Baltimore and International Business

[PeterSmith]

Goods news. Here's some more:

http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/bal...ml?jst=b_ln_hl
Baltimore, Ireland incubators teaming to help startups expand overseas
Baltimore Business Journal - by Scott Dance Staff

A Baltimore business incubator is moving forward with a new international partnership just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

The Emerging Technology Center, a city-funded facility for young technology companies, is working with a similar organization in Dublin, Ireland, to promote trade between the two cities. A new agreement will allow members of both incubators to open offices overseas.

Leaders of the Dublin Business Innovation Centre (DBIC) are in Baltimore this week to sign an agreement they hope will help companies from both countries establish international business.

"DBIC was very interested in collaborating with the ETC as they are well known for creating an environment in which like-minded startups can accelerate their potential," DBIC Chairman Hugh Governey said in a statement. "This is exactly the kind of atmosphere Dublin companies want to access when establishing a U.S. operation."

As part of the agreement, the companies will also have access to local advisory committees that will help guide the foreign companies to succeed in their new markets overseas.

"This collaboration will assist new and existing technology firms to expand internationally in physical space which can accommodate their unique needs, while receiving the business mentoring, technical, and networking services that traditionally have been provided by DBIC and ETC," ETC President Ann Lansinger said in a statement.

[Itus]

Airliners.net discussion about a reported end to Air Greenland's flights to BWI:

http://www.airliners.net/discussions....main/3883745/

[DemolitionDave]

I always get a kick out of the fact that Baltimore is home to warehouses of the London Metal Exchange. Billions of $$ of precious metals are stored right under everybody's noses and most people don't even realize it.

[Itus]

Originally Posted by DemolitionDave

I always get a kick out of the fact that Baltimore is home to warehouses of the London Metal Exchange. Billions of $$ of precious metals are stored right under everybody's noses and most people don't even realize it.

I definitely would not have guessed that. Looking around I found an old Sun article though, provided by another website: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technol...r_commodities/

[DemolitionDave]

Some of the warehouses are in Locust Point, one is on Broening Highway and I think the other is somewhere in Highlandtown.

[MarkR01]

I was looking up on the LME metal facilities, it seems that these are in Baltimore:

They seem to hold aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, sodium, tin and zinc

From LME document:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BALTIMORE

Henry Bath LLC
c/o Henry Bath & Son Ltd
2200-F Broening Highway
Baltimore
Maryland 21224

Warehouse A
2200 Broening Highway
Baltimore, MD 21224

2500 Broening Highway
Baltimore, MD 21224

1200 South Newkirk Street
Baltimore, MD 21224

1657-B South Highland Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224

2400 Broening Highway
Baltimore, MD 21224

Pacorini Metals USA, LLC
1657C S.Highland Avenue
Baltimore,
MD. 21224 USA

Warehouse 3
Highland Marine Terminal
1657 S Highland Avenue
Baltimore
Maryland 21224

C. Steinweg (Baltimore) Inc.
FTZ #74
1201 Wallace Street
Baltimore Maryland 21230

2101 East Fort Avenue
Baltimore
Maryland 21230

3001 East McComas Street
Baltimore
Maryland 21230

5107 North Point Boulevard
Sparrows Point
Baltimore MD 21219

[Itus]

FTI Consulting acquires two more firms
Baltimore Business Journal - by Rachel Sams Staff

FTI Consulting has acquired European consulting firms Brewer Consulting and Blueprint Partners as it continues on a string of acquisitions.

Terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Brewer, which has primary operations in the United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, provides dispute resolution and procurement management services to clients in the construction, engineering, transportation and oil and gas industries. It has worked on projects including Wembley Stadium and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, a 69-mile high-speed rail line in England.

Brussels-based Blueprint helps clients navigate European Union regulations and advises them on European corporate communications. The firm, founded in 2003, has 30 consultants who focus on industry sectors that dovetail with public policy, including biotechnology and life sciences, financial services, environment and energy and technology.

Blueprint's partners and Brewer's key principals will join FTI, the firm said in a news release.

With Tuesday's deals, Baltimore-based FTI (NYSE: FCN) has announced six acquisitions, including one in Brazil and one in Hong Kong, since the beginning of the year. FTI is well-known for its turnaround and restructuring work, a business that tends to boom when the economy struggles. The firm also advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, litigation and regulatory issues.

FTI reported record fourth-quarter earnings and hit a key goal -- reaching $1 billion in annual revenue -- a year early.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...l?surround=lfn

[Itus]

BWI is down to one trans-Atlantic flight
By Laura McCandlish | Sun Reporter
March 19, 2008

Air Greenland is stopping its short-lived service out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, leaving BWI with one trans-Atlantic flight.

