Northern Commodity Transportation Conference to cover all the ag transportation bases

If you build it, they will come.

In a matter of months, the inaugural Northern Commodity Transportation Conference (NCTC) has transformed from a brainstorm to a fully-curated meeting with dozens of panelists, ensuring coverage of every link in the ag transportation chain.

After all, every player in commodity transportation can empathize with the complex system of moving commodities from the Tri-State region to the West Coast for export. To untangle today’s myriad of transportation roadblocks, Ag Management Solutions, in conjunction with commodity groups from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, is set to unveil the NCTC March 11-12 in Bloomington, Minn.

“We are extremely encouraged by the response the NCTC has received,” says AMS CEO Tom Slunecka, who reported more than 100 farmers, industry leaders and legislative assistants will be in attendance. “The enthusiasm surrounding this event proves that there’s a demand to discuss these important, relevant topics in commodity transportation.”

This unique, first-of-its-kind conference will unite the entire commodity transportation industry to share and learn about trade barriers, struggles, similarities and opportunities along the transportation route as commodities leave combines in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota and head for international waters.

“At the end of the day, we are all in this together,” Slunecka says. “If the system cannot turn a profit, neither can our farmers. Without profitable farmers, there will be no grain to feed the system.”

Transportation and non-tariff barrier topics such as grain quality criteria, phytosanitary issues, rail reliability and regulations and trucking efficiencies will be discussed. The majority of the topics will begin with a panel format, allowing for free-flowing, robust dialogue among all attendees.

“As privately funded transportation systems, railroads have unique challenges as we seek to continually improve service to our agricultural customers and ship their goods to markets,” says Steve Milligan, BNSF Railway’s ombudsman for agricultural products. “The NCTC is a great way to share information across the industry, and we look forward to being a part of it.”

Dozens of state officials and experts from the agriculture industry are slated to appear as featured speakers, including longtime economic and marketing consultant John Baize; American Soybean Association President Bill Gordon; Minnesota and North Dakota’s respective agriculture commissioners Thom Petersen and Doug Goehring; and National Grain and Feed Association President Randy Gordon. Staffers from Sen. Mike Rounds (S.D.), Sen. John Thune (S.D.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Tina Smith (Minn.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Angie Craig, respectively, will be in attendance. Local and regional media are also expected to cover the event.

“Our hope is to create a better understanding of the many issues and barriers we face from the combine until the grains reach international waters,” Slunecka says. “Each of these issues we’ll be discussing help drive profitability for the entire system.”

Team members in the grain, trading, sales, regulatory and management industries will glean substantial value from this conference. Potential NCTC attendees include: grain elevator and terminal loading managers, transcontinental shipping lines, shippers, transloading facilities, rail lines, commodity association leadership, state government, regulatory groups and more.

“With a full slate of speakers and panelists encompassing the breadth of the commodity transportation industry, the NCTC is an exciting new event for anyone who is a link in the ag transportation chain,” says North Dakota farmer Mike Langseth, chair of Northern Soy Marketing. “We’re proud to sponsor NCTC, and we encourage elevator employees and farmers to join us in the conversation and find solutions to the issues facing our industry.”

Registration is $200 per person; walk-ins are also welcome. Visit www.graintransportation.com to learn more and register.

Expansion, improvements underway at ports serving ag shippers

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, strategic adviser for trade and transportation

Several ports serving agricultural exporters, including port-members of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA), have recently been in the news for expansion and throughput improvements underway, including some with projects receiving federal grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD).

Northwest Seaport Alliance
The Northwest Seaport Alliance is implementing a growth strategy to be able to provide more capacity through expanding infrastructure at its main ship-loading terminals in Seattle and Tacoma to be able to handle bigger ships and improve cargo velocity. NWSA also plans to consolidate its international container terminals to two large terminals in North Port Seattle, and two or three large terminals in Tacoma, the South Port.

