Abdon Callais Offshore, LLC was founded in 1945 by Abdon Callais, grandfather of president and CEO Peter Callais. The Callais family controls the company; other backers have included private equity firm Stonehenge Capital. Abdon Callais Offshore provides freight and passenger transportation services to the offshore oil and gas industry. Abdon Callais Offshore company operates its fleet of about 75 supply vessels, utility vessels, and crew boats in the Gulf of Mexico, serving coastal, shelf, and deepwater projects. It counts both production companies and service companies among its customers.

MCO Transport specializes in hauling cargo to and from ports in the southeastern US. The company's fleet of more than 160 trucks includes vans, containers, and flatbed trailers. By taking a container from a ship and hauling it over the road, the company helps facilitate intermodal transportation. Company president Danny McComas is the majority owner of MCO Transport.

Jets, not bows, power this Arrow. Arrow Air, which does business as Arrow Cargo, flies freight between the US and points south. Operating a fleet of DC-8s and DC-10s from its hub in Miami, the company serves more than 20 cities in Central and South America and the Caribbean. Arrow Cargo's facilities include a 67,000 sq. ft. refrigerated warehouse and more than 155,000 sq. ft of dry cargo space. The company's customers, which consist primarily of freight forwarders, passenger and cargo airlines, and other transportation providers, also include the United States Postal Service and the US Department of Defense. Arrow filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-2010.

Sunset Pacific Transportation (formerly Charles L. King & Associates) provides a wide range of freight-hauling services. The company offers truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) services from terminals in California and South Carolina. (LTL carriers consolidate freight from multiple shippers into a single trailer.) Sunset Pacific Transportation carries freight such as manufactured goods, market fixtures, paper products, and textiles. The company also offers logistics, through subsidiary Sunset Pacific Logistics, and warehousing and distribution services.

State-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company, known as COSCO Group, is one of the world's leading marine transportation companies. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, COSCO Group operates a fleet of about 800 containerships, bulk carriers and other vessels with an overall capacity of 50 million deadweight tons. In addition, the company is engaged in freight forwarding, logistics, real estate, ship building and repairing, container manufacturing, and terminal operations. It maintains facilities in more than 160 countries around the world. COSCO Group should not be confused with a rival state-owned marine transportation enterprise with a similar name, China Shipping (Group) Company.

Alley-Cassetty Companies build with trucks, bricks, and coal. The company's trucking division specializes in hauling liquid- and dry-bulk cargo, including hazardous materials, while the Alley-Cassetty Truck Center sells and services commercial trucks. The building supply division, which operates in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, produces and distributes bricks and other masonry products. Alley-Cassetty also provides coal to commercial and industrial users, arranging its transportation via barge, train, and truck. Originally a coal company, Alley-Cassetty was formed in 1964 through the merger of two Nashville residential coal delivery companies dating to the 1880s.

FastShip is developing a high-speed container vessel that would allow the company to transport freight across the Atlantic in less than four days. Finding money to build the ships has taken much longer, however. Once financing has been arranged, Spanish shipyard IZAR is to begin construction of the first three vessels. Loading systems and terminals have been designed for the FastShip system; plans call for the first two terminals to be in Philadelphia and Cherbourg, France. FastShip hopes eventually to serve other shipping lanes, as well.

Central Japan Railway sends bullets flying all over Japan. Bullet train operator Central Japan Railway, known as JR Central, provides passenger transportation over a network of about 1,970 km (1,221 miles) of track. The company's shinkansen (high-speed) line connects the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka; 12 conventional lines provide connections to surrounding areas. JR Central also earns revenue from retail and food sales as well as real estate development operations built near its train stations. JR Central was one of seven companies formed in the privatization of the former Japanese National Railways.

ASTAR Air Cargo helps DHL take on delivery giants FedEx and UPS on their own turf. Hiring the carrier's fleet of about 40 aircraft enables DHL and other customers, including the US Department of Defense and the United States Postal Service, to achieve overnight delivery of virtually any kind of cargo. ASTAR's service includes scheduled as well as chartered flights. In January 2009, ASTAR suffered a blow when -- in order to cut down on costs -- DHL was forced to shut down its express operations within the US. (Through ASTAR and other carriers, DHL still offers international shipping services to and from the US). An investment group led by CEO John Dasburg controls ASTAR.

Kirby Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides marine transportation and diesel engine services to the marine and power generation markets in the United States. Kirby Corporation operates in two segments, Marine Transportation and Diesel Engine Services. The Marine Transportation segment engages in the inland transportation of petrochemicals, black oil products, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals by tank barges; and offshore transportation of dry-bulk cargoes by barges, as well as offers transportation services for inland and offshore barge operators, oil service companies, offshore fishing companies, the USCG, and the United States Navy. As of February 27, 2009, this segment owned and operated 863 inland tank barges, 213 inland towboats, 4 offshore dry-cargo barges, 4 offshore tugboats, and an offshore shifting tugboat, as well as a bulk liquid terminal. The Diesel Engine Services segment involves in the overhaul and repair of medium-speed and high-speed diesel engines and reduction gears, and related parts sales in the marine market. This segment also provides aftermarket services for vessels powered by diesel engines utilized in various inland and offshore marine industries; aftermarket services for diesel engines that provide standby, peak, and base load power generation to the users of industrial reduction gears, as well as for standby generation components of the nuclear industry in the power generation market; and aftermarket services and parts for shortline, industrial, and Class II and transit railroads in the railroad market. Kirby Corporation was formerly known as Kirby Exploration Company, Inc. and changed its name to Kirby Corporation in 1990 because of the changing emphasis of its business. Kirby Corporation was founded in 1969 and is based in Houston, Texas.

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