On September 27th – 29th, the ICC will hold a series of practical masterclasses on the Incoterms® 2010 rules and provide a detailed presentation of the new rule changes that will be incorporated into the new Incoterms® 2010.

This revision, the first since 2000, will aim to adapt changes that have occured in global trade over the last ten years. According the ICC website, the reason for the changes include:

“The importance of cargo security, the resulting new obligations on traders, developments in container transport, and the 2004 revision of the United States’ Uniform Commercial Code, which resulted in a deletion of the former US shipment and delivery terms.”

Although the book has not been officially released, details on the ICC website show that the most glaring changes to the 2010 version will be the elimination of 4 Incoterms® including, DDU, DEQ, DES, and DAF. Two new terms will be added; DAT and DAP, bringing the new total of Incoterms® to 11.

Incoterms® 2010 will be arranged into the following groups:

Any Mode of Transport

CIP – Carriage and Insurance Paid
CPT – Carriage Paid To
DAP – Delivered At Place
DAT – Delivered At Terminal
DDP – Delivered Duty Paid
EXW – Ex Works
FCA – Free Carrier

Sea and Inland Waterway Transport Only
CFR – Cost and Freight
CIF – Cost, Insurance and Freight
FAS – Free Alongside Ship
FOB – Free On Board

In addition to the 11 rules, Incoterms®2010 will include:

* Extensive guidance notes and illustrative graphics to help users efficiently choose the right rule for each transaction;
* New classification to help choosing the most suitable rule in relation to the mode of transport;
* Advice for the use of electronic procedures;
* Information on security-related clearances for shipments;
* Advice for the use of Incoterms® 2010 in domestic trade

This interpretation is provided as a guide only.

Incoterms® are published by the International Chamber of Commerce and are available on their website and official publication “Incoterms® 2010″. For a complete and official overview please refer to the ICC’s publication.

Below is a table showing port regions of the world where shipments originated:

Port Region	May 2010Shipments	Percent Change over Apr 2010	Percent Change over May 2009
Asia	559,534	7.63%	23.13%
Europe	109,796	1.57%	14.5%
Central America (includes Mexico)	58,644	3.18%	5.64%
South America	22,148	-0.88%	21.99%
North America	9,508	10.56%	-2.41%
Unknown	8,211	-8.85%	8.74%
Australia	6,868	-6.67%	-1.44%
Africa	3,618	-16.69%	28.57%
Totals	778,327	5.68%	19.55%

While Asian trade looks strong for May 2010 relative to April 2010 and May 2009, a glance at quarterly shipments since quarter three of 2007 shows that the regions’ shipments have yet to return to pre-recession levels. Though June data is needed before we can compare the performance of quarter two, we can see that with 1,470,958 shipments, quarter one is up 13% over the same quarter in 2009, but still down 7% from 2008.

Below is a chart of Asia’s quarterly shipments, starting with Quarter 3 of 2007:

The collection methods used by U.S. Customs for AMS data can lead to an overstatement of shipments for some ports, as imports and exports from Prince Rupert and Vancouver are often recorded as imports for the U.S. Moreover, the data includes shipments from empty containers, may overstate totals from transshipments, and may contain other data anomalies as well.

Zepol’s U.S. Customs trade data is derived from Bills of Lading entered into the Automated Manifest System. This information represents the number of House manifests entered by importers of waterborne containerized goods. This indicator is the earliest data available for the previous month’s trade activity.

Kevin Palmstein is the Director of Marketing and Product Development for Zepol Corporation. Zepol is the leading provider of United States trade information. Zepol’s products, TradeIQ™ and TradeView™, provide access to the latest U.S. Import Customs trade data and U.S. Import/Export Census trade statistics respectively. To learn more about Zepol, visit www.zepol.com and read their trade data blog, www.zepol.com/blog.

2009 was certainly a bad year for carriers: Mr. Kolding cited a 29% drop in container rates that contributed to an estimated $20 billion dollars in industry losses for the year. Import volumes are currently up 13%, but retail sales have only increased by 1%, therefore the volume increases could be short lived once inventory restocking is over. Consumer confidence is up, but still below where it should be.