The Journal of Commerce notes that in 2019 there was a continued gradual decline in container volume handled by the dominant West Coast ports and gradual increase by East Coast ports. West Coast ports handed 62 percent of imports from Asia, down from 67.2 percent three years earlier; the East Coast was 32.9 percent compared to 30 percent in 2015. Gulf ports handled 4.8 percent last year, up from 2.5 percent.

NWSA would like to stem that gradual migration to the east, as well as increasing traffic handled by Canada’s ports.

Vancouver
The Port of Vancouver, B.C. recently reported it recorded its second-highest cargo volume in 2019, in spite of all of the trade conflict challenges that set shipping back at most other gateway ports.

The port handled 3.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in containers in 2019, up just a bit over 2018. Global demand for Canadian grain was strong, the port indicated, with a record 28.3 MMTs handled in both containers and bulk – up 3.5 percent from 2018. That came despite a reported 37.3 percent drop in canola exports to China due to a tariff dispute.

Several SSGA container exporters ship through Vancouver, using CN or CP railroads to get there. An expansion project is underway at the port’s Centerm Terminal.

Milwaukee
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers last week announced a grant to support a major new agriculture commodity vessel transloading facility to be built at the Port of Milwaukee.

The DeLong Company, one of the U.S.’s largest commodity and specialty soybean exporting companies, is constructing a $31.3 million facility, which the port says will be the first of its kind on the Great Lakes.

Initially the transload operation will handle distillers dried grains (DDGS) for export via bulk vessels. It will also be able to handle other bulk grains, including corn, soybeans and wheat.

USDOT’s MARAD awarded a $15.9 million Port Infrastructure Development grant for the project. Evers announced a $4.9 million Wisconsin Harbor Assistance Program grant from the state.

“The diversity of Wisconsin’s agriculture industry is our strength, and part of our international appeal,” Evers said. “Our state’s agribusinesses rely on finding markets for the high-quality products our farmers produce. This grant connects the dots between our agricultural producers, state agencies, and businesses like DeLong that serve our agricultural community.”

Tonnage handled by the Port of Milwaukee was up 11 percent from 2018 at 2.6 million tons.

Duluth
The Duluth Seaway Port Authority announced it has been awarded a $10.5 million MARAD grant to help fund construction of a new 56,000 square foot, rail served warehouse at the Clure Public Marine Terminal; and to rehabilitate 1,775 lineal feet of deteriorating dock walls at Berths 10 and 11 at the terminal.

“We are incredibly excited by the award of the PIDP grant and we thank (MN) Congressman (Pete) Stauber and Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith for their support of this endeavor,” said Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. “The grant supports projects that improve and broaden the infrastructure of the Clure Public Marine Terminal and the value it provides.  These projects will also allow us to expand our service capabilities at our multimodal logistics hub, which in turn helps us support industries throughout the Upper Midwest.”

Duluth Cargo Connect operates the terminal for the port authority, including Great Lakes and ocean vessel loading and unloading, plus the port’s intermodal container rail yard served by Canadian National Railroad. The new warehouse will add to an existing 430,000 square feet of warehouse space at the terminal, which is in high demand by regional businesses.

Los Angeles/Long Beach
The Port of Los Angeles received an $18.2 million MARAD grant to increase its on-dock railyard, expanding the terminals’ capacity by 10 percent, while its next door neighbor, the Port of Long Beach was awarded a $14.5 million MARAD grant to improve rail service capacity and operations at Terminal Island.

Cleveland and Toledo
The Great Lakes ports of Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio, both of which serve agricultural shippers, also received MARAD grants. The Port of Toledo’s Intermodal Project was awarded a $16 million grant to re-construct and upgrade a dock at Midwest Terminals Facility 1, and to develop a liquid transloading facility. The Port of Cleveland received at $11 million grant to rehabilitate two of the port’s main docks.    Cleveland operates the unique Cleveland-Antwerp Express, where Netherlands-based Spliethoff Shipping provides regular, scheduled breakbulk service to Europe and back, including container service – the only scheduled one on the Great Lakes.

Charleston and Savannah
The adjacent Southeast U.S. ports in Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. also received MARAD grants for improvements. Both ports serve container ag exporters.

