by CanadianSailings | Jun 10, 2019 | Keith Norbury, Other, Rail, Supply Chain and Logistics
By Keith Norbury
Canada’s two major railways are embarking on some cool endeavours to build their refrigerated and temperature-controlled cargo business. For instance, the larger of the two, Canadian National Railway, recently wrapped up the acquisition of a major trucking company that specializes in refrigerated cargo. Meanwhile, Canadian Pacific Railway, recently brought into service 423 new 53-foot refrigerated containers and another 363 heated 53-foot containers. (more…)
by CanadianSailings | Jun 10, 2019 | Keith Norbury, Ocean, Ocean Carriers, Other, Shipbuilding and Repair
By Keith Norbury
Tropical Shipping expects to debut a second brand-new container ship on its Halifax run by this July to transport fresh and frozen foods and other products to the Caribbean. “It may even be earlier, but we’re going public with saying early July,” said Gordon Cole, the company’s Assistant Vice-President for Canada, Hispaniola, and the Virgin Islands. (more…)
by CanadianSailings | Jun 10, 2019 | Business and Economy, Keith Norbury, Other, Supply Chain and Logistics
By Keith Norbury
Blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, has the potential to revolutionize the transportation of refrigerated and temperature-controlled cargos. Its promises include verifying that temperatures remain at prescribed levels throughout the cold chain, and tracking perishables from harvest to consumption, thus ensuring sustainability. And, as with the transport of other cargos, blockchain also promises efficiency in settling disputes, processing insurance claims, and paying invoices. (more…)
by CanadianSailings | Mar 26, 2019 | Business and Economy, Corporate events & profiles, Gateways and Corridors, Keith Norbury, Other
By Keith Norbury
Most of the goods traded between Canada and the U.S., still one of the world’s leading trading partnerships, crosses the border in trucks. And most of those trucks pass over three bridges straddling two rivers connecting the Great Lakes of Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Until recently, however, little was known about long it takes trucks to cross the border. That all changed recently when researchers at the University of Windsor’s Traffic Lab obtained GPS data from nearly 400,000 border crossings by about 60,000 trucks owned by 750 companies. The researchers crunched the data, millions of GPS “pings” in total, to reveal details about how long they waited at the border at different times of the day and year as well as their directions of travel. (more…)
by CanadianSailings | Mar 26, 2019 | Business and Economy, Gateways and Corridors, Government and Regulation, Keith Norbury, Other
By Keith Norbury
When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Jia Wang, Deputy Director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, invokes that African proverb to describes Canada’s position in a tariff turf war between the world’s economic elephants — China and the U.S. “In a way, Canada is like that grass,” said Ms. Wang, who was born and raised in China but has been a Canadian resident for 16 years. “It’s caught in between these big global economic superpowers and if for some reason the trade situation worsens, I think on balance it’s not going to be good for Canada.” (more…)
by CanadianSailings | Mar 26, 2019 | Business and Economy, Government and Regulation, Keith Norbury, Other
By Keith Norbury
The trade relationship between Canada and China is the worst it’s been in decades, according to experts who have studied the machinations of trade between the two nations. “No doubt, Canada-China relations are at a very low point,” said Jia Wang, Deputy Director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “Probably one of the lowest points since the Tiananmen incident in 1989.”
The impetus for the deteriorating relationship was the arrest in Vancouver of a senior executive with state-owned Chinese electronics giant Huawei. Meng Wanzhou, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, has been in custody since her arrest on December 1 at the behest of the United States Department of Justice. The U.S. is seeking to extradite her on charges that a Huawei subsidiary allegedly committed bank and wire fraud charges that violated sanctions against Iran. On March 1, the Canadian government announced it would hold an extradition hearing. (more…)
