Editorial: Trucking and a Shrinking Globe

A pair of events reported on the front page in this edition of Transport Topics underscores the dramatic growth of the economic phenomenon known as globalization and its effect on trucking.

In Columbus, Ind., engine maker Cummins Inc. and Chinese truck maker Beiqi Foton Motor Co. jointly rolled out a new Foton model powered by the Cummins ISG engine designed for global markets.

Meanwhile, U.S. trucking leaders toured the nearly finished construction to widen the Panama Canal that will allow the transit of containerships with more than twice the capacity of today’s Panamax freighters.

As China’s economy keeps growing by leaps and bounds, partly due to its access to North American markets, it has been steadily improving its internal logistics. Part of that is highway construction and investment in modern trucks such as the Cummins-powered Foton Daimler Auman GTL truck.

That’s part of the story. Another big part is the engine. Cummins designed a new platform for the Auman. The ISG, offered in 11-liter and 12-liter displacements, is designed to easily be modified for other foreign markets.

The ISG, which Cummins said meets Euro IV and Chinese diesel emissions standards, has several design advances that could find their way into North American engines. It’s relatively light, and it has an improved engine brake and a high-pressure fuel injection system that makes it very efficient.

“Such an engine can satisfy developing countries’ needs for emissions standards, while also meeting the high standards of developed countries,” said Wang Jinyu, Foton’s general manager.

The explosive growth of Asian economies, powered by China, has helped make the United States a net importer of goods, a trend that’s been steadily growing since President Nixon opened China in 1972. So far, the lion’s share of those imports from Asia has come ashore on the West Coast, mainly through ports on California’s San Pedro Bay.

But it’s a long haul from Los Angeles to the densely populated East Coast, and some shippers have yearned for a cheaper water route. The new class of freighters, capable of carrying 13,200 20-foot-equivalent containers, just wouldn’t fit through the canal. So they’re widening it, and East Coast ports are dredging to make room for the huge ships. Once completed, 98% of all cargo ships will be able to access the Panama Canal.

This means more goods for truckers on the East Coast to haul, but as Philip Byrd Sr., chairman of American Trucking Associations, said, “The concentration of containers from such large vessels will clearly affect our highway system.”

To take advantage of the widened canal, the United States needs to do what China is doing: Modernize its highways.