Container shipping line China Shipping plans to call at the Port of Seattle's reconfigured cruise terminal, the port announced today.

China Shipping currently calls at Seattle's Terminal 18, currently run by SSA Terminals.

Starting in Spring 2009, China Shipping will move to Terminal 30. That terminal now serves cruise ships.

But the Port of Seattle is spending $120 million to remodel the cruise terminal into a container facility.

The move will allow China Shipping to increase the number of containers it sends through the Seattle port.

SSA will also operate Terminal 30.

"We have been working with the Port of Seattle and our partner, China Shipping, to return Terminal 30 to container operations," said SSA CEO Jon Hemingway. "We have significantly increased container capacity and the potential for more family wage jobs for our workforce at the Port of Seattle."

China Shipping spot at Terminal 18 will be available to another customer.

In Tacoma, SSA Marine has partnered with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians to develop and operate a container terminal on the east side of the Blair Waterway in the port.

The biggest publicly traded company headquartered in Washington?

You'd be right if you said Costco, according to Fortune magazine's annual Fortune 1000 ranking of the nation's largest public companies.

The big retailer ranks 29th on Fortune's list, just two behind Boeing, formerly the state's largest company until it moved its global headquarters to Chicago seven years ago.

Costco's ranking is three better than last year's when it held down the 32nd on Fortune's list ranked by sales.

Following Costco is Microsoft at 44th and Washington Mutual at 97th.

Following WAMU is Weyerhaeuser, 147; Paccar, 169; Amazon.com, 171; Starbucks, 277; Nordstrom, 299; Safeco, 388; Expeditor's International, 458; Alaska Air Group, 599; Puget Sound Energy, 638; Expedia, 737; Plum Creek Timber, 982 and Potlach, 990.

Fortune's list was heavy with oil companies, banks and auto makers.

Wal-Mart topped the list with sales of $378 billion worldwide. Exxon Mobil was a close second followed by Chevron, General Motors and Conoco/Phillips.

Two companies with strong Tacoma connections, Northwestern Mutual, parent company of Russell Investments, and DaVita, were also among the 1,000.

Northwestern ranked 110th and DaVita 454th.

United Airlines, scrambling to find more revenue to pay burgeoning fuel bills, announced today it will increase the fee for changing a ticket to $150.

United had previously charged a $100 change fee.

The airline also announced that it will require a Saturday stay on some discount fares. That move is designed to extract bigger fares from business travelers who don't want to stay away from home over the weekend.

Saturday night stays were a common requirement for access to lower fares until a few years ago when competition forced carriers to abandon the requirement.

With all carriers suffering from financial shock because of high fuel prices, reinstating the Saturday night stay requirement could have new life.

U.S. carriers already have instituted numerous fare increases this year as well as other schemes to generate more revenue such as charging extra for a second checked bag and selling aisle and window seats for extra charges.

Both Airbus and Boeing Co. are continuing to boost airliner production to cope with a string of robust order years.

According to figures from both manufacturers, output at their production plants has risen steadily since the beginning of the year with Airbus still holding the lead over Boeing.

In January, for instance, Boeing produced 34 aircraft and Airbus 37. In February, the Boeing produced 39 planes in the Puget Sound area while Airbus produced 38 at its European factories.

In March, Boeing's total rose to 42 while Airbus jumped production to 48.

Both planemakers have enjoyed record order years during the last three years with accumulated backlogs of orders amounting to five to seven years' production depending on the plane type.

China's Xiamen Airlines placed an order for 20 Boeing 737s today worth an estimated $1.5 billion at list prices.

The planes are scheduled for delivery between April of 2014 and October 2015.

The price Xiamen will pay Boeing is likely less than the $1.5 billion list price. Few if any airlines pay full list price.

Meanwhile, Boeing announced that Aviation Capital Group, a U.S.-based aircraft leasing company has ordered 17 737.

The aircraft will be equipped with blended winglets produced by Seattle-based Aviation Partners Boeing. The winglets, vertical extensions of the 737s' wingtips, enhance performance and increase fuel efficiency.

Boeing previously had accounted for the Aviation Capital order on its orders Web site as an order placed by an unidentified buyer.

The Boeing Co. added 20 new orders to its 2008 totals last week bringing the year-to-date figure to 338.

Southwest Airlines ordered 13 737s, and unidentified customers ordered three 737s and one 747 to be used as executive transports. SAS added one 737 to its orders, and two unidentified airlines placed orders for two 737s, Boeing said.