Charleston received a grant just shy of $20 million to construct an underwater retaining wall, and to deepen three vessel berths to be able to handle larger container ships, complimenting a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to deepen the navigation channel to the terminal.

Savannah was awarded at $34.6 million grant to realign, rebuild and deepen its easternmost berth to be able to handle large 14,000 TEU container ships.

Click here to view all of the USDOT MARAD PIDP port grants, which totaled $280 million.

New round of USDOT funding for marine highways and ports open for application

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, strategic adviser for trade and transportation

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Maritime Administration (MARAD) program recently announced its next round of availability of grant funding for competitive applications under its America’s Marine Highways Program (AMHP) and the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP).

The Marine Highways program has $9.5 million available for applications from facilities serving the country’s 12,000 miles of navigable inland waterways. Go here for more details.

The USDOT announced funding opportunities for ports to apply for $225 million in discretionary grant funding through the new round of Port Infrastructure Development Program. Infrastructure improvements to gateway ports and the roads and railways that serve them are eligible components.

USDOT will evaluate projects using criteria which include effect on the movement of goods, leverage of federal funding, net benefits, project readiness and domestic preference. Details can be found here.

Virus impact, added ‘blank sailings’ extended slowdown after Chinese New Year continue to disrupt container shipping

By Bruce Abbe, strategic adviser for trade and transportation

As reported in the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance’s (SSGA) Enews last week, the coronavirus’ impact on global supply chains, particularly intermodal container shipping, is continuing to pose problems for container ag exporters.

China’s decision to keep millions of factory workers home longer after the normal Chinese New Year slowdown in an effort to contain the virus has led to an overall slowdown for container shipping. The outlook at this point is uncertain when a recovery will happen.

The Journal of Commerce reported Monday that U.S. Southeast ports are now bracing for a cargo volume drop in mid-March and April, due to the longer transit times for imports from Asia. The West Coast has already been experiencing the drop, including declines in import containers moving inland by rail. The container supply for exports is increasingly being affected.   Port leaders at Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container port complex in the U.S.,  predicted declines of 12 to 15 percent for the first quarter, with a 25-percent decline in February. About 40 blank sailings were forecast by the Los Angeles port leader.

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) reported that cargo volumes at the nation’s ports could be down 20 percent from a year earlier, due to disruptions from the virus. An AAPA statement noted a two-week latency period for virus symptoms, which is giving ports, health officials, customs and other government officials more time to prepare for screening and possible quarantining of crew members or travelers.

SSGA Member Shippers, Customers Feeling the Crunch

Several SSGA member freight forwarders and shippers confirm that the latest shipping crisis is hitting our exporters and their customers overseas.

Container availability is an issue in a number of locations, and somewhat uneven depending on the ocean carrier and their changing vessel schedules.

Some steamship lines have space and no containers, while other lines have containers available but no space, noted two shippers who use the Minneapolis rail terminals going to the Pacific Northwest (PNW).

Inland locations are feeling the pinch, notably Chicago, Kansas City, Ohio Valley and Minneapolis, another large shipper said.

“Equipment seems the same as always. None inland, and more at the ports – because there are no vessels for empties either,” advised one forwarder who arranges shipping from several ports. “Freight already was increasing. Not sure yet how it will all pan out.”

Another SSGA member noted, “We have five rail cars of wheat sitting on demurrage. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones.”

The next new bookings being taken by the carriers, several members noted, are in April and could be out further.

Another member shipper simply described the situation as “a huge mess.”

When asked if some destinations are getting hit harder than others by cancelled sailings, one shipper said Southeast Asia locations are feeling the pinch, particularly those served by feeder vessels handling transshipments.

Another member shipper pegged the real issue, “It is all about the customer’s inventory that translated directly to the seriousness” of the impact. More and more SSGA identity-preserved grain and oilseed exporters have been seeking to provide steady supply relationships with longer term customers.

Turning the Corner?

