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Released on October 28, 2009 (Next Release on November 4, 2009) Changing Distillate Export Patterns Distillate (including diesel) is the second largest petroleum product consumed in the United States, used for everything from fuel for trucks and trains to residential heating and even a small amount of power generation. Although still overshadowed by gasoline consumption within the United States, global trends have been rapidly increasing the demand for distillate. This is causing major changes in the United States’ role in the world distillate market. For many years, the United States was a net importer of relatively small volumes of distillate,...

Container Trade in TEUs* 2009 Year-to-Date*TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container **Preliminary estimate   Loaded Inbound Loaded Outbound Empties Total Containers January 200,588 88,510 110,197 399,295 February 149,299 92,781 75,962 318,042 March 186,450 117,674 70,007 374,131 April 199,051 112,976 96,678 408,705 May 208,591 121,064 89,900 419,555 June 206,358 114,107 92,882 413,347 July 221,719 108,420 102,874 433,013 August 249,920 130,623 112,796 493,339 September 224,924 109,337 106,103 440,364 October November December Year-to-Date 1,846,900 995,492 857,399 3,699,791 YTD % Change -23.8% -26.3% -24.2% -24.6%

The number of laid up containerships increased 10.4 per cent in a fortnight, according to the latest Alphaliner survey, which showed 568 ships were idle, aggregating 1.35 million TEU as of October 12 from the 548 idle vessels, totalling 1.29 million TEU, noted two weeks earlier. The Paris-based agency said laid up fleet is now the biggest ever. Apart from ships in the 1,000-TEU - 2,000 TEU range (7,500-TEU plus sized ships lay-up rate remained steady), all sizes showed increases in idling during the two-week period. Alphaliner also reported that the raft of service cutbacks by major carriers had an...

An American exporter sells his goods to a British importer and is paid in British pounds sterling. But he cannot use British pounds to pay the wages of his workers, to buy his wife’s clothes or to buy theater tickets. For all these purposes he needs American dollars. Therefore his British pounds are of no use to him unless he either uses them himself to buy British goods or sells them (through his bank or other agent) to some American importer who wishes to use them to buy British goods. Whichever he does, the transaction cannot be completed until the...

The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination. Do not tell these men and women about green shoots of recovery. As Briton Tim Huxley, one of Asia's leading ship brokers, says, if the world is really pulling itself out of recession, then all...

Port Tracker report projects retail imports to be at lowest level since 2002 Container trade imports will fall 20 percent in August and September and another 18 percent in October, pushing overall retail imports for 2009 down to the lowest level since 2002, industry forecaster IHS Global Insight said in a report released Thursday. In its Port Tracker report, released with the National Retail Federation, the group said the sharp pullback in peak season shipping will leave import shipping volume measured in TEUs down 18.8 percent in 2009 compared to last year. The 12.3 million 20-foot-equivalents IHS Global Insight estimates...

...In "The Graduate"...Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin is given a one-word bit of career counseling by one of those shallow and corrupt grown-ups at a shallow and corrupt grown-up cocktail party: "Plastics." Forty-two years later, the line has picked up a meaning that the makers of "The Graduate" could not possibly have anticipated.. today, the reaction is, "Oh, right: America still made things then." We don't any more...Since 1987, manufacturing as a share of our gross domestic product has declined 30 percent. Once the world's leading net exporter, we have become the world's leading net importer. In 2007, we exported $1.2 trillion...

One growing export has tipped the U.S.-China trade balance: live turtles. Each year millions of U.S. turtles that are hatched in farms or caught in the wild are devoured in China, where the onetime delicacy has become more available to the masses. The Chinese eat turtles—especially softshell and snapper species—and use the animals' parts in traditional medicines that are said to boost everything from the immune system to sexual prowess. But conservationists worry that this high demand will cause some U.S. turtle species to be eaten to extinction. That's why the U.S. state of Florida just passed a tough new...

TRANSPACIFIC lines are preparing to tear up annual contracts signed less than two months ago in a desperate bid to shore up their finances. The 14 members of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement issued a stark warning to their customers that freight rates agreed for service contracts signed in May were not sustainable over the typical 12-month term and may have to be renegotiated. In an unprecedented move, that reflects the plight of the industry, the TSA issued a statement saying members had adopted a voluntary across-the-board increase of $500 per feu effective from August 10. This will apply to rates...