The airline said it will cancel 10 flights scheduled for this summer between BWI and Kangerlussuaq. The move comes less than a year after Air Greenland began seasonal service to Baltimore, the airline's first U.S. destination.

The falling U.S. dollar, which has reduced American demand for travel abroad, and soaring fuel and aircraft rental costs forced Air Greenland to end the service, the carrier said.

The airline said it lost $15.1 million Danish kroner - more than $3 million - on the BWI route last summer and expected similar losses this season. When service debuted at BWI in late May, Air Greenland planned to offer flights twice weekly in the summer and once a week for a few weeks in the spring and fall.

"The company can therefore not accept another year with losses of the same dimensions on a single route," a company statement said.

Passengers who have booked tickets are being contacted by travel agents or the airline's ticket offices, Air Greenland said. The carrier flew 1,676 passengers through the U.S. last year, BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean said.

"The airline had a marginal presence at BWI," Dean said. "The airline's entry into the U.S. market last year was an experiment in luring American tourists to Greenland. That experiment fell short of the air carrier's expectations."

Air Greenland's departure leaves BWI with just one trans-Atlantic flight, British Airway's daily service to London.

It's a rare bright spot on the airport's shrinking international roster.

Icelandair ended service to Baltimore in January.

Other international carriers have come and gone since BWI opened a $147 million international terminal in 1997 in a bid to attract more carriers. Mexicana Airlines suspended flights from BWI to Mexico City in May, just 16 months after relaunching service.

In May, BWI will also lose all flights to Africa, when North American Airlines cuts routes to Lagos, Nigeria, and Accra, Ghana.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business...,6450239.story
---------------------------
We really do need to change BWI's image. I dunno. Advertise to DC that BWI is convenient and completely uncrowded if anyone wants to take the BA flight...force Southwest or Air Tran to join a global alliance...whatever. Either way we need to make sure the one flight we have works really well on its own, without incentives or subsidies.

[Itus]

Mahan Rykiel Associates expands to Hong Kong
Baltimore Business Journal - by Ryan Sharrow Staff

Baltimore design firm Mahan Rykiel Associates Inc. has opened a new office in Hong Kong.

The landscape architecture firm said the Hong Kong office will enable the company to expand its portfolio of international work. The firm's work internationally includes projects in Asia and the Middle East.

Current work includes site design and architectural services for the Doha Hotel, a planned five-star hotel in Doha, Qatar.

Mahan Rykiel is the third-largest landscape architecture firm in the Baltimore area with $2.2 million in 2006 landscape business revenue, according to Business Journal research.

Local clients include General Growth Properties (NYSE: GGP), Johns Hopkins University and H&S Properties.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...l?surround=lfn
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As unlikely as it will be, maybe someday Oasis Hong Kong will consider adding service from BWI to Hong Kong...Back when they were reportedly doing financially well, they were thinking of adding service to DC. BWI might work well since the airline seems to be attracted to airports with a lot of low cost connections, like Gatwick or even Oakland, CA (although they may be changing their minds to SFO).

[StevenW]

Russian firm buys the Point
Severstal plans to run steel mill at capacity

The link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business...0,243936.story

[Exrexnotex]

Dude, what's going on at BWI ? Why can't they retain their international flights ?

[Itus]

-Air Tran and Southwest don't offer international service, nor do they partner with any international airlines like all the other major US carriers do
-Dulles has been established as an international gateway in the region; Philadelphia being nearby doesn't help any
-the airlines BWI has been attracting have been, for the most part, obscure and odd, with little traffic or poor finances--Air Greenland, Air Aruba, Ladeco, Ghana Airways, North American Airlines
-the revelation that the state of Maryland was guaranteeing British Airways' profits on the BWI flight didn't help any
-the fact that the international carriers we've had have failed, even if they are tiny, unheard of airlines, does not give BWI a good success record

Aer Lingus would have worked if it started at BWI now instead of in 2000. They were hit by the required Shannon stopover, not to mention September 11th. I don't think their initial bookings from Dulles were all that great either.

[Itus]

FTI Consulting buys London-based Forensic Accounting LLP
Baltimore Business Journal - by Julekha Dash Staff

FTI Consulting Inc. continued its buying spree on Friday with the acquisition of a U.K. forensic accounting practice.

FTI's purchase of Forensic Accounting LLP makes London the largest office for the Baltimore-based firm. Its London office now employs 400.