The president of the Port Authorities group told Freightwaves, “Things will rebound eventually and indeed we’re hearing news about factories that are coming back online in China and ports there are ramping back up to move the cargo…”

Indeed, a report in the South China Morning Post said both the government and business is eager to restart China’s economy. The prominent columnist said, after a month of extensive city lockdowns and travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, China’s workers and small businesses are now getting back to business as usual. He also warned that could spell risks of a second wave of the virus. The World Health Organization says the risk of the coronavirus spreading globally is ‘very high.’

A move to ramp up supply chains again is good news, the outlook globally is still uncertain for shippers.

In a normal year, the biggest container shipping conference in the world, the JOC’s Trans Pacific Maritime (TPM) Conference, would be taking place this week. The conference draws more than 2,000 ocean, rail, trucking and transportation technology executives to a four-day conclave at the Long Beach Convention Center. The conference was canceled Saturday following advice from health officials and the global increase in cases of the virus, including on the West Coast.

Abbe honored for transportation leadership

Bruce Abbe, strategic adviser for trade and transportation for the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA), was presented with University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) William K. Smith Distinguished Service Award at its annual meeting last week, attended by a host of state transportation, university and business leaders.

Established in 2002, the William K. Smith Distinguished Service Award is presented to a private sector professional in the freight transportation and supply chain industry for their leadership in the field and their contributions to mentorship and education of future leaders. The award is named in honor of William K. Smith, who served on the initial committee to establish CTS and on many CTS research and education councils until his death in 2001. While Smith served for many years as a state and national leader at General Mills, he also taught classes at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and installed a passion for learning and teaching in others.

The 2020 award was presented to Abbe in part for his many years of service on the executive committee of Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Minnesota Freight Advisory Committee (MFAC), representing the interests of agricultural shippers. Abbe stepped down as president and CEO of the Midwest Shippers Association in 2019. He is now CEO of Abbe Communications and Management Services, LLC, and serves as a consultant to SSGA.

Coronavirus continues to disrupt shipping supply chains; SSGA ag shippers caught in the storm

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, SSGA strategic adviser for trade and transportation

The coronavirus continues to roil global shipping and supply chains, and according to industry news reports, the outlook continues to worsen. Agricultural shippers, including Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) exporters, are feeling the pinch on both ends  – at overseas destinations and here in the U.S. – with recovery prospects pushed out until April or beyond.

Wall Street caught its own version of the virus on Monday, with the Dow dropping 1,000 points in the afternoon over fears of the impact to global economic trade and logistics.

Freightwaves provided a timeline for the coronavirus outbreak across ocean, air, truck and rail transportation. They speculated at what point hard hit countries, like China, will need to decide if and when to switch from a containment strategy, which has seen factories shut down and people staying away from jobs and population interaction, to more of a mitigation strategy.  Mitigation, because commerce and product supply – food among the most important – will need to be moved. There are risks that mitigation strategies might not be as successful, leading to unforeseen economic consequences.

A check with SSGA member shippers found the impact is beginning to hit exporters in the U.S.

One SSGA freight forwarder member noted that the immediate problem is dealing with all of the blank sailings that keep increasing. Shippers cannot get bookings until April, and those may end up getting pushed out even further if there is not a turn around. Container shipments are being rolled to later departing ships, and it’s a scramble to find a vessel going to the planned destination, with delivery dates an increasing unknown.

The worsening challenge for inland container exporters is finding available equipment. With China shutting down factories and supply chains, there has been a huge drop in import containers coming to the West Coast and then inland to Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Columbus and other key inland locations. A shortage of containers going inland means a shortage of export containers able to go back out, regardless of the destination.

China is still the source of 65 percent of the Trans-Pacific container imports to the U.S., according to IHS Markit statistics. Peter Tirschwell from the Journal of Commerce wrote last Friday that China was in the early stages of restarting manufacturing following the coronavirus outbreak. The Trans-Pacific is not the only trade lanes being hit. Alphaliner reported that the ocean carriers blanked 46 percent of its container capacity due to the virus fears. One major forwarder told Tirschwell that the extended shutdown could be a “prelude to an overwhelming surge” in demand once the factories kick back into production.

