Shipping

At Southern California's twin ports, there is a growing feeling that the economic tide has begun to turn. Imports are down. Experts expect another year of little or no cargo growth in 2008. And other harbors are getting serious about luring business away from Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's largest seaport complex, and other West Coast ports.

The nation's busiest seaport could lose at least 3% of its cargo container business if it adopts a controversial proposal requiring shipping companies to employ the thousands of short-haul truck drivers who work on a contractual basis, a new study says. The analysis, conducted by Boston Consulting Group, said that "substantial diversions" of the Los Angeles port's business probably would shift to the neighboring port of Long Beach or to other harbors. The port moved 8.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday unveiled a $19-million plan to persuade shippers to burn cleaner fuel when vessels are near the California coast, a move expected to slash local air pollution by 11%. Cargo ships, some of which can emit more diesel exhaust per day than 12,000 automobiles, are responsible for much of the air pollution in the region.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a clean air plan requiring shipping companies to buy and maintain a modernized fleet of big rigs and employ thousands of independent truckers who currently operate under contract. A spokesman for the American Trucking Assn. derided the plan as a "scheme to unionize port drivers" and vowed that his group would sue the port.

Although the price of a first-class postage stamp is going up a penny May 12, small businesses will get a break for the first time on Express Mail and Priority Mail costs. That will help many companies, but business owners who do a lot of mailing say there are plenty of additional ways to cut expenses if you shop and ask around. The U.S. Postal Service, making itself more competitive with commercial shippers, is taking some steps away from what it calls a "one price fits all" policy that had customers paying the same price for all pieces of mail in certain classes of service.

Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in the nation's history, a $4-billion seaport that could transform this farming village into a cargo hub to rival the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. If completed as planned by 2014, the port would be the linchpin of a new shipping route linking the Pacific Ocean to America's heartland.

The nation's top hauler of container rail freight, BNSF Railway Co., is parking miles of rail cars in Montana and elsewhere because there isn't enough freight to keep them rolling. Cars that often carry 40-foot containers of goods shipped from Asia stand like an iron fence between the Missouri River and this Montana burg known for world-class fly fishing. They stretch as far as Sandee Cardinal can see when she stands outside her home on the river's west bank between Helena and Great Falls.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered 18,560 pairs of fake Nike sneakers inside two shipping containers that arrived from China. The ship's manifest listed the containers as holding drainage pipeline fittings, but when officers at the Port of Long Beach opened them Monday they found the shoes instead. "The average consumer who walks into a store I think would be fooled by them," said Bonnie Lemert, the federal agency's acting port director for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport.

If you think gas is expensive, be thankful you're not a trucker. Filling up their 18-wheel, 80,000-pound leviathans can cost more than $1,300 these days. Because of short supply, the price of diesel has gone up more than twice as much as gasoline in the last year, reaching a U.S. all-time high this week of an average of $4.33 a gallon. With little hope of a near-term decline -- oil futures rose $2.17 to settle at a record $126.

Foreign ships that cooperate with Somalia's government gained authorization to enter Somali waters when fighting rampant piracy and armed robbery along its lawless coast. The U.N. Security Council's 15 members unanimously adopted a resolution intended to combat the attacks and the hijacking of vessels. More than a dozen pirate attacks have occurred this year alone, creating concerns for shipping along routes that connect the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea. The resolution is in part a response to requests for help from the Somali government and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.