Net orders for the popular 737 total 235 for 2008. Next in line in the Boeing repertoire is the 787 Dreamliner with 75 2008 orders.

Macy's plans to tailor local stores to its customers in a nationwide effort to improve its sales and customer satisfaction, The Wall Street Journal reports today. And the Seattle market will be among the first to get the new looks.

“What the consumer wants in the Galleria of St. Louis is different from what the consumer wants in State Street Chicago, or what the consumer wants in Portland, Ore.,” said Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren to The Wall Street Journal. He now wants 15 percent of the merchandise in stores to reflect local preferences.

More from the story:

The localization strategy, called “My Macy’s,” is a dramatic reversal for Macy’s and Lundgren, who set out to end the decades-long slide of department-store retailers by creating a huge national chain that had more clout with vendors and stronger marketing, with fewer expensive local TV and print ads and more national ones.

In going local, Macy’s is adopting an approach that big chains like Best Buy Co. and Ross Stores Inc. have come to view as imperative today. Retail giants like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc. once prospered by opening identical stores around the country, but consumers are demanding more individualized selections. With almost everything now available on the Internet, retailers need to give shoppers a reason to make the trip.

Mr. Lundgren’s plan calls for customizing inventory over the next year at only about a third of the chain’s 813 Macy’s stores — including all the former Marshall Field’s and many other former May Co. stores. Locations in markets such as Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland and Salt Lake City will be among the first to get a makeover.

A single Macy’s store, depending on its size, stocks 1.5 million to 4 million different items, meaning hundreds of thousands of items in each store will be affected when the new inventory begins going on display as soon as this summer.

One risk for Macy’s is that store managers may misread cues about local sales patterns or make poor decisions about how to display and market merchandise, says Sherif Mityas, partner at consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

A spokesman for Macy’s declined to comment on the store’s performance, though he noted that those changes, as well as the recent addition of valet parking there, “have been well-received by customers.”

That knock at your door may be an employee of the U.S. Census Bureau conducting part of an ongoing survey of Americans' spending habits. The bureau continues to seek data via an interview survey and an in-home diary survey, according to Ralph Lee, director of the Seattle regional office.

And Lee said late Friday that the bureau recently opened a Regional Census Center in Bothell, "where we're beginning operations for the 2010 Census."

The first outreach for the every-10-year count will be a canvass of addresses, beginning in Spring, 2009. Hiring of Census staff begins in earnest come January.

For more information, call the new center at 425-318-1435.

There may be woes aplenty in the Puget Sound housing market, but office and industrial space are doing just fine.

CB Richard Ellis is out with its look at the first quarter, and “the region is more in tune with the global economy than the national economy.” As much of the nation laments the market, “there is hardly a whisper of recession anywhere in the region.”

Average rental for office space in the Puget Sound hit $30 per square foot, per year, fully serviced – a price not seen since Q1 2001 – and total vacancy declined declined 0.31 percent last quarter to 10.63 percent.

For industrial space, demand remained strong as vacancies fell from 5.44 percent to a current 5.27 percent.

In Pierce County, CBRE reports:

• 3.89 million square feet of net rentable office area with a vacancy rate of 8.01 percent; 44,000 square feet under construction, and a total asking rate for Class A at $23.10.

• “Lakewood and DuPont are no longer considered the southern-most points in the industrial market ... Lacey, Olympia, even Centralia and Chehalis, are starting to become serious players in the industrial game.”

• Among developers and developments to the south of Seattle, the firm notes Tarragon’s projects, Centralia North Corporate Park Phase II, which can accommodate over 1 million square feet, and the planned 1.2 million-square-foot Chehalis I-5 Corporate Park; as well as Teutsch Partners’ Hawks Prairie 111 Corporate Park in Lacey.

• Overall in Pierce County, 23.63 million square feet of net rentable industrial space marks a vacancy rate of 8.62 percent for the quarter.

• “The majority of the (industrial) activity has moved south into the Tacoma/Fife market from the core Kent Valley,” the company said. “The Tacoma/Fife market came in with an impressive 2.7 million square feet of current construction and another 8 million planned.” Among those projects, the report offers Northwest Building Corp.’s Port Commerce Center at some 600,000 square feet, and the Ikea and Whirlpool warehouses in Frederickson at nearly 900,000 square feet each.