An SSGA food soybean exporter noted the timing was particularly bad for his company, which had been looking at one of its best years. With its key shipping period now being pushed out months from now, it’s going to be a challenge for both his company and its customers overseas who need reliable, timely delivery.

Boston-based container shipping data firm CargoMetrics released data last week that documented the rapid collapse of cargo shipping from China, the original source of the outbreak. Chinese imports “are totally in freefall,” said Scott Borgerson, CEO of CargoMetrics in a recent Freightwaves report.“While China’s own export trends were described as “ugly.” What happens in the next two weeks is “critical,” he said.

Shipping news sources identified the “reefer” container export trade as being among the earliest hard hit sectors. With trucking and delivery channels being shut down in China in an effort to minimize the spread of the virus, refrigerated containers that bring in perishable food products like meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables were piling up at the ports. There is only so many “reefer plugs” – power sources -available for the computerized refrigerated containers. Ocean carriers have begun diverting the containers to other ports. That too comes at a particularly bad time. After an estimated 40 percent of China’s hog population culled due to the African Swine Fever (AFS), meat exports from the U.S. to China have been on a sharp rise and one of the few U.S. bright spots in international trade.

On a more positive note, a check with an SSGA bulk grain member exporter found that the large bulk vessel grain and soy shipments appear to have not yet been hit with cancelled sailings and diversions.

“So far, the bulk vessel trade seems to be continuing without the disruptions that have hit the container trade,” says Gary Williams, vice president of marketing and business development for United Grain Corporation, a major grain trading exporter with ocean loading facilities on the Columbia River in Washington state. “Although that could change. We’re watching it closely.”

People need to eat, and the livestock and poultry herds will need to be fed. As long as the Chinese will allow the trucks to pick up and deliver soybean meal to the herds, the soybean shipments to the processing plants hopefully will continue and even pick up from the trade war decline.

However, a report out last week in World Grain confirmed what an SSGA member container feed exporter had heard – that poultry farmers in China’s Hubei and Hunan provinces have started to cull thousands of young chickens due to a shortage of feed stemming from in-country transportation restrictions due to the virus. China is reportedly releasing corn from government held stocks.

Right now, SSGA member shippers and their logistics providers are doing their best to find work-arounds to serve their customers. Visibility, particularly on estimated times of arrival, is a hard item to come by at the moment. It’s a critical time for SSGA shippers to make extra effort to maintain close communication with customers and supply chain service partners.

Trade war drives drop in ocean and rail intermodal container freight; uncertain prospects for recovery in 2020

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, strategic advisor for trade and transportation

U.S. agriculture isn’t the only industry anxiously awaiting for the “Phase One” U.S.-China trade agreement to start to spur more exports. The global and U.S. transportation industry took a negative hit during 2019, and industry experts are showing scant optimism for a recovery in the near term.

Prominent global container shipping research analytical firm Alphaliner recently reported that total container shipping volumes on the important eastbound Trans Pacific trade lane fell 2.5 percent in 2019. That marked the first time since the 2009 recession that container shipping trade numbers actually dropped. As ag container shippers know, imports of goods in containers determine the availability of containers for backhaul for U.S. exports, which also fell last year.

The six major North American west coast gateway ports also showed a decline last year from 13.7 million to 13.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). China’s container shipments to the U.S. dropped nearly 10 percent due to the U.S./China trade war. Exports and imports from the growing South East and other Asian locations helped reduce some of the trade volume loss, but not enough to make up for China. Click here for more coverage from Freightwaves.

Data out late last week from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) also documents how 2019 was a down year for U.S. intermodal rail and trucking. According to IANA’s Market Trends & Statistics Report, intermodal volumes were particularly hard hit in the fourth quarter of 2019, down 7.4 percent from 2018, reports Supply Chain Management Review (SCMR).

The report called 2019 a very challenging year for the North American intermodal industry with the yearly volume again dropping the most since 2009. IANA tracks both domestic intermodal and international intermodal container shipping, the critical numbers for ag export shippers. Inland rail shipping (ISO) volumes dropped 9.1 percent in the fourth quarter, IANA said, citing several factors.

