OWL shapes Asia footprint
For Ocean World Lines, a major non-vessel-operating common carrier in the U.S. export market, the jump into the eastbound transpacific has been a trial by fire.
Yet, despite the 2009 economic doldrums and the space crunch of 2010, the NVO's burgeoning Asia business has prospered, turning a profit last year when the parent company had budgeted for a loss.
Eric Seamon, OWL's vice president of Asia-Pacific, told American Shipper in October that the early success of its Asia business is linked to the knowledgeable personnel the company has hired.
OWL lured executives within the air freight and NVO industry in China and Southeast Asia, and 'got everything ready behind the scenes' before rolling out its cargo management operations in November 2009. 'We went out to find the best people in these markets. We've been very clear in our hiring process and that's been the key,' Seamon said.
The company developed a cargo management system to provide its customers with more simplified buyer consolidation, vendor compliance and purchase order tracking capability ' to provide customers with more than container yard-to-container yard service.
'In Asia, we built cargo management and air freight products because we felt, as a large NVOCC and customs broker, we needed to wrap some systems and sophistication around that core NVOCC service,' Seamon said.
OWL Air, the Asia business' first air product, now moves about 1,000 tons a month. 'It's not huge, but to think that we didn't have our own operations in Asia before, that's a big step,' he said.
On the ocean side, Seamon said the Asia business will likely reduce the number of ocean carriers it works with next year.
'Eventually, you narrow it down to four or five carriers,' he said. 'Our strategy for 2011 is to minimize (the number of carriers). When the space crunch hits, and you have 15 carriers, you're not really important to any of them.'
One of the carriers OWL has used in 2010 is The Containership Co. (TCC), the startup, port-to-port-based line. Seamon said TCC has been effective at delivering a basic ocean freight product that links to Pacer's transload strengths in Southern California (OWL is a subsidiary of Pacer).
'Pacer has a huge transload presence on the West Coast,' Seamon said. 'We do a lot of cross-marketing. If you can get it to L.A. at low cost, Pacer is set up to handle the inland leg through transload.'
Another recent milestone for OWL's Asia business is its self-sufficient booking process.
'We're no longer using agents ' out of China we're handling nearly 100 percent of our own contracts' on the transpacific eastbound, he said. 'We've gone from 80 percent of our volume eastbound being booked through agents to 100 percent of our volume going through OWL contracts in 18 months.'
Part of that is the attractiveness of the cargo OWL's customers are moving.
'Our business is great (from the carriers' perspective) because it's not dependent on the Christmas season,' he said. 'It's stuff that just flows, like light bulbs and cable wiring. Carriers love that because it's very consistent.'
OWL has big expansion plans for its Asia business next year (November American Shipper, page 40, or www.AmericanShipper.com/links), opening as many as nine new offices. In the meantime, OWL's eastbound transpacific business will look to steadily grow amidst feverish activity in Asia.
'We set up the business to be low-cost and low-revenue,' Seamon said. ' Eric Johnson
Broker data share change proposed
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has proposed changing regulations pertaining to the obligations of customs brokers to keep importers' information confidential.
The proposed amendment would allow brokers, upon the importer's consent in a written authorization, to share importer information with entities related to the broker so these entities may offer non-customs business services to the broker's importer clients.
According to CBP, the proposed amendment would also allow the use of a third party to perform photocopying, scanning and delivery of importer records for the broker.
'These proposed changes are intended to update the regulation to reflect modern business practices, while protecting the confidentiality of client (importer) information. In addition, the proposed changes would align the regulations with CBP's previously published rulings concerning brokers' confidentiality of client information,' the agency said in an Oct. 27 Federal Register notice.
CBP has previously considered the issue of whether brokers may share importer information with third-party business entities in published rulings. It's been the agency's longstanding position that absent written importer consent, a broker may not share this information.
The agency said it 'continues to believe that protection of the client's business information remains a paramount concern. At the same time, however, CBP recognizes that the development of more modern and efficient business practices, brought about by the changing structure and environment of the business community, has rendered the blanket prohibition of the current regulation somewhat antiquated.'
CBP also said a broker may have a 'legitimate financial interest in providing its clients additional non-customs business services which are offered by affiliated entities related to the broker.'
Comments related to the proposed rule must be received by CBP by Dec. 27. ' Chris Gillis
JF Hillebrand cracks Australia wide open
JF Hillebrand strengthened its wine and beverage logistics services in Australia with the acquisition of freight forwarder John Crack Freight Services in October.
JCFS, based in the port of Adelaide, has been in business for 18 years, providing forwarding services to wineries throughout Australia. The company also operates an 8,000-square-meter warehouse and container-packing depot.
JF Hillebrand said it will retain JCFS's identity and structure, and all customer contacts will remain unchanged. However, JCFS will connect with the Hillebrand Group's global network.
Mainz, Germany-based JF Hillebrand, a specialist in the logistics of wines, spirits and beers since 1844, has 45 offices worldwide with a staff of about 1,500 people. The company said throughput topped 268,000 containers in 2009, equating to more than 1.4 billion cases of wine. ' Chris Gillis