Archive: Mar 2008

Brenntag Acquires Schoofs, Names New Regional President (Online Exclusive)

Global chemical distributor Brenntag is not just California dreaming; it has just acquired West Coast specialty chemicals distributor Schoofs, Inc., based in Moraga, Calif. It also named Steven M. Pozzi as president of Brenntag Pacific, based in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. No price was disclosed for the acquisition. The Schoofs operation will become part of […]

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Trends—March 2008

10+2: Anything But Elementary The Importer Security Filing mandate proposed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been a hot topic of late – as much for speculation about its loose provisions as for its underlying purpose of tightening offshore supply chain links. When CBP announced its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in early […]

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Hamilton on Wry

One misty day, I wandered about the graveyard at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan. I spotted a figure sitting on the steps of a square granite box with four urns at its corners and a truncated pyramid in its center. It was the tomb of Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), who for many Americans is merely the […]

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Michael Strauss: Putting Military Training On the Line

In the early 1990s, artillery officer Mike Strauss was leading an Army convoy down a German country road in the middle of the night when he got word of a breakdown three-quarters of the way back in line. The stopped vehicle blocked the road so completely that nothing behind it could squeeze past. One of […]

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Snap Shot: Furniture Logistics

Will the shift to global sourcing – combined with an economic downturn, housing slump, high fuel costs, and lack of visibility – unseat the furniture industry?

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Globe Spinning

As the world flattens, global sourcing invariably becomes more dynamic. Sophisticated technologies and an emerging crop of offshore suitors are forcing today’s intrepid explorers to balance reason with instinct.

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Tracking Totes Turns to Technology (Online Exclusive)

As totes and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) become more sophisticated and more expensive, chemical producers and distributors are seeing them more as a fleet like rail cars or tank trailers rather than as a disposable cost of doing business. Also, strict new rules on tracking and tracing hazardous materials make it imperative for shippers to […]

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Congress Plans Changes to Chemical Regulations (Online Exclusive)

Within days of the January 2008 deadline for chemical producers and distributors to file their "top screen" hazard-assessment questionnaire to the Department of Homeland Security, a Congressional subcommittee approved legislation to further tighten handling, transportation, and reporting rules for hazardous materials. Chemical producers, distributors, and carriers responded with a quick and loud call for legislators […]

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