On the question of industry consolidation, he highlighted the fact that too many players are chasing the same pieces of the pie. Even Maersk Line, the giant in the industry, only controls a 15.8% market share and the top 10 carriers in terms of volume barely control 60% of the market. Despite this, he doesn’t think we’ll see any shipping lines go down due to the downturn or from acquisition. Meanwhile, rates on the trans-pacific trade lanes are break-even at best.

Somewhat surprisingly, he had some critical words for his own company and the liner industry as a whole regarding delivery reliability and overall service. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect of “Our delivery reliability is appalling as an industry; best in class is only 60%. If we could get to 95% reliability customers could reduce inventory buffer by 60%.” He also expressed support for one-click shipping, citing statistics that showed that they amend each BL at least once.

On the question of slow steaming and the ever larger containerships entering the market, he insisted slow steaming was here to stay; partly as an environmental initiative and partly to save on bunker costs. As for the mega ships, he expects the trend for bigger ships to continue. “There is no reverse in the development of bigger vessels”, he said and reported that the majority of the vessels being laid up are the smaller, older ships: virtually all of the larger, more economical ships, are all in service.

The total number of import Bills of Lading has a close relationship with TEUs; looking at the top ten U.S. and International ports shows that few ports saw strong years in 2009.

Kevin Palmstein is the Marketing Manager for Zepol Corporation. Zepol is the leading provider of United States trade information. Zepol’s products, TradeIQ™ and TradeView™, provide access to the latest U.S. Import Customs trade data and U.S. Import/Export Census trade statistics respectively. To learn more about Zepol, visit www.zepol.com and read their trade data blog, www.zepol.com/blog.

1. Services Offered

A. Transport
1. Domestic and international trucking
2. Chartered aircraft
3. FCL & LCL sea transport
4. Break bulk and heavy cargo
5. Multi-client consolidation
6. Shipment consolidation
7. Cross-docking
8. Express door-to-door or door-to-port
9. Re-forwarding
10. Rail on five continents

B. Warehousing
1. Track & trace system including real time data
2. Kitting and pick & pack
3. Bonded storage
4. Sub-assembly
5. Inventory management
6. Marking and labeling

C. Consulting
1. SCM consulting
2. Customs brokerage
3. Local legal and clearance formalities
4. Route planning and costing
5. Special load planning and supervision

2. Value Added Services

1. Multi-vendor container optimization
2. Quality inspections
3. Container match-back
4. Purchasing services
5. Vendor managed inventory
6. Configuration and sub assembly
7. Product repair and renovation
8. Recycling and re-boxing
9. Reverse logistics

3. Locations

A. 17 Locations in North America including:
1. New York City
2. Mexico City
3. Toronto
4. Dallas
5. Los Angeles
6. Chicago

B. 50 Locations in Asia including:
1. Seoul
2. Tokyo
3. Osaka
4. Beijing
5. Jakarta
6. Singapore
7. Hong Kong
8. Xiamen
9. Shanghai
10. Mumbai
11. Bangkok

C. 23 Locations in Europe including:
1. London
2. Amsterdam
3. Kiev
4. St. Petersburg
5. Vladivostok
6. Los Angeles
7. Madrid
8. Hamburg
9. Milan
10. Istanbul

D. 4 Locations in the Mid-East and 4 Locations in South America

4. I.T. Capabilities (Global Single Window System)

1. Cargo tracking management
2. Real-time inventory management
3. Electronic shipping documents management
4. Live video feeds

5. Competitive Advantage

1. Providing the majority of logistic services for LG Chem and LG Electronics, Pantos boasts a tremendous amount of expertise in handling chemical and electronic cargo.

2. Trucking specialized in handling hazardous materials

3. Shipper’s own containers, including within C.I.S.

4. Possesses significant bargaining power within Asia

5. Intimate knowledge of TSR and TCR, including in house customs brokers, allowing for optimum Asia-to-Europe transport.

6. Offices in five continents and the Mid-East.

7. The highly adaptable Global Single Window System, including live TV feeds, allows for the greatest possible security in tracking shipments.