One could be forgiven for thinking that contracts in shipping are no longer worth the paper they are written on. First we had charterers in the dry bulk sector simply walking away from unfavourable contracts at the top of the market. Now in container shipping we have lines on the transpacific trade trying to unilaterally increase rates on annual contracts just months after they were agreed. It would certainly be interesting to be a fly on the wall when shipping line sales people meet major US shippers and try to explain that they now, in effect, want to tear up...

China is expected to ban imports of U.S. chicken in coming days, a move likely to deliver a blow to the struggling American chicken industry and escalate trade tensions between the two nations. James H. Sumner, president of the Georgia-based USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, said he learned Tuesday from "several importers" in China that the U.S. wouldn't receive any import permits from the country's ministry of commerce starting July 1. Mr. Sumner said he has informed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and that it is looking into the matter. There has been no official confirmation from the Chinese...

Fear of the Administration’s drive toward a more protectionist American economy has gone global. Brazil, Japan, Australia, the European Union, and Canada are voicing concerns over the Buy American policy. Canada, who sends 75 percent of its exports to America and owns half of GM and Chrysler, has already had measures of retaliation of U.S products

There is no shortage of cleverness among the bureaucrats who run China. Exports in May fell more than 26% according to the country’s custom’s agency. That rate was worse than the 22.6% decline in April. To balance the drop in exports, the Chinese government has continued to pump what it says will be $585 billion into the national economy. That helped May capital investment spending to jump almost 39%. Economists began to talk about the miracle of the Chinese government when GDP in the world’s most populous nation began to pick up substantially two months ago. Most analysts stayed away...

U.S. exporters will see ongoing equipment shortages in the months ahead, and the container shortages could become even worse if imports from Asia do not pick up significantly during the peak shipping season. The equipment imbalance is occurring at an especially bad time for shippers of agricultural products because exports are starting to pick up after a lackluster first quarter. If exporters can not secure more empty containers for their products, the export boom will be snuffed out before it gathers steam. Agricultural exporters in the U.S. interior are at greatest risk. "Eastbound cargo isn't delivered where westbound cargo is...

NEW DELHI (AFP) — India's exports plunged 33 percent in April, the biggest slide in 18 years, but the bad news Monday was offset by a survey showing stronger manufacturing and higher car sales. The trade figures marked the seventh month in a row that exports have dropped, hit by a demand slump in global markets, official data showed. Exports slid to 10.74 billion dollars in April from 16.08 billion dollars a year ago as the appetite for made-in-India goods contracted -- the worst figures since November 1991, economists said. But the gloomy data coincided with a report showing domestic...

Russian arms exports are expected to increase by $700-$800 mln in 2009 despite the global credit crunch, state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday. "Rosoboronexport sells an additional $700-800 million [worth of weaponry] every year. Despite the crisis, 2009 will be no exception," company official Valery Varlamov said.

Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport is expecting $7 billion in foreign sales in 2009 despite the ongoing global economic crisis, a defense industry official said on Wednesday. Rosoboronexport sold about $7 billion worth of weaponry in 2008 and has a current portfolio of orders worth a total of $27 billion. "Our situation is stable. We have reached a high level [of arms sales], and we are expecting this year roughly the same amount as in 2008, which is about $7 billion," said Alexander Brindikov, the head of a group of advisers to Rosoboronexport.

Japan's ...exports tumbled 49.4 percent... Demand plunged in all regions of the world, particularly North America, Europe and Russia. The dismal figures highlight the grim outlook for Japan's export-oriented economy, the world's second-largest. Japan, which had relied foreign sales of its cars and gadgets to drive economic growth, now finds itself mired in its deepest recession since the end of World War II.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 09-65 Governor Announces Alaska’s Exports Remain Strong Alaska’s 2008 exports at $3.6 billion March 26, 2009, Anchorage, Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin today announced another strong year for Alaska’s trade performance. The value of the state’s exports reached $3.6 billion in 2008, the fourth-best year ever for exports. “Alaskans benefit from export activity. Given what is happening in economies around the world, it’s clear that Alaska’s economy remains strong and our resources are still highly valued,” said Governor Palin. The governor noted Alaska’s international activity also includes more than just export of natural resources. International interest...

