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The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Memphis intermodal yard in southeast Shelby County is a significant facility for the customs brokerage and freight forwarding business.

Cotton Row is adrift in fluffy white fiber in the institutional memory of West Coast-based logistics company Coppersmith Inc.

President Jeff Coppersmith’s grandmother founded the company, in 1948, in part to move Mid-South cotton overseas; cotton was still strong on Front Street when he entered the family business 32 years ago.

A cotton museum is almost all that remains of the once-bustling trade. But Coppersmith and legions of other import and export specialists are still under Memphis’ spell.

Customs brokerage and freight forwarding are big business in the city, and Coppersmith, as new president of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, sees it only getting bigger.

“Because it is a big rail hub, a lot of things can go through Memphis,” Coppersmith said.

“You’ve got access to that whole Southeast region and East Coast. We felt it was really critical to be in that area.”

Coppersmith sees opportunities in the U.S. government’s push to double exports over the next five years. But there are daunting challenges, including skyrocketing prices for ocean shipping and a short supply of cargo ships.

“It’s been very hard to meet the demands of our customers. President Obama wants to double exports in five years. If you don’t have the containers and the capacity on the ships, how are you going to double exports?” he said.

Coppersmith had to double its contracts with ocean carriers to make sure it had enough capacity for clients.

His lead position with the national trade group is “a good sales tool for the company. I know what’s going on in the industry, and I know what’s coming up in the industry.” He testified recently before the Federal Maritime Commission looking into ocean carrier rate increases, and makes frequent lobbying trips to Washington.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s port office near Memphis International Airport is a testament to the local growth.

Customs agents, including a contingent assigned within the FedEx Express World Hub, examine shipments to make sure dangerous or restricted items aren’t coming in and proper duties are being paid.

The office also monitors imports at the airport and area railroad and intermodal yards. It’s in charge of ports at Chattanooga, Little Rock, Knoxville and Rogers, Ark.

“We’ve just grown by leaps and bounds,” said assistant port director for trade Virginia Croll.

“We’ve got at least 80 (customs brokerage companies) that physically bring in entries, and you can never tell how many are filing remotely,” Croll said.

The agency is moving toward fully electronic filing, but for now requires hard copies of documents for some types of imports.

The tariff code covers thousands of commodities spelled out in a 3,127-page online document. Duty rates vary depending on commodity and country of origin.

“It’s huge,” Croll said. “It consists of pretty much any article you can think of.”

Customs brokers primarily deal with imports. Freight forwarders arrange exports and movement of goods within countries.

FedEx runs what is believed to be one of the country’s largest customs clearing operations within the world hub.

The company carved out a separate operating unit, FedEx Trade Networks, a decade ago to handle the intricacies of clearing shipments through customs and forwarding freight.

The unit has about 3,500 employees worldwide, including more than 500 in Memphis, and has expanded aggressively internationally.

About 1,300 of those employees are assigned to FedEx Express, said Mark Turner, vice president of express clearance operations.

One afternoon last week, employees at processing centers in Memphis, Indianapolis and Anchorage were arranging customs pre-clearance for cargos of three new Boeing 777 freighters en route from Asia to Memphis.

Upon arrival at the World Hub, the international shipments were diverted into a sterile area where workers completed processing under oversight of customs officers. Once items clear customs, they enter FedEx’s domestic shipping network.

“We do this as rapidly as possible to get to them to importers in the U.S. that are waiting for their products to come in,” Turner said.

“We are one of the largest, if not the largest, (customs) entry filers in the United States,” Turner said.

Coppersmith is tiny by comparison, with business development manager Russell D. Grant manning a Downtown office around the corner from Cotton Row.

Coppersmith hired Grant, who previously worked for competitor HYC Logistics, five years ago to open a Memphis office, his company’s 10th office.

Grant said the company’s niche is tailoring services to the needs of importers who increasingly want door-to-door handling of shipments, coupled with easy tracking and tracing on the Web. “They just want to keep it simple.”

Grant added, “We’re well positioned for the continued growth of logistics, particularly in Memphis, because Memphis is going to do nothing but continue to grow.”

–Wayne Risher: 529-2874

© 2010 Memphis Commercial Appeal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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