Quick News (belated) for Wed 9-14-05 and Thursday 9-15-05 :

As the economic recovery slowly continues in the Gulf Coast areas affected by Katrina, there is a two sided coin being shown - one of horrific devastation to the regional and national economy and one of a silver lining as businesses involved in the recovery effort or located just outside the disaster zone gain a boost :

Hurricane Katrina's economic toll continues to mount - its cost evident in
near-record energy prices, snarled shipping traffic, lost jobs and wrecked
businesses. But nearly two weeks after landfall, its impact is shaping up as one
of extremes.

The hurricane caused at least$125 billion in economic
damage and could cost the insurance industry up to $60 billion in claims, Risk
Management Solutions of Newark, Calif., said in an updated estimate Friday.
That's significantly higher than the previous record-setting storm, Hurricane
Andrew in 1992, which caused nearly $21 billion in insured losses in today's
dollars.

The storm is expected to lop off from 0.5 to 1 percentage point
from U.S. gross domestic product in the second half of 2005 and about half that
amount in 2006. In Europe and Asia, financial leaders warn that surging energy
prices could stunt growth.

Yet, hotels outside the regions damaged by
Katrina are benefiting as business conventions are relocated. Steel makers
expect a short-term lift from the massive reconstruction. And oil and gas
producers - in spite of damage to rigs and refineries - are reaping huge sums.

The trucking industry has had a similar bump in demand tied to Katrina.
Schneider National of Green Bay, Wis., saw its truckloads increase by 13 percent
last week and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in some cases paid for
roundtrips to quickly get supplies to the Gulf Coast.

Barges that might
have earned $200 to $400 a day for a 30-day trip between New Orleans and
Pittsburgh are now commanding as much as $800 to $1,000. "It's kind of like the
people who rushed to the gas stations," said Mark Knoy, president of AEP River
Operations, a division of the Columbus, Ohio-based power company American
Electric Power.

You can read the whole story here.


Meanwhile, "...to the great relief of farmers, ports around New Orleans began reopening Tuesday..." :

Although it's far from normal, the reopening of the Mississippi River marked a
milestone in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina -- and not a moment too soon,
with the fall harvest underway, shipping costs soaring and grain storage scarce.
"We've got problems, but they look solvable," said Jerry Fruin, a
transportation specialist at the University of Minnesota. "The (gulf)
infrastructure was not destroyed: the channel, the elevators, the barge fleet
for the most part is intact, and it's a matter of getting it working."
Eight
of the 10 grain-exporting elevators in the New Orleans area have power and are
resuming operations to some degree, said Randy Gordon with the National Grain
and Feed Association. That's important because 60 percent of America's grain
exports pass through those facilities.
"You don't go from zero to 100
percent operations overnight, and it is a gradual process," Gordon said. But, he
said, continuing progress is being made, and significant progress."

Wow, big surprise, hold your shock and awe : fresh on Delta's heels, Northwest is filing for bankruptcy. Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long. Whose next ?


Meanwhile, Korean Air - the largest international air cargo carrier in the world - seems to be doing just fine :

When Korean Air began running cargo flights to the United States in 1971,
company executives knocked on the hotel-room doors of American businessmen
importing wigs, then a major export item from South Korea, begging them to try
an airline they had hardly heard of.

Three decades later, Korean Air is
now the largest carrier of airfreight on international routes. Riding on South
Korea's booming technology industry, the airline now carries semiconductors,
flat-panel TV screens and cellphones to 38 destinations in 25 countries.

And Boeing says the forecast for cargo planes looks bright :

The Boeing Co. said the world's fleet of cargo planes will more than double over
the next 20 years, as the air freight industry completes its emergence from the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The report said the share of wide-body
freighters is expected to increase to 64 percent of the fleet, compared to 47
percent currently. About 60 percent of the freighters that will be added to the
fleet will be wide-body airplanes, officials said.
"We continue to note that
the strongest growth will be associated with Asia," said Tom Hoang, Boeing
regional director of cargo marketing in the Americas and China. "China, in
particular, is an area where the air cargo industry, while still young, is
poised for high growth rates -- in the range of 10 percent per year."

Speaking of China, Yellow Roadway has finalized a deal to buy half of an airfreight importer in China :

The Overland Park-based company announced in June that it had paid $45
million to buy out all or part of four other partners in JHJ International
Transportation Co. Yellow will have 50 percent ownership of JHJ with Jin Jiang
Investments.
JHJ, which also provides ocean freight forwarding and logistics
services, has 22 locations in China and has annual revenue of $330
million.

In more Asia news :

Mapletree Investments will be developing a 56-hectare logistics park in
Vietnam.
The park is located within the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park II
near Ho Chi Minh City.
It will have a land lease of about 50 years and will
contain a Free-Trade Zone and non-bonded warehouses.