Financial terms were not closed. The deal will close early next week.

Forensic accounting is a specialty practice in accounting involving disputes or litigation.

Forensic Accounting is the seventh purchase FTI has made this year. Last month FTI bought European consulting firms Brewer Consulting and Blueprint Partners.

Forensic Accounting will become part of FTI's forensic and litigation consulting division and will serve as the U.K. hub for this practice in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Andrew Mainz, Raj Bairoliya, Julia Wallace-Walker and Dominic Wreford, co-founders of Forensic Accounting, have joined FTI as senior managing directors. FTI will hire 31 additional Forensic Accounting employees, executives said.

FTI (NYSE: FCN) employs 3,000 worldwide and has $1 billion in annual revenue.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...l?surround=lfn

[Itus]

International for Southwest? Airline studies partnerships
By Trebor Banstetter tbanstetter@star-telegram.com
3/28/08

PHOENIX -- Southwest Airlines is conducting a “fierce study” of potential partnerships with other airlines that could result in the discount carrier offering international service for the first time in its history, a top executive said Friday.

At the same time, it has been pulling back from long-haul flights in the United States and is focusing on shorter trips that are more profitable, said John Jamotta, Southwest’s senior director of schedule planning. Jamotta spoke Friday on a panel at the International Aviation Symposium in Phoenix.

The Dallas-based airline has implemented a number of changes to its strategy in the past year as it struggles to boost revenue to offset higher costs. But the possibility of offering international travel to customers would likely be the biggest change for the airline, which is the most profitable in the nation.

“We’re in a pretty fierce study about potential collaborations and partnerships,” Jamotta said.

The airline hopes to have infrastructure in place to begin selling flights to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean by the first quarter of 2009, he said. The airline would provide the domestic leg of the trip, then travelers would connect to a partner airline for the foreign leg of the flight.

But the challenges are significant, Jamotta warned. Southwest’s business model, which includes no assigned seats or first-class cabins, can be a difficult match with many other carriers.

“We have to consider the brand implications,” he said. He also warned that schedule-sharing agreements can sometimes disappoint financially.

“It seems like the financial objectives of partnerships are much more elusive when you actually operate them than when you forecast them,” he said.

Even as it plots to begin selling international fares, Southwest has pulled back from some longer routes that it flies with its own aircraft, Jamotta said, because of the higher costs and competition that has accompanied those flights.

“Our short-haul business is very strong and very profitable,” Jamotta said. “We would prefer to expand in that space, and not expand into longer-haul markets like transcontinental markets.”

Those routes have been “a touch problematic” for Southwest, he said. Other airlines offer amenities like assigned seats, in-flight entertainment and first class seats on those routes, while Southwest operates the same no-frills service it offers on shorter flights.

“Profitability is hard to achieve in longhaul,” he said.

The airline has cut some transcontinental flights from Baltimore/Washington Airport and Philadelphia, he said, while shifting those resources to shorter flights.

“We thought it would be prudent to re-deploy those long-hauls to where we were more certain to be profitable,” he said. “We’ll re-expand into those markets when we think its appropriate.”

Shares of Southwest (ticker: LUV) was trading at $12.14 per share, down 5 cents.

http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/550685.html
----------------------

It sounds like Southwest's BWI transcons COULD return, even if unlikely...

[Itus]

Air Greenland pulls plug on Baltimore route
“They should have done more to hire local agents who know the market”
JANE GEORGE
3/28/08

After losing millions of dollars last summer, Air Greenland has pulled the plug on its non-stop jet service to North America.

After First Air ended its weekly service from Iqaluit to Kangerlussuaq in October 2001, Air Greenland's flights from Kangerlussuaq to Baltimore, Maryland offered the only non-stop, scheduled jet service between Greenland and North America.

But Air Greenland announced earlier this month that it was canceling the 3,485-kilometre flights from Kangerlussuaq to Baltimore-Washington International after the route lost more than $3 million dollars during its first year.

Midway through last summer, there were so few passengers booked to travel on Air Greenland's cherry-red, 200-seat Boeing 757 that the airline ended up renting a smaller jet.

Kenn Harper, the honorary consul for Denmark in Iqaluit, said he's not surprised the Kangerlussuaq-Baltimore route folded, but he still thinks there is a demand for a regular air service between Greenland and Canada.

Harper said the key is not to use a jet, but a much smaller aircraft, similar to the Hawker Siddley 748 that offered regular service between Iqaluit and Nuuk for 13 years during the 1980s and early 1990s.

