The New Yorker – Page 5
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NewsDancing to a different tune
COMMENT: Ports need to be making soothing noises, not just loud noises, about their importance, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsGreat social etiquette
COMMENT: Ports are getting #social, and that’s a #good thing. While some maritime folks (including at least one New Yorker that I know) are proud to be Luddites, the eyeballs of the general population are increasingly online., writes Barry Parker.
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NewsGetting back in sync
COMMENT: In the past, I’ve sounded off about the port side of the business being out of sync with the carrier side: vessels are, frankly, way too big for terminals, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsCall for creative and connected thinking
COMMENT: Ports have a tangible impact on economic vibrancy, or lack thereof. If there are any doubts about this, consider the cold water thrown upon us by the recent reports coming out of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, saying that US economic growth suffered to the tune of ...
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NewsTime for an Optimal Size Index?
COMMENT: As this issue goes to press, the Maritime Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will be meeting in London, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsCarriers disconnect needs serious thought
COMMENT: What will the world of containerships look like in 2020? Or 2025? If you take the pronouncements of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as gospel most of the big liners will have consolidated, and there will be one super-duper high-tech salt mine to handle all the vagaries of back office ...
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Cruise not so detached from cargo
COMMENT: The cold weather here in New York of late drove me down to Florida for some warmth, where I was fortunate enough to attend a conference on the cruise busines, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsJoining the US infrastructure dots
COMMENT: Sometimes policy disconnects need to be highlighted. At one extreme, the US West Coast docks have been near paralysed by an emerging infrastructure collapse, with the widely publicised labour difficulties bringing ports to their knees, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsThe tail wagging the dog
COMMENT: The vessel design and ports businesses should run on parallel paths, but they do not; instead, they are on divergent tracks, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsShout about the benefits
As the year winds down, I am reflecting on a rather large missed opportunity. New York''s radio stations, and their TV counterparts, have been quite diligent in announcing a weekend closure of the Bayonne Bridge for construction and closures during weekdays - all part of the “Raise the Roadway” project.
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Changing financing course
COMMENT: Before the financial crash in 2008, port finance got very sexy - a spate of deals done circa 2006-2007 saw all manner of ''privatisations'' where port operators sold their crown jewels to investment funds for vast sums, and leased them back, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsJoining the LNG fuel train
COMMENT: LNG propulsion for vessels large and small is probably the biggest shipping ‘story’ of 2014 - the trade press and conference circuit are bubbling over with news of new projects, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsLifting local spirits
COMMENT: The traffic reports on New York area drive-time radio have revealed that the Bayonne Bridge will be seeing closures on weekends and during overnight hours, as work continues on the ''Raise the Roadway'' project, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsQuestioning port funding attractiveness
COMMENT: One of the most sobering presentations at this year’s Marine Money conference, always held in the hottest days of June, was given by container shipping man Ron Widdows, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsCargo is still king
COMMENT: Across the Hudson from downtown New York, the big news in May was the arrival of three huge cranes from ZPMC at the Port Newark Container Terminal, writes Barry Parker.
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NewsCome out fighting
The commodities websites and energy blogs have been buzzing with the rumblings that Albany, about a hundred miles north of New York harbour on the Hudson River, is under consideration by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as a delivery point for futures contracts in ''light'' crude oil.
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NewsChannelling the gas flow
A spate of recent conferences has brought New York’s shipping community to life, in spite of cold weather.
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NewsCold snap, warm will in NY
In New York, the conversations have all about bad weather: cargoes of road salt not arriving, straddle carriers slipping around at Port Elizabeth, trucks sliding around the Brooklyn docks, and tankers punching through ice as they move up to Albany to load Bakken crude.
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NewsDisappointment of US report card
The US infrastructure is in the news again, although not in a good way. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has issued its report card and the States gets a ''D+'' overall - basically a failing grade with some sugarcoating on it.
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NewsCashing in on US distraction
Sandwiched in-between the big fiascos in Washington, DC - which culminated in a government shutdown - President Obama, visiting New Orleans, called for increased infrastructure spending.
