物流英语文章

Ship-rail service seeks to counter fall in tariffs

Shipping company Coscon and Japan Freight Railway are to launch a joint non-air express logistics service between the two countries to counter a dramatic drop in regional freight rates.

"Some of the shipping lines are offering zero prices on carrying cargo from China to Japan," said a management spokesman at Coscon, a subsidiary of Cosco Holdings. "We will be able to charge our customers US$200 to US$300 per box by providing this inter-modal door-to-door shuttle service."

Under the plan, Cosco will move mainly home electronics and clothing from factories in China through mainland ports to Moji, Nagoya and Tokyo.

They would then be distributed by Japan Freight Railway to the cities of Fukuoka or Kanto. Vehicles and electronic parts would be shipped in the opposite direction from Japan to China.

The initiative comes more than five years after Coscon launched its fixed-day, fixed-time container delivery service between China and Japan which sold itself on the comparatively shorter time it took to clear Sino-Japanese customs.

"Normally, cargo has to be loaded two hours before launch. However, our customers can enjoy last-minute loading thanks to the special treatment granted by the two customs ," said the spokesman, adding that exporters would be able to ship their cargo faster with shorter notice. "Although not as quick as by air, it's cheaper."

The service will be launched through a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of Coscon in Japan with a registered capital of 10 million yen ($659,350).

The venture allows Coscon to expand its network into more Japanese cities where inbound ground transport is not open to non-Japanese companies.

Officials gather to discuss port security

Completion of a new identification card system for port workers is the most urgent security need for the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor complex, a top security official said Thursday.

George Cummings, director of homeland security for the Port of Los Angeles, said major progress is being made on several anti-terrorism initiatives, from the installation of cameras to the addition of radiation screening equipment at the ports' 14 container terminals.

The credential program, however, remains the "major missing piece" in the port of Los Angeles's security efforts, Cummings said.

"We are anxious, to say the least, to see that program come forward for national implementation," he said.

Cummings discussed the challenges faced by the ports at a roundtable discussion on homeland security, sponsored by the state's Office of Homeland Security. Although much of the talk centered on initiatives at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach - harbors that handle 43 percent of the cargo delivered into the United States by sea - the panel also addressed security needs in San Diego.

John MacIntyre, program manager for homeland security at the Unified Port of San Diego, said in an interview he wants various security agencies - from the police to the U.S. Border Patrol - to improve the way they share information.

While those agencies now have radio equipment with "interoperability," or the ability to communicate on the same frequency, more training is needed to make sure they talk successfully.

"It's one thing to have a radio," he said. "It's another thing to be able to pick it up, use it and talk freely and clearly understand who's on the other end of it."

The roundtable featured officials from the Port of Los Angeles and the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol. In addition to the ID system, panelists spoke about new security cameras and greater screening of cargo containers at overseas ports.

Oakland already conducts radiation screening for 100 percent of the containers that arrive in its harbor, said Matt Bettenhausen, director of the Office of Homeland Security. The screening process is so acute that it has been triggered by port workers who recently received chemotherapy, said one official at Thursday's event.

By the end of the year, Los Angeles and Long Beach will have finished installing devices to detect radiation in all the containers that are heading inland from the two harbors.

"The goal is, over the next calendar year, to get all that up 100 percent - every container will go through that (screening)," Bettenhausen said.

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