A flight originating in Nuuk could connect passengers with south-bound jet service out of Iqaluit, Harper suggested.

"Starting up this route again will require some marketing dollars and some imagination, a proper schedule and the right type of aircraft," he said. "I don't care who starts the service as long as there's service."

Harper said he's already received murmurs of interest from Air Greenland, Canadian North and First Air.

"All of them are extremely cautious," he said. "We interested parties have to keep reminding these people that there are two countries with no link between them, some commonality of interest, and an abandoned route that used to work."

The five-hour flights were to resume June 26 and continue to Aug. 28.

This schedule was set before Air Greenland determined it had lost 15.1 million krøner (more than $3 million) on the route in 2007.

The amount of the loss is "unacceptable," the airline's chief executive officer, Michael Binzer, told the Greenland public broadcaster KNR.

Binzer said Air Greenland cannot afford to continue another year of flying to North America.

Preliminary figures for 2008 showed that losses could triple due to increased fuel and aircraft rental costs, coupled with a falling demand for foreign travel in the U.S.

Air Greenland now plans to concentrate on competing with SAS and Icelandair, airlines that also offer connections to Greenland.

Air Greenland's cancellation of 10 flights planned for this coming summer affects only 170 bookings.

But travel industry insiders say shutting down the only direct route between the U.S. and Greenland after only one year of operation is a mistake.

"They should have done more to hire local agents who know the market," Jens Sondrup of Toronto's Valhalla Travel and Tours told Greenland's Sermitsiaq newspaper. "They should also have taken a more long-term view."

Meanwhile, the government in Greenland is said to be mulling over some form of joint venture with Air Greenland, which is now partially owned by the government, or possibly with another airline company willing to fly between Greenland and the U.S..

Lars Emil Johansen, a Greenlandic MP, said he was frustrated over the cancellation because of Greenland's growing links with U.S, companies, such as the aluminum giant Alcoa, which plans to build a huge smelter near Maniitsoq.

Air Greenland passengers are also feeling fall-out from the Greenland-U.S. flights.

Due to the loss racked up by the cancelled route to the U.S., tickets for travel between the southern Greenlandic community of Narsarsuaq and Copenhagen will rise by more than 30 per cent April 2.

The fare increases are designed to prevent the Narsarsuaq airport - one of Greenland's main airports - from closing during the winter months, Air Greenland said in a news release.

"The route has a limited passenger base and flights often experience expensive cancellations, delays or rerouting due to weather conditions in Narsarsuaq," Air Greenland said.

http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/80328_1065.html

[Ty Doggie]

I hope there's a tradeoff in other areas of international business. I would love to see TIBCO or Vitria come to Baltimore and use the IT talent in Baltmore. That would at least start a potential smart center for that area of business.

[Itus]

FTI looks across the pond for ways to boost revenue
Julekha Dash | Staff
jdash@bizjournals.com

The CEO of FTI Consulting Inc. -- one of Greater Baltimore's fastest-growing companies -- plans to double the firm's revenue from foreign shores and might add a new practice area.

Jack Dunn said the company will continue buying firms to beef up its international presence, particularly in Western Europe and the Pacific Rim.

The plan comes soon after the Baltimore firm completed eight acquisitions in 2008 and hit $1 billion in annual revenue last year. The majority of those purchases has been overseas, including the U.K., Hong Kong and Brazil.

The company plans to grow its economic consulting and forensic accounting practice in Western Europe and its technology consulting division in the Far East, Dunn said. Forensic accounting is a specialty practice involving disputes or litigation. FTI plans to grow these businesses largely through acquisitions and new hires, Dunn said. It currently employs 3,000 worldwide.

Dunn could not say when it will achieve its goals or specifiy any new areas it would consider expanding into. FTI will reveal more details later this year when it unveils its five-year plan, he said. Currently, the company derives 15 percent of its revenue from its overseas business.

Doubling FTI's international growth would likely take several years, said Tobey Summer, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in Atlanta. Its economic consulting division has grown as more multinationals face increased scrutiny from the European Union for their mergers and acquisitions, he said.

One of the challenges for the company will be to integrate acquired firms, said Timothy McHugh, an analyst at Chicago investment firm William Blair & Company LLC.

"Any time you merge different organizations together, it's a sensitive issue in bringing together different cultures," he said.

The firm has typically acquired companies with which it has done business, analysts said. Because the executives get a chance to know its future employees, it minimizes the potential pitfalls in melding two businesses, they said.

Growing its business outside the U.S. makes sense since much of global economic growth is coming from overseas, said William Sutherland, of Boenning & Scattergood Inc., an investment firm in West Conshohocken, Pa.