“It’s probably too soon to assess the impact of the ‘Phase One’ trade deal,” said Joni Casey, IANA president and CEO, according to SCMR. “However, it does bring some stability to the international sector. The coronavirus, along with the emerging impacts of the IMO 2020 (low sulfur fuel mandate for ocean vessels) bring other elements that could impact the intermodal market.”

For ag exporters, the “Phase One” commitment by China to purchase an additional $40 to $50 billion in imports from the U.S. over two years is heartening news, but details remain scarce. The U.S. cancelled some planned increases of tariffs on Chinese goods, but largely kept the existing tariffs in place so far; with China also keeping its counter tariffs in place, while not charging them on some recent large bulk vessel purchases on a select basis.

Ocean container carriers urged to allow extended ‘free time’ without penalties at key ports due to coronavirus disruption of global supply chains

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, strategic advisor for trade and transportation

The rapidly expanding outbreak of the novel coronavirus is causing major disruptions to global supply chains and international public transportation.

On Monday, the national Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) publicly called for container ocean carriers to extend a period of ‘free time’ allowed at port terminals so that container shipping exporters and importers would not get hit by unfair per diem penalty charges when their freight gets held up for events beyond their control.

The government of China – where the virus got its start – announced it has extended the official lunar new year holiday period, which started Jan. 25, for three more days through Feb. 9. The Chinese New Year holiday, as it’s often referred to, traditionally brings a significant slow-down in trade and freight transportation from Asia. China essentially bought some time by extending the holiday period throughout the country by three days to provide more limited interaction of people before shipping and commerce restart in a big way. News reports, however, note the shipping slowdown due to coronavirus may now extend well beyond out into March.

Industry sources note more ship sailings are being cancelled, on top of the trend of blank sailings that grew steadily in number throughout last year due to overcapacity during the U.S.-China trade war.  We’re hearing that multiple ports in China have been waiving storage fees on cargo, but the ocean carriers have been silent as of this writing on extending their higher cost detention and demurrage penalties beyond Feb. 9.

In an open letter to ocean carriers AgTC Executive Director Peter Friedmann said AgTC members – including the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) – appreciate that most of the steamship lines have extended their free time periods in line with China’s extension of the Lunar Holiday for three days. Friedmann also urged more time be allowed due to the extreme global crisis situation.

“We now seek further guidance with regard to our export cargo landed in China, or imports marshalled for and awaiting export. Unfortunately, the World Health Organization (WHO) and national health agencies predict the coronavirus will be a threat well beyond Feb. 9,” Friedmann wrote, pointing out efforts to suspend cargo and passenger movements to prevent the spread of the virus can also be expected to extend beyond that period.

Friedmann called for ocean carriers to announce they will extend ‘free time’ beyond Feb. 9 and “until such time that the WHO, national authorities and/or air cargo carriers believe normal transportation services at the ports and inland China can safely resume.”

“While this is open-ended, our U.S. exporters need assurance they will not be charged detention (per diem), or demurrage while the supply chain remains dysfunctional due to the coronavirus,” Friedmann said. He also expressed shippers’ readiness and desire to work collaboratively with carriers to mitigate the impact of the global health crisis.

The accelerating negative impact of the coronavirus on shipping and commerce, comes on top of the decline of trade last year due to the U.S.-China trade war. Freightwaves/American Shipper reported last week that 2019 was the first year in more than a decade that saw container trade on the Trans-Pacific actually decline.

Click here for coverage by the Journal of Commerce on the coronavirus impact on the container trade.

‘We’re all in this together’: New ag conference to unite all players in commodity transportation

All players in the commodity transportation industry chain can empathize with the complex system of moving commodities from the tri-state region to the West Coast for export. To tackle today’s myriad of transportation roadblocks, Ag Management Solutions, in conjunction with commodity groups from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, is set to unveil the inaugural Northern Commodity Transportation Conference (NCTC) March 11-12 in Bloomington, Minn.

