Freight forwarders ride the waves of imports, exports.

Japanese work keeps many forwarders floating along

Nippon Express USA Inc. and Burlington Air Express take the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on The List of Freight Forwarders for the second year in a row.

"A freight forwarder is to cargo what a travel agent is to people," explained Jeff Coppersmith, vice president of Los Angeles-based L.E. Coppersmith Inc., which ranks No. 14 on The List.

Freight forwarders arrange for trucks to pick up goods from exporters, pack them, if necessary, and deliver them to the dock or airport, Coppersmith said. Then freight forwarders arrange to board the cargo on ships or planes, as well as handle the documentation needed so the goods can leave the country, he said.

There are about 300 freight forwarding companies in L.A. County, Coppersmith noted.

Export activity has surged at Nippon, said Randy Ishimoto, the Torrance-based company's international sales and marketing manager.

Nippon deals mostly with the Japanese, who are taking a big bite out of the U.S. furniture market to furnish hotels in their home country, Ishimoto said.

The Japanese are also demanding more American-made amusement park equipment, he added.

Nippon's business of moving household goods has also increased in pace. With so many Japanese companies being restructured, Nippon has its hands full moving personal belongings of Japanese workers to and from Japan, Ishimoto said.

But customers are demanding that costs for this service be kept to a minimum, so Nippon's revenues from that segment of its business are holding steady, he said.

Meanwhile, orders have fallen for Nippon's warehousing business, which used to be the company's "bread and butter." Nippon stores and distributes Japanese products, such as electronic equipment and components.

The number of customs clearance orders the company gets for goods being imported has fallen as well because the number of shipments coming from Japan has decreased over the last year and a half, Ishimoto added.

Los Angeles is one the top six markets in terms of volume for Los Angeles-based Burlington, The List's No. 2-ranked company. Burlington's L.A. office "handles massive volumes of freight and is one of our gateways to the Pacific," said Raquel Garcia, spokeswoman for Burlington's L.A. office.

L.E. Coppersmith moved up to the 14 spot on this year's List from ranking 25th last year.

The company's exports were up 14 percent during 1992, compared with 1991 because the company has installed new computer equipment that enables customers to access information much faster than before, Coppersmith said.

Kansas City-based O'Neill & Whitaker appears on this year's List of freight forwarders for the first time.

The company, ranked No. 12, specializes in helping to ship apparel, general department store and home improvement merchandise, and some perishable cargo, such as seafood.

The company's Los Angeles business has grown 20 percent annually since 1983, when its L.A. office opened. O'Neill & Whitaker has state-of-the-art computer systems that can receive transmissions from both overseas and domestic locations, a service most other local brokers don't provide, said Terrance O'Neill, vice president of the company's western region. That technology gives the company an edge, O'Neill said.

O'Neill & Whitaker has outgrown its 7,000-square-foot Rancho Dominguez office space and plans to relocate in fall 1993 or spring 1994 to larger quarters in the South Bay, O'Neill said.