8. 51 warehouses worldwide

To this end, Zepol has developed a new feature on our website, www.zepol.com, which provides the most recent trends of U.S. trade statistics for each Harmonized Tariff Code. This information is searchable by HTS Code and also can be drilled down on from our Current Data by HTS Code page.

Check here to see the latest data for HTS Code 0904.12 (Pepper of the Genus Piper (Black and White), Crushed or Ground) to see a sample of one of these pages.

These pages show a trend graph and the top 5 countries that the products were imported from and exported to. It also allows you to drill up or down on the HTS code hierarchy. It is our goal that members of the third party logistics industry can uses this information to educate themselves and in turn their customers about the movement of specific goods in an out of the United States.

What is Transportation Manager Pro?

Transportation Manager Pro is a hosted transportation management solution for enterprise customers, air/ocean freight carriers, and high-volume shippers needing to dramatically reduce operating expenses and the time required for logistics and inventory management. The solution is an optimized transportation management tool with easy-to-use, web-based access.

Transportation Manager Pro offers customers a low-cost, Software-as-a-Service solution with an enterprise software feature set rivaling the best in the industry. Transportation Manager Pro is not installed on-premise but is implemented and customized on-site typically in two weeks.

Most importantly, customers report significant and palpable ROI immediately in terms of resource efficiencies, lower costs, and predictability.

ShipNomics Transportation Manager Pro is integrated with hundreds of ocean and air freight carriers, providing least-cost routing and a reliable and real-time source of aggregated information and intelligence.

The solution includes an easy-to-use and easy access web portal for customers and makes managing all aspects of shipping logistics and carriers quick and efficient. In addition, it is completely customizable to meet even the most unique customer requirements.

Key Benefits

· Dramatically reduces the time spent in managing and tracking shipments.

· Delivers faster time-to-use due to hosted software model.

· Facilitates document compliance required by law and by carriers.

· Ensures the highest level of shipping vessel capacity utilization.

· Provides a lower cost alternative compared to enterprise software solutions.

· Improves inventory tracking resulting in lower levels of inventory on hand.

· Enables improved communication with operations or retail customers and management.

Key Features

Routing

• Manage carrier and fleet resources

• Identify historical patterns, determine optimal utilization

• Results in decreased costs and increased capacity

Forwarding and Brokering

• Reduce labor and cycle times of forwarding and brokerage

• Improve speed, accuracy, and predictability of the flow of information and goods

Freight Payment, Billing, and Claims

• Automate processes of adding/editing freight payments, processes, and claims

• Track and pay only for the services provided

Reporting

• View data dashboard for better planning and execution

• Avoid inefficiencies and make real-time changes

• At-a-glance reports on costs, carrier efficiencies, etc.

Inventory Visibility

• Automate tasks to reduce overhead

• Manage vs. monitor inventory

• Know on hand and in-transit amounts

Operational Planning

• Manage users and security levels

• Manage shipment details before/en route

• Manage carrier relationships, responses

Transportation Sourcing

• Automatically pull data from active transportation data hub

• Build bid packages and load bids

How Shipnomics Does It

It’s easy, once we are a part of your team. Our logistics experts have developed a fully functional logistics portal that interfaces with your local, international, ocean carrier, and air freight shippers. The Shipnomics portal allows you to easily and reliably track all your shipments from one convenient portal.

ShipNomics Pro is a complete, SaaS solution for shippers needing affordable
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Domestic & International shipment tracking and reporting solutions

Logistical and corporate process improvement and optimization.

Custom development solutions.

Sign Up For a Demo or Consultation Now to see how the shipnomics solution can help save your company money and time.

The methodology for ranking the top 25 is based on something AMR calls Demand Driven Performance. Which, according to their website, “means global supply chains built to serve customers with both operational and innovation excellence”. The Demand Driven Performance is made up of various financial metrics including inventory turns, revenue growth, and the opinions of AMR analysts and company peers.

