Fact Friday: Texas Sea Ports

 

Texas seaports dominate Gulf of Mexico trade

The value of annual imports and exports at the Port of Houston is more than that of any other U.S. seaport on the Gulf Coast, totaling approximately $169 billion in 2011.

from the Offices of the Texas State Governor

Fact Friday: Texas Deep Water Sea Ports

Texas Deep Water Sea Ports 
from the office of the State of Texas Governor

• The Port of Houston is the No. 2 busiest port in the U.S. by total cargo volume and 12th busiest in the world (2010).

• The Ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi rank in the top 10 among all U.S. ports for total cargo volume.

• Texas has more than 1,000 miles of channel maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

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Dixie Cullen is not only about Storage, but Service!

Postcards by Vistaprint

Fact Friday: Truck Accidents at their Lowest

No one is questioning the need for greater truck safety. In fact, truck-related fatalities per 100 million miles traveled are at their second-lowest point since the government began compiling that data in 1975.

Brazilian Customs Officers’ Strike Disrupts Ports

Breakbulk Staff | Wed, 06/27/2012 - 05:05

Breakbulk Online - News Story

Strikes by Brazilian customs officers have disrupted major ports in the country. Cargo clearance has significantly slowed, reported Inchscape Shipping Services.

"Unless this week’s negotiations with the government around better salaries and working conditions are successful, interruption to vessel movements is likely to intensify," Francisco Villagrán, general manager for ISS operations in Brazil, told reporters.

Affected ports include Santos, Paranagua, Salvador, Manaus, Santarem, Santana and Itacoatiara.
Customs officers have been on a limited strike schedule, which includes two days of no work and minimal levels on the remaining days of the week, according to a statement from Inchscape.

However, customs leaders have warned that if the negotiations over the next few days are unsuccessful, they will start a full strike that could affect the whole country and paralyze Brazil including ports, airports and bonded warehouses.

Panama Canal Authority Confirms 6-Month Delay

Breakbulk Staff | Mon, 07/02/2012 - 05:51

Breakbulk Online - News Story

Despite delay, the first monolith has been completed at the Pacific Locks

The Panama Canal Authority's US$5 billion expansion project has fallen six months behind schedule, which could mean that the new locks will not be operational until 2015, authority officials announced on national television.

"The company is trying to catch up with lost time,'" said Alberto Aleman Zubieta, the authority's chief executive officer. Problems arose late last year when officials determined that the concrete for the project did not meet specified standards.

The project was originally slated for completion in October 2014. Expansion will build a new lane of traffic along the Panama Canal through the construction of a new set of locks, which will double tonnage capacity and allow the transit of much longer, wider ships through the waterway.

However, construction reached an important milestone earlier this month with the completion of the first monolith for the new locks on the Pacific end of the Panama Canal. The monolith is the first one to be completed from a total of 46 such structures being built in the Pacific locks upper chamber, Panama Canal Authority officials said in a statement.

The concrete and steel structure is 33.8 meters high, 7.5 meters wide and 27 meters deep. The culverts are part of the locks filling and emptying system and will run along the lock walls, which are made up of the monoliths. The construction of this single monolith required 232 tons of reinforced steel and 2,605 cubic meters of concrete.

Photo shows work on the first monolith, part of the filling and draining system at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal. Courtesy of the Panama Canal Authority.

Independence Day

Independence Day Graphics @ dazzlejunction.com

We wish everyone a Happy and Safe 4th of July Holiday

Our offices and warehouse will be closed on 

Wednesday July 4th

 in observance of Independence Day

We will have regular business hours on Tuesday the 3rd and Thursday the 4th.

Fact Friday: Texas Nations Top Exporter to Africa

Texas ranks as the nation's top exporter to Africa, selling $7.3 billion worth of goods and services to the continent in 2011, nearly double what it sold in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Potential new markets for Texas businesses exist in infrastructure, transportation, energy, extractive industries, technology, health and tourism and related industries. 

Texas Africa Summit

Caution Ahead: Fledgling CSA program suffers growing pains

The most ambitious truck safety program in a generation is leaving the industry bewildered over the exact nature of the initiative—which, according to analysts, seems to be changing continuously.

 

By John D. Schulz, 

Contributing Editor Logistics Management
April 01, 2012 

 

CSA, which stands for “Compliance, Safety, Accountability,” was rolled out in phases starting in 2011. The program is designed to weed out as many as 5 percent, or 150,000 of the nation’s more than 3 million long-haul truck drivers—those “bad apples” that the government is convinced are disproportionately responsible for too many truck-related accidents and deaths.

It uses a complex system to rate the nation’s nearly 525,000 DOT-registered interstate trucking entities on seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, now known as BASICs. The seven BASICs are: unsafe driving; fatigued driving; driver fitness; alcohol and drugs; vehicle maintenance; cargo security; and crash history.

Carriers are given “scores” in each category; the higher the score, the worse the performance. Carriers are then issued warning letters if their scores range above 65, meaning that only 35 percent of the carriers in their class have worse scores. For hazmat carriers the cutoff score is 60.

Click Here for Complete Article

Facts Friday: Diesel Fuel Costs

We all know how the "fuel surcharge" added to the trucking invoice has been an issure for many, so here's an interesting fact:

DOE: Diesel Prices at 5-Month Low

The national average retail diesel price fell 5.1 cents to $3.846 a gallon – the lowest price in five months – during the week ended Monday, June 4, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. The average price has fallen 30.2 cents in the past eight weeks and is 9.4 cents below the same week last year.

Average retail prices fell in all regions, led by a 6.7-cent decrease on the West Coast, which excludes California, where prices fell 5.9 cents but remained the nation’s most expensive at $4.169 a gallon. The smallest decrease was 2.9 cents in the Rocky Mountain region. The least expensive diesel was $3.746 a gallon in the Midwest.

Complete diesel price information is available on EIA’s website.

Friday Facts: Houston Jobs created

785,000

The most recent economic study shows that more than 785,000 jobs throughout Texas are in some way related to ship channel-related activity.

Time is Money

As a Small Business, we at Dixie Cullen, are aware that TIME IS MONEY.    It's important not only to us, but to our customers and to the truck drivers that service our warehouse facility.   We've all heard about the tightening pool available truck drivers,  and the more time they can spend moving from one point to another means versus sitting in line waiting to be loaded is a WIN, WIN situation for everyone in the supply chain.

Here at Dixie Cullen we believe in having "outbound" loads pre-staged and ready to be loaded from the time that the truck backs into the building.  Allows for timely loading while still following standard safety precautions to protect those that are working to load the cargo,  but to provide a safe load ready to leave our facility and travel on the road to it's final destination.