This unique, first-of-its-kind conference will unite the entire commodity transportation industry to share and learn about trade barriers, struggles, similarities and opportunities along the transportation route as commodities leave combines in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota and head for international waters.

“At the end of the day, we are all in this together,” says AMS CEO Tom Slunecka. “If the system cannot turn a profit, neither can our farmers. Without profitable farmers, there will be no grain to feed the system.”

Transportation and non-tariff barrier topics such as grain quality criteria, phytosanitary issues, rail reliability and regulations and trucking efficiencies will be discussed. The majority of the topics will begin with a panel format, allowing for free-flowing, robust dialogue among all attendees.

“As privately funded transportation systems, railroads have unique challenges as we seek to continually improve service to our agricultural customers and ship their goods to markets,” says Steve Milligan, BNSF Railway’s ombudsman for agricultural products. “The NCTC is a great way to share information across the industry, and we look forward to being a part of it.”

State officials and luminaries from the agriculture industry are slated to appear as featured speakers, including longtime economic and marketing consultant John Baize; American Soybean Association President Bill Gordon; Minnesota and North Dakota’s respective agriculture commissioners Thom Petersen and Doug Goehring; and National Grain and Feed Association President Randy Gordon. More keynote speakers and panelists will be announced in the near future.

“Our hope is to create a better understanding of the many issues and barriers we face from the combine until the grains reach international waters,” Slunecka says. “Each of these issues we’ll be discussing help drive profitability for the entire system.”

Team members in the grain, trading, sales, regulatory and management industries will glean substantial value from this conference. Potential NCTC attendees include: grain elevator and terminal loading managers, transcontinental shipping lines, shippers, transloading facilities, rail lines, commodity association leadership, state government, regulatory groups and more.

“With a full slate of speakers and panelists encompassing the breadth of the commodity transportation industry, the NCTC is an exciting new event for anyone who is a link in the ag transportation chain,” says North Dakota farmer Mike Langseth, chair of Northern Soy Marketing. “We’re proud to sponsor NCTC, and we encourage elevator employees and farmers to join us in the conversation and find solutions to the issues facing our industry.”

Registration is $200 per person. Visit www.graintransportation.com to learn more and register.

For sponsorship details, contact Katelyn Engquist at kengquist@mnsoybean.com or (507) 508-1540.

Ag shippers seek more accountability from ocean carriers on container availability

By Bruce Abbe, strategic advisor for trade and transportation

The national Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), along with the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA), continues to press for reforms to set fair and appropriate practices in the ocean container shipping industry when detention and demurrage penalties get applied at port terminals when containers are not picked up or arrive back within allotted time frames.

Last week AgTC, of which SSGA is an active member, garnered news attention for developing a set of draft service contract guidance provisions that its members may seek to include in their ocean carrier contracts. AgTC and SSGA shipper members include both exporter container shippers and freight forwarder/NVOCC logistics members who serve exporters, and negotiate annual contracts with ocean carriers.

“This contract language is proposed as a means for our members to ensure that their ocean carriers spell out why demurrage and detention or per diem fees are justified, not just hand out blanket bills to exporters and importers and expect them to pay,” Peter Friedmann, executive director of AgTC, told American Shipper/Freightwaves.

The collective effort to reform per diem penalty abuses at port terminals has been going on since at least 2016, when the Coalition for Fair Port Practices (supported by SSGA) filed a petition with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) requesting that regulations be adopted to prevent unfair assessment of penalties – particularly when the shippers had no ability to meet the deadlines due to problems at the terminals or in the supply chains that were beyond their control. The coalition includes a wide range of container cargo shippers, including national retailers and importers as well as exporters.

After an extensive Fact Finding investigation, the FMC approved and published proposed interpretive rule on container availability that would clarify application of the port terminal per diem penalties.

In March, SSGA’s board of directors will hold a board meeting in Washington, D.C., and expect to visit the FMC and congressional committee representatives to educate them about issues shippers face due to unfair penalties applied for reasons beyond their control.