The year 2007 was, overall, the strongest year ever for American manufacturers. Hence, the Federal Reserve set this year as a baseline for the marketing index, released on a monthly basis, and set each sector of manufacturing to a base of 100 for the year 2007. Then those baselines are used to indicate how strong…
On the eve of Senate hearings regarding the safety of rail tankers carrying approximately one million barrels of crude oil across American railways per day, the U.S. Department of Transportation issues new safety regulations. However, both officials and industry experts agree that these regulations don’t address the most serious safety concerns.
Work stopped on the Panama Canal expansion because contractors went over budget. Before the expansion began, many officials and diplomats expressed concern over the contract because the winning bid was $1 billion lower than the others. However, the contract was awarded to the consortium GUPC, which includes Sacyr Vallehermoso, S.A (Spain), Impregilo, S.p.A. (Italy), Jan…
The NAFTA trade agreement among the United States, Canada, and Mexico accounted for $91.1 billion over the past year. Trucks carry most of these goods, hauling 57.2 percent of all NAFTA imports and exports, equating to $26.3 billion in U.S. exports and $25.2 billion in U.S. imports. Overall, NAFTA trade transport by trucks was up…
Two decades ago, China started looking into building an undersea channel to connect the northern city of Dalian to the southern city of Yantai. Currently, a bay jutting inland from the East China Sea toward Beijing lies between these two cities. The tunnel will connect the Dalian and Yantai directly, subtracting about 800 miles from…
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and officials from Remington Arms Co. announced Monday that the famed gunmaker will soon be opening a new factory in Huntsville, Ala. The plant is expected to bring more than 2,000 jobs to the area, including jobs at the plant as well as support industries. Though no immediate plans to shut…
In a vote of 626 for and 712 against, the workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. rejected the United Auto Workers union, or UAW, despite the fact that Volkswagen did not actively try to prevent workers from joining the union. Most of the arguments against unionization came from the state government, where Tennessee…
A number of metals, including rare earth metals, necessary for the production of electronic devices such as computers, laptops, and cell phones have entered the supply chain from the troubled region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to government sources, to fund violence in the region they mined and sold these metals. Lawmakers are…
Providing chassis for deliveries at U.S. ports is not exactly lucrative, which is why a number of large ocean shipping companies (such as Maersk Line, Yang Ming, CMA CGM, OOCL, NYK Line, and Evergreen) have decided to quit providing this service at several U.S ports, including those at Long Beach and Los Angeles. Now port…
Following just the first complete month of 2014, a survey conducted by Bloomberg Industries called the Internet Truckstop survey shows a positive outlook among trucking companies in regards to the remainder of the year. Respondents to the survey included freight brokers and small owner operator trucking companies. An increase in the overall volumes expected, combined…