to India. What’s next ? Outsourcing distribution centers :
There is a rush to build distribution centers (DCs) in China, following the recent massive manufacturing surge. But there may be one more important reason for this movement. The cost of warehouse workers in China is $2 an hour, while in the U.S. it’s $14 to $15 an hour.
Global shippers such as UPS (nyse: UPS – news – people ), FedEx (nyse: FDX – news – people ) and DHL are making big moves in China. DHL has 16 distribution centers there and is spending $110 million on its hub and sorting facility in Hong Kong alone. UPS Supply Chain Solutions, which has 40 DCs in China, is adding ten more this year.
These centers are located adjacent to major manufacturing centers and are often used to sort and directly ship a lot of merchandise that would ordinarily have been resorted on arrival in the U.S. Some retailers are even building their own centers and, as with Wal-Mart Stores (nyse: WMT – news – people ), these also serve to stock their stores in China.
Other retailers and manufacturers are not building their own distribution centers in China. They are using third-party logistics providers to process and sort those goods there.
“They are skipping a couple of steps in the supply chain and doing the same work at a fraction of the cost,” says Bill Zollars, CEO of Yellow Roadway. “The retailers can do the sorting by store in China. Their products can go into a shipping container and all the way to a store in Boise.â€
list of walmart distribution centers on Mon, 6th Feb 2006 7:34 pm
Came across your blog by pure accident but thought whilst i was here i could tell you about this list of walmart distribution centers site i found.