Congratulations to Mike Casey, Vice President, located in the U.S. Group
Consolidator’s Minneapolis office, for his Target International Transportation
Partners All-Star Award.

The All-Star Award recognizes individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to Target’s business. Mike was praised for his outstanding leadership in providing a charter aircraft needed to bring in key electronic shipments for the 2010 Christmas shopping season.

The shipment moved flawlessly making Target the first mass retailer able to provide last season’s hottest selling seasonal item.

Mike has positioned U.S. Group as the air freight forwarder for which all others are compared. Mike continues to make sure his team is the benchmark for customer service and operational execution.

U.S. CBP Final Ruling on Mailing
Courtesy Notices

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently published a final rule in the Federal Register to discontinue mailing courtesy notices of liquidation to importers of record (IOR).

The change is tentatively scheduled to begin September 30, 2011. CBP recommends IORs use the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) portal to monitor notices of liquidation. can also be obtained. Read Full Article.   Read Full Article.

Decade of US export growth to China
outshines all other outbound cargo

US EXPORTS to China surpassed export growth to the rest of the world, soaring more than four-fold to US$91.9 billion between 2000 and 2010, according to a US-China Business Council (USCBC) study.

The USCBC report said American exports to its No 3 trading partner increased 468 per cent, or by nearly $76 billion, compared with a 55 per cent export growth rate with the rest of the world, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce. Over the same period, US exports to its No 1 trading partner, Canada, increased to $69.3 billion and to Mexico by $52 billion, which holds the No 2 spot.

Japanese Port Resumes
International Service

Hisane Masaki

Quake-hit Port of Sendai-Shiogama restarts international lanes next month.

Regular international container services will partially resume next month at the most important port in the northeastern Japanese region of Tohoku, which bore the brunt of the earthquake and tsunami in March.
Read Full Article.

Merchandise Processing Fee
Increase Proposed

Courtney Tower

The draft legislation for implementing the U.S Korea Free Trade Agreement includes a provision to increase the merchandise processing fee (MPF) from 0.21% to 0.3464% in the House version and 0.343% in the Senate version.

The cap will remain at $485.00 and the minimum will remain at $25.00 for formal entries. Both bills are still in subcommittee and yet to be submitted to their respective houses.

Consumer Spending Jumps 0.8 Percent

Mark Szakonyi

July spending marks fastest increase in five months.

Consumer spending rose 0.8 percent in July, the Commerce

Department reported, as strong demand for motor vehicles led the strongest gain in the consumer market in five months and provided a boost for a slumping American economy.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. economic activity and is a leading driver of containerized imports and intermodal traffic. The Aug. 29 report comes after a survey found U.S. consumer sentiment in August hit its lowest point in 33 months.

Chennai Port Congestion Situation

Chennai has been plagued over the past two months by delays caused by terminal congestion amid surging volume and trucking problems.

The situation was aggravated by a mid-August trucker's strike that lasted four days, paralyzing cargo movements and creating a huge yard inventory.

According to the latest update from port sources, the terminal yard inventory held more than 19,000 TEUs, mostly imports, as of last Friday morning.
Read Full Article.