FTI substantially boosted its international presence in late 2006 with the purchase of FD International Ltd., a London financial communications firm. Since then it has boosted its foreign offices by acquiring firms that have key international locations. Last month it acquired Blueprint Partners, a company based in Brussels that helps companies navigate European Union regulations.

FTI's recent growth has been fueled by the downturn in the economy as about one-fifth of its revenue comes from advising companies, such as automotive supplier Delphi Corp., on turnaround strategies following a bankruptcy. The company also recently capitalized on the credit crunch in the real estate industry this month with the acquisition of real estate consulting firm Schonbraun McCann Group.

FTI ranked eighth on the Baltimore Business Journal's List of the fastest growing public companies last year. It ranked No. 19 on the List in 2006.

[Itus]

Two Indian tech companies pick Howard for HQs
Baltimore Business Journal - by Robert J. Terry Staff
4/15/08

Two technology companies with ties to India are setting up U.S. headquarters in Howard County.

Intercontinental Export Import Inc. (IEI) and Prism Microsystems will open offices in the same Centre Park Drive building in Columbia, company executives and county officials said in a Tuesday news conference.

Representatives from both companies accompanied Howard County Executive Ken Ulman on a recent economic development trip to Bangalore, India. IEI, which develops new technologies for recycling and environmental services, plans to add 50 jobs in the next year, CEO Saurabh Naik said in a statement. The company has been headquartered in Odenton.

Prism Microsystems develops security tools for information technology systems and needed more space to grow. A.N. Ananth is head of Prism Microsystems, which has a research facility in Bangalore.

Executives with both companies cited the region's work force and quality of life as reasons for opening the Columbia offices.

A new Howard County-India Trade Committee will promote investment between the county and India, home to a fast-growing technology economy.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...l?surround=lfn

[Itus]

Excerpts taken from
"Nationwide decline in cargo also hits BWI"
By Laura McCandlish | Sun reporter
April 16, 2008

...

FedEx, UPS, DHL and Southwest Airlines, the four biggest cargo airlines at BWI, all recorded a drop-off in overall cargo. UPS fell the most, with air cargo nationally down in the 20 percent range in the first two months of the year.

...

At BWI, the falloff is compounded by other factors, including the continuing loss of international service and Southwest Airlines' expansion into Philadelphia.

Several international airlines that transported cargo such as produce, seafood and medical equipment in their wide-bellied planes have pulled out of BWI in the past few years.

As a result, international freight volumes at BWI have fallen by more than half since 2004, to 6.5 million pounds last year -- less than 3 percent of overall freight traffic at BWI. For instance, Icelandair, which had been the airport's second-largest international carrier, halted service in mid-January. Seafood was one of the top items the airline transported, according to BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean.

British Airways, Baltimore's sole remaining trans-Atlantic carrier and its fifth-biggest cargo carrier, saw its freight volumes drop 26.4 percent in 2007, to 4.6 million pounds, Dean said.

But this year has proved a bright spot as the dollar has continued to fall against the British pound and euro, making exports cheaper. British Airways' BWI cargo was up by 60.2 percent in February and 18.9 percent in January, and BWI's overall international cargo shot up 25.5 percent compared with the year before.

BWI has scrambled to both attract and retain overseas service since its $147 million international terminal opened in 1997. While increasing passenger traffic is a main reason for adding flights to new foreign destinations, cargo business comes hand in hand when new airlines enter the market.

"On a per-flight basis, international passenger flights relative to domestic passenger flights generally carry significantly more cargo," said Brian Clancy, a managing director of Alexandria, Va.-based MergeGlobal, which does consulting for the air freight industry. "If it wasn't for that belly cargo and the profit you get from that, international flights would often lose money."

And as Southwest Airlines has expanded its flight network in nearby Philadelphia, more formerly Baltimore-bound shipments have been rerouted, said Wally Devereaux, the carrier's director of cargo sales. Southwest is BWI's third-biggest cargo carrier and top passenger airline.

...

Southwest's goal to enter a code-sharing partnership to start offering international service through an affiliated carrier by early 2009 could benefit the airline's cargo business as well as its passengers. Any international airline with a large import or export cargo business could be an attractive partner for Southwest, Devereaux said.

"We could take that international freight and put it into our network, feeding their system or vice versa," he said. "We need to make sure we take full advantage of all the available capacity that we have in our system."

laura.mccandlish@baltsun.com

Full Article Here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business...,6826126.story

[PeterSmith]

post deleted - wrong forum