The Supply Chain Top 25 ranking comprises two main components: financial and opinion. Public financial data gives us a view into how companies have performed in the past, while the opinion component provides an eye to future potential and reflects future expected leadership, a crucial characteristic. These two components are combined into a total composite score, with the financials accounting for 60% of the total score and the opinion piece 40%.

Dell took the second spot for 2009 up one place from last year’s rankings. 2008’s number two, Nokia, fell four spots to number six.

Spots 3 through 10 are as follows:

3. Procter & Gamble
4. IBM
5. Cisco Systems
6. Nokia
7. Wal-Mart Stores
8. Samsung Electronics
9. PepsiCo
10. Toyota Motor

For a full report of the AMR Research top 25 click here.

To compare how the companies performed in prior years click here.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) today in its lawsuit seeking an injunction against the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Concession Plans.

The three-judge panel ruled unanimously to remand the case to the U.S. District Court and indicated that the judge should grant the ATA an injunction against all or part of the concession plans.

“In short, motor carriers should not be required to adhere to the various unconstitutional provisions in the Ports’ [concession] agreements, and are likely to suffer irrevocably if forced to do that or give up their businesses,” the court’s opinion said. ATA had not challenged the ports’ Clean Truck Program, which bans older trucks and uses a container fee to subsidize the purchase of newer, cleaner trucks.

Here’s more from the Journal of Commerce:

“The district court shall proceed as quickly as possible so that ATA will not suffer unnecessary harm from any unconstitutional provisions,” the appellate court stated. The judges also said they will not entertain a petition for rehearing.

Of most immediacy, it appears that the Port of Los Angeles can not require that harbor trucking companies by the end of this year must replace 20 percent of their owner-operator drivers with employee drivers.

“That requirement is dead,” said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA’s intermodal conference. “We are very pleased with this decision,” he said.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach clean-truck program seeks to reduce pollution from harbor trucks by 80 percent over the next five years. The trucking industry supports that goal and noted that a number of motor carriers have already introduced into their fleets new clean-diesel or liquefied natural gas vehicles that comply with the ports’ strict emission standards.

However, the program also requires that motor carriers sign concession agreements with the ports that govern many aspects of their operations. The 9th Circuit said some of the requirements, such as the employee-driver mandate, financial disclosure statements and truck parking restrictions amount to state or local regulation of interstate trucking. The appellate court said such regulation is clearly preempted by federal law.

Needless to say, the Naural Resources Defense Council, who supported the employee-driver mandate, is not pleased:

“This decision today places in jeopardy the clean air goals at the ports, as well as every port infrastructure expansion project that relies on clean trucks. We’re going to vigorously fight to protect these truck plans in court. Properly maintained, well-managed goods movement at the ports is good for business and good for the health of people living in port communities.”

The funny thing is, I would venture a guess that the ATA and the trucking interests in the ports would agree completely with the last sentence of that paragraph. I can’t find any indication that the trucking industry is challenging any of the environmental elements of the Clean Truck Program, apparently has no problem with the drayage truck registry or the upgrading/replacement of older trucks, etc. It’s only the concessionary agreements, particularly the employee-driver mandate, that they have opposed.

We’ll see what else we can learn about this, but in the meantime, or for those of you who are just stumbling onto this topic, here’s a lot more info for you:

ATA vs. LA/Long Beach port authorities: the battle continues

ATA legal challendes to LA/Long Beach “concession plans” – it’s not over yet.

ATA appeal denied by Ninth Circuit Court

FMC to possibly derail Oct. 1 Clean Truck Plan implementation date?

LA/Long Beach Clean Trucks Program on track to start October 1st

ATA goes to appeals court to stop SoCal ports’ truck plans

ATA takes ports to court over Clean Truck proposals

LA/Long Beach Clean Truck Program approved

Truckers coalition opposes portions of the Clean Air Action Plan

Environmental issues threaten competitiveness in Southern California