February loaded oceangoing cargoes at the side-by-side ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 36.6 percent from the previous February, the two ports showed in separate reports. The slowdown for February is much more pronounced than it was in January, when the year-on-year decrease in cargo traffic at the two Southern California ports was 18.7 percent. The ports are the two busiest in the United States, handling more than 40 percent of imported consumer goods. The two ports showed inbound cargoes down 38.8 percent and outbound cargoes down 32.2 percent in February 2009 from February 2008. The traffic fell...

The collapse in China’s exports last month was even worse than the headline figure suggests, says Mark Williams, an international economist at Capital Economics. Import data give no sign that the economy has bottomed out. Exports declined by 25.7% on a year-to-year basis and imports by 24.1%. Relatively mild contractions in exports over the previous three months had suggested China’s exporters were proving more resilient than their regional counterparts. However, he says, the latest figures disprove this theory. After adjusting for the number of working days in each month, exports from China fell by roughly 40% on a yearly basis...

The global financial crisis has taken its toll on China, sending exports from the workshop of the world tumbling in February, slashing its trade surplus and raising the possibility of a deficit. Exports in February slid 25.7 per cent from a year earlier, dwarfing forecasts of a 5.0 per cent fall, while imports dropped 24.1 per cent, close to projections of a 25.0 percent decline. The resulting trade surplus was only $4.84 billion (£3.5 billion), a three-year low, compared with $39.1 billion in January and a record $40.1 billion in November, the customs administration said. That was far short of...

Japan logged its largest trade deficit ever in January as exports nearly halved due to a sharp slowdown in the global economy amid a worldwide credit crisis.

Some home builders already struggling in Florida's dismal housing market are facing another headache: The Chinese-made drywall they used is causing unpleasant odors and possibly leading to electric problems in dozens of homes constructed during the housing boom.

<p>At the docks here, the stacks of shipping containers that used to loom above the highway overpass are gone. Logistics managers say they negotiate deeper discounts every week on ships that are leaving half empty.</p> <p>In nearby Guangdong Province, so many factories are closing without paying employees that some workers are resigning pre-emptively and demanding immediate pay before their employers go bankrupt.</p>

CALGARY, Alberta — Walk into the downtown Calgary office of U.S. Consul General Tom Huffaker, and he’ll show you his well-worn plastic bag of bitumen. Huffaker, the U.S. government’s eyes and ears spanning a huge chunk of Canadian real estate covering two western provinces plus the expansive Northwest Territories, likes to pass around the bag containing several of the spongy, black chunks — made up of oil, sand, water and clay — as an icebreaker. Up close, the tar-like bitumen may not seem like anything of particular value, but when complex, costly processing methods are applied, it becomes liquid gold....

Somehow, the AP found a way to spin an excellent yield in crops this summer, despite flooding earlier in the midwest, into a doom and gloom article. US grain exports snagged by infrastructure delays

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit has gone on a diet, helped by strong exports of farm products and manufactured goods and by Americans spending less as the economy limps along. The deficit for June fell by 4.1 percent to $56.8 billion. That's the lowest level in three months and a surprise to economists who had expected an increase reflecting a big surge in oil prices during the month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. While oil prices did rise to a record level, exports of everything from soybeans and corn to aircraft engines and heavy machinery surged by the...

Russia has threatened criminal action against tobacco manufacturers after accusing US corporations of perpetrating "nicotine genocide" against the Russian people on the behalf of their capitalist masters. Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's combative chief public officer, said he had instructed state lawyers to explore the possibility of criminal prosecution of tobacco companies in the "service of US state capital". He accused them of causing a health crisis among young Russians by peddling cheap tobacco with high tar levels. The Soviet-style rhetoric of Mr Onishchenko's tirade and his reputation as a Kremlin attack dog will alarm foreign investors in Russia, who are likely...

Trade Facilitation by: Ben Giles, July 15, 2008 The Cato Institute’s Daniel Ikenson and World Bank’s Simeon Djankov presented the findings of a new Cato trade policy analysis at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 11. Ikenson’s paper, entitled Protection without Protectionism: Reconciling Trade and Homeland Security, highlights the disconnect between Americans’ perception of the economy and the realities of international trade. “The polls tell us that Americans have soured on trade…” said Ikenson. “It’s because Americans are barraged nightly by reports on the news that they’re losing their jobs and that the economy is imperiled by globalization and...

With gasoline prices zooming toward $4 a gallon — and beyond — readers are looking for relief and explanations. If fuel is in such short supply, why are refiners shipping some of it out of the country? I just read that refineries are exporting diesel. Is that true? And if it is true, then it proves how the oil companies are manipulating the prices!

