A name familiar in the Tacoma shipping community, TOTE, is now the moniker for a nationwide maritime company.

American Shipping Group, formerly parent company for TOTE, a shipping company connecting Tacoma with Anchorage, has become TOTE Inc.

TOTE Inc. has reorganized American Shipping Group’s five independently managed businesses into three groups, maritime, logistics and ship management. Here’s what’s included in each group:

· TOTE Maritime: Totem Ocean Trailer Express and Sea Star Line

· TOTE Ship Management: Interocean American Shipping

· TOTE Logistics: Alta Logistics and Spectrum Logistics

The company chief executive said the renaming decision was straightforward.

“We …

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The draft of a new Port of Tacoma strategic plan calls for creation of a new common user container terminal, more cost-competitive rail service, development of the Tacoma as a strategic military port and attraction of more break bulk business to its terminals.

Those and other initiatives are designed to restart the port’s growth engine, which has been sputtering since the start of the recession more than three years ago.

The draft plan is the result of more than a year’s work by consultants, port commissioners and staff members.

A common user terminal would allow smaller customers who don’t want …

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Anthony Hemstad, president and CEO of the World Trade Center Tacoma, reported today that the center has added three members to its board of directors.
They are:

• Jeff Jagosh, an industrial brokerage specialist for CBRE. Jagosh specializes in site selection of logistics and warehouse companies in the Port of Tacoma service area, as well as in Thurston and Lewis Counties.

• Dale King, Tacoma Rail superintendent since 2008. King previously served as Weyerhaeuser’s director of rail services, and has also worked for Burlington Northern Railroad. As the head of Tacoma Rail, he oversees one of the country’s largest …

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In case you haven’t been in Hong Kong this week, here’s a look at what you would have seen – straight from Tacoma.

To commemorate Chinese New Year – the Year of the Dragon – Tacoma-based Brown and Haley has invested in a high-profile advertising campaign that includes both Roca pink bus wraps and a TV commercial.

The commercial was produced by BANG Agency of Hong Kong, and depicts a young woman contemplating a gift of Almond Roca. As she dreams, she is transported into a pink, breezy fantasy

…

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The Port of Tacoma’s dominant business eked out an increase last year, new statistics show, but that business volume remains far below its pre-recession highs.

The port’s terminals handled 1,488,799 cargo container units last year, figures released by the port this week show. That’s 2.3 percent above the 1,455,466 the port saw in 2010.

The port’s container business had fallen every year since 2006, when the port handled 2,067,185 container units. The business bottomed out in 2010.

The port’s higher container volume still falls substantially short of that of its Puget Sound rival, the Port of Seattle. Seattle …

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The Port of Tacoma, seeking to match its ambitions with new economic realities, is in the midst of drafting up a new plan to guide it for the next five years.

The port is now seeking public input from community members, customers, business leaders and employees. It plans two open houses next month to garner that information.

Here are the times and places:

Monday, Feb. 13, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
The Fabulich Center, room 104
3600 Port of Tacoma Rd., Tacoma

Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
McGavick Student and Conference Center
…

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Sea-Tac’s newest foreign carrier, Dubai’s Emirates Airline, said today it expects Indian expatriates could provide a substantial share of the passengers on a new flight from here to Dubai.

Nigel Page, Emirates senior vice president, said those expatriates were one of several reasons Emirates made Seattle its sixth U.S. destination. Emirates begins daily Boeing 777-300ER flights from Sea-Tac to its Dubai hub March 1.

Many Indian-born software developers work in Seattle’s high-tech sector, Page said. The Dubai connection will provide them an easier, shorter flight home.

From its Dubai hub, he said, Emirates has 185 weekly flights to 10 cities …

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The Port of Tacoma again is a mix of open and closed terminals for the second day running.

Here’s a rundown of what’s open and what’s shut down:

APM and Totem Ocean Trailer Express terminals are open.
Terminal 7 is open.
Washington United Terminals’ gate is open but rail operations are suspended for the day.
Pierce County Terminal plans to open after de-icing equipment.
Olympic Container Terminal will remain closed.
Union Pacific’s domestic service in the South Intermodal Yard is open and planning regular operations.
Auto Warehousing Company is closed.
The North Intramodal …

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