LaPort, Freeport and Garland, Texas;
and McDonough, Ga.
Further information may be obtained
by contacting Wendy Drummer at
wdrummer@hyttlogistics.com
or 1865-474-8002
J&M Tank names VP
J&J Tank
Lines Inc. has
named Dave
Edmondson
vice president
of safety and
compliance,
company
officials said.
“I look forward to serving the
drivers and staff of J&M to help
strengthen an already proven safety
program and help take us to the next
level,” Edmondson said.
Edmondson, who is from Indiana,
joined J&M after working as director
of safety at Usher Transport for
five years. He serves as national
chairman of the National Tank Truck
Carriers (NTTC) safety and security
council and is an active member of
the American Trucking Associations’
(ATA) safety council.
Edmondson also is a member of the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance
and Cooperative Hazardous Materials
Enforcement Development, where he
has received multiple safety awards.
“At J&M, safety is our number
one priority,” the company said
in a press release. “With 27 years
of transportation experience,
Edmondson brings an array of skills
to help make J&M one of the safest
J&M is a 70-year-old family owned
business based in Birmingham, Ala..
It specializes in transportation of
liquid and dry bulk products.
Opposition growing to steel,
aluminum tariffs
With the slogan “tariffs are
taxes,” a diverse array of steel and
aluminum-using manufacturers
from across the United States has
launched a new coalition focused
on terminating the Section 232 steel
and aluminum tariffs.
Called the Coalition of American
Metal Manufactures and Users, the
new trade group hopes to avoid what
happened in 2001 when steel was
201 tariffs. Those tariffs lead to the
loss of an estimated 200,000 jobs.
and business development, to legal
and regulatory compliance. These
sessions provide insights into industry
trends from top analysts, and in-depth
breakdowns of regulations, straight
from their authors.”
The show will also provide an
opportunity for oil and gas vendors to
unveil new technologies, POC said.
Those innovations include the latest
in transportation technologies and
alternative fuel systems.
At the end of each day there will be
various networking events, hosted at
the LA Live! venue.
Further information may be
obtained at www.petroshow.com.
Highway Transport expanding
Knoxville, Tenn. -based Highway
Transport, which is celebrating 70
years of service this year, is expanding
its Louisiana facility and adding
75 Mack Anthem trucks, company
officials said.
Highway Transport is a specialty
chemicals transportation company.
“Specialty chemical companies
are demanding that we expand our
capacity, particularly throughout
the Southeast where many chemical
manufacturers are located,” said
Marshall Franklin, president and
chief executive of Highway Transport.
“Specifically, our Geismar, La.,
The company recently produced
a commemorative video to help
celebrate its 70th anniversary.
Joe Sheldon, director of line-haul
and recruiting, said: “As our new
video illustrates, Highway Transport
chemical tanker truck drivers are an
elite class of truck driver with a high
level of skill. Logistical planning is
so much more sophisticated today.
Highway Transport’s service centers
are strategically located so that
drivers enjoy more home time than
ever. System drivers are at the heart
of the company’s growth strategy.
The new Mack Anthems are being
Highway Transport has operations
in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tenn.;
The coalition’s effort is part of
growing opposition to President Trump’s
tariffs, particularly those on steel and
aluminum. The movement is gaining
strength quickly from leading trade and
business organizations, including the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business
Roundtable, Caterpillar, and boat and
automobile manufacturers.
Adding its voice as well is National
Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC), the
leading national voice for tank-truck
carriers, vendors and manufacturers.
Those manufacturers rely heavily on
steel and aluminum.
“As steel prices rise, tank carriers
are being asked to pay more for
trailers already ordered or lose their
trailer to a competitor’s order,” said
Daniel R. Furth, NTTC’s president.
“It’s a king-sized problem and it
keeps on rolling downhill. Depending
on the type and origin of the steel or
aluminum in question, the cumulative
cost of tariffs can exceed 200 percent
of the material’s list price.
“Manufacturers are forced to pass
along their price increases to keep
up with steadily rising raw steel and
aluminum coil prices from domestic
steel manufacturers. Tank trailers
are overwhelmingly constructed from
steel or aluminum.”
Coalition of American Metal
Manufacturers and Users
said its members are already
seeing damaging results from
the 25-percent steel tariffs and
10-percent aluminum tariffs imposed
by Trump on March 23. The coalition
represents a wide range of domestic
manufacturing interests, from
metal formers to machinists to food
equipment manufacturers.
“These tariffs will do nothing
to uphold their stated purpose of
protecting U.S. national security,”
said coalition spokesperson Paul
Nathanson. “They will instead hurt
U.S. manufacturers in the near term
by raising the price of the essential
inputs they need to make finished
products, and do long-term harm to
domestic steel producers by eroding
The growing coalition comprises
a broad swath of manufacturing
associations, including the Industrial
Fasteners Institute, the National
Tooling & Machining Association,
the North American Association of
Food Equipment Manufacturers, the
Precision Machined Parts Association,
and the Precision Metalforming
Association, and the American Wire
Producer Association.
“It doesn’t matter what finished
product you manufacture; if you
use steel or aluminum as an input,
your costs are rising as a result of
these tariffs,” Nathanson said.
“It also doesn’t matter whether
you use domestic or imported steel
or aluminum, because the effect is
the same: higher prices for your
These price hikes only add to
existing upward pressure on tank-
truck manufacturing costs, Furth said.
“Due to a strong economy spurred
by the recent tax cuts, trailer
manufacturers currently post waiting
lists at least six months long. High
demand for these products only raises
their prices,” Furth said. “Steel and
aluminum tariffs further undermine
tank truckers’ ability to purchase
the trailers necessary to transport
America’s goods. NTTC’s carrier
members’ concerns about trailer
supply are significant enough that
our carrier leadership discussed the
backlog at our most recent Annual
Meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“Bottom line, tank truckers need
highly specialized trailers to move their
customers’ shipments. Combined with
other market constraints like the truck
driver shortage, the inability to acquire
trailers is a looming catastrophe of
higher costs for trailer manufacturers,
tank truck carriers, our shippers,
and anyone that purchases gasoline,
shampoo, laundry detergent, or any of
the thousands of other products that
require tank truck transportation in
their supply chain.”
The 232 scenario manufacturers
are facing today is nearly identical to
what they faced in 2002, when steel
was locked out of the U.S. through
the Section 201 tariffs. The decision
to shut out the normal flow of global
steel commerce left a smaller amount
of steel available inside the United
States, driving up costs for steel
users. Studies show that 200,000
manufacturing jobs were lost due to
the imposition of those 201 tariffs.
“The coalition is united in its efforts
to address the same fundamental
problem that we experienced in 2002,”
Nathanson said. “Tariffs help a small
handful of steel producers while
jeopardizing the viability of thousands
of steel-using manufacturers.
“Tariffs are taxes, plain and
simple,” he concluded. “The
administration’s stated goal is
to create new jobs and help U.S.
manufacturers prosper, but these
tariffs will bring the opposite result.”