A quantitative assessment of future net oil exports by the top five net oil exporters By Jeffrey J. Brown and Samuel Foucher There is increasing concern worldwide about global oil supplies, especially in the context of a global oil production peak. However, what really matters to oil importing countries is world net oil export capacity, and we are deeply concerned that the top five net oil exporting countries, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway, Iran and the UAE (United Arab Emirates), collectively accounting for about half of current world net oil exports, in aggregate are going to show an ongoing decline in...

Blistering Editorials Condemn Pelosi Decision to Close Colombia Market to U.S. Goods Boehner: "It's a Vote to Kill the Colombia Free Trade Bill" Washington, Apr 10 - Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) ramped up the Democrats’ War on American Jobs yesterday, deciding to unilaterally close the Colombian trade market to U.S. goods and kill a bilateral trade agreement that is being counted on by American farmers, ranchers, small business owners, and other exporters who are currently being denied fair access to an important and growing South American market. Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) called Speaker Pelosi’s move a decision to “kill...

Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher today announced the opening of the Ohio Department of Development's new international office in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The next site will cost taxpayers $50,000 a year.

Manufacturing is the key AMID the heady decadence of the Roaring Twenties in Berlin there arrived a man carrying a suitcase containing everything he owned. In his pocket he had a few Reichsmarks but barely enough for a city revelling in extravagance and extremes. He looked provincial, which he was, and decidedly out of place. But Gustav Krone had not exchanged the blackened skyline and smokestacks of the Ruhr to abandon himself to the fleshpots of Berlin. He was the eldest of a family of 10 children from Remscheid and was out to make his fortune. Within a few short...

As the dollar skids, dropping earlier this month to a 12-year low against the yen and another record low against the euro, U.S. exports are surging. That is providing a lone bright spot in an otherwise-gloomy economy and distinguishing this downturn from the last recession. When the U.S. faced recession in 2001, the greenback's value was riding high relative to other currencies, which hobbled exporters. This time, the opposite is occurring. Exports have already helped to counteract the impact of the beleaguered housing market. Over the past six quarters, exports have contributed, on average, nearly one percentage point to economic...

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — Hugh Quinn has seen the ever-weakening dollar shatter his ability to sell hand-cut Irish lead crystal to American customers. Ingolf Haas says profit at his family-run cuckoo clock business in Germany has dropped at least 10 percent since the U.S. currency's latest decline began. Roberto Anselmi now sells more of his Italian white wine to Canada than to the United States. Times are tough for small and artisanal businesses across Europe that traditionally target Americans as their No. 1 buyers, since the swooning dollar shrinks their revenues from U.S. sales but their costs remain in expensive...

Canada and the United States must take steps now to unclog their border for exporters, who are hurting from costly delays and fees due to post-2001 security concerns, business leaders said on Wednesday. A joint report on reducing border costs by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce laid out 17 recommendations for both governments to deliver over the next 18 months. Canada-U.S. trade is worth about $1.5 billion a day -- the world's largest bilateral trading relationship. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide attacks on the United States, shippers on both sides of the border...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez sent a soothing message to American motorists on Sunday, saying that Venezuela is not preparing to cut off oil shipments to the United States. The socialist leader rattled oil markets last Sunday when he threatened to halt shipments to the United States in retaliation for Exxon Mobil Corp.'s success in convincing courts in the U.S. and Europe to freeze Venezuelan assets. "We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the United States," the socialist leader said Sunday during a visit to heavy-oil projects in Venezuela's petroleum-rich Orinoco River basin that were nationalized last...

WASHINGTON – Only exports stand between the economy and recession, setting up another national argument about how to handle the rising flow of goods in and out of the country. Transportation fights are usually about who pays to build the roads and transit systems, with little said about trade. The Bush administration and Gov. Rick Perry have supported tolls and steadfastly opposed higher gasoline taxes. A new national study urges paying for desperately needed improvements any way we can, but one thing it specifically recommends is an increase in the federal gas tax of 40 cents a gallon over the...

Contrary to popular wisdom, China's rapid growth is not hugely dependent on exportsMOST people suppose that China's economic success depends on exporting cheap goods to the rich world. If so, its growth would be seriously dented by a stuttering American economy. Headline figures show that China's exports surged from 20% of GDP in 2001 to almost 40% in 2007, which seems to suggest not only that exports are the main driver of growth, but also that China's economy would be hit much harder by an American downturn than it was during the previous recession in 2001. If exports are measured...

WASHINGTON – The Mexican government is considering blocking U.S. exports, such as pork and rice, should Congress cut off funding for a cross-border trucking program, as is expected to happen within days. Even if Congress ends funding for the contentious program through the catch-all spending bill that is under consideration, there is a growing expectation that the Bush administration will find a way to continue it in what some say would be an act of defiance and others say would be compliance with the law. “We anticipate that they'll find a way to keep it going,” said Leslie Miller, a...

The U.S. current account deficit narrowed during the third quarter as exports of capital goods and motor vehicles increased. The current account deficit shrank to $178.5 billion during July through September from a revised $188.9 billion in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Monday. The second-quarter deficit was originally reported as $190.8 billion. The current account balance combines trade of goods and services, transfer payments, and investment income. About 90% of the deficit is accounted for by the balance in goods and services.

The weak dollar is threatening the survival of European planemaker Airbus, chief executive Tom Enders told workers in Hamburg on Thursday. And the firm once again warned that its cost saving plan would have to cut deeper to counter the impact of the weakening US currency. Airbus is owned by European aerospace and defence group EADS. "The dollar's rapid decline is life-threatening for Airbus," Mr Enders said in the speech to employees.

Fred Thompson took the stage in Michigan this afternoon in his first presidential debate. Thompson entered the race just over a month ago, announcing his candidacy on late night tv -- in an effort to upstage his opponents sparring that evening in another debate. Some political observers called this the most important performance of Thompson's life. Over the past three weeks, support for Thompson has slipped in the polls, while rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney noticed steady increases. The moderators started the debate, " Senator Thompson this is your first debate, and we kick it off with you." Answering...

Road plans in Texas have conspiracy theorists in an uproar I am driving along a mostly empty road in rural Fayette County, Texas, about an hour east of Austin, looking for the NAFTA superhighway -- the one that Stephen Harper, George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón mocked as a conspiracy theory when they were asked about it at their trilateral meeting in Montebello, Que., in August. Critics, who say that behind the leaders' denials lurks a larger, nefarious plan to unite North America, fear that such a roadway will eventually be a four-football-stadium-wide artery connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada,...

"Reports of the death of U.S. manufacturing have been greatly exaggerated." This is the opening line in a revealing and timely economic analysis aptly titled "Thriving in a Global Economy — The Truth About U.S. Manufacturing and Trade." =============================================================== The Good News is we're doomed! Part II 9/3/07 Early Tuesday morning I was tuned to Squawk on the Street on CNBC. Big economic report about to be released. During the wait, the ominous drumbeat from the TV box: 'Period of anxiety', 'period of uncertainty', 'period of fear', 'worst yet to come', 'credit collapse', 'credit crunch', 'subprime collapse', 'housing collapse', 'recession...

The safety problems affecting Chinese goods spread from toys to textiles on Monday as New Zealand said it would investigate allegations that imported children’s clothes contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde. The government ordered the probe after scientists hired by a consumer watchdog programme discovered formaldehyde in Chinese clothes at levels of up to 900 times regarded as safe. Manufacturers sometimes apply formaldehyde to clothes to prevent mildew. It can cause skin rashes, irritation to the eyes and throat and allergic reactions. The Warehouse, a New Zealand retailer, issued a recall at the weekend for children’s pyjamas made in China after...

I distinctly remember reading/hearing/seeing a recent news item about how American exports had exceeded imports. Now that I come to search for a source for that news item, I cannot find any mention of it anywhere. I am certain that I did not make it up, and am wondering if perhaps I the news was restricted to one certain sector of the market, or in relation to one specific country, or some such overlooked detail. Are there any newshounds who can confirm, deny or clarify this clear but unsourced memory of mine? I have already searched Drudge, FR, Fox, Google...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican media conglom Televisa aims to produce its first content in Mandarin Chinese by year-end as it moves to gain a foothold in the growing Chinese market and deepen its relationship with government-operated China Central Television (CCTV). Televisa's corporate VP of TV Jose Baston said Thursday that Mexico's top web would partner with Chinese producers to adapt telenovelas as well as formats like competish "Dancing for a Dream" for the Chinese market... Baston will lead a mission to China in June to close Televisa's first co-production deal with Chinese producers and discuss the distribution of its pay...