Latest news

On-time container line service reliability for 2015 on all trades was the highest ever recorded at 73 percent, according to Drewry’s Container Insight Weekly.

Shippers in Bangladesh are finding new ways of getting their air cargo to Australia after the government Down Under slapped a ban on shipments heavier than 500 grams being carried on freighters and passenger planes from several countries, with the South Asia garment-producing giant among them.

The Tecon Santos container terminal reopened Saturday night after firefighters put out a blaze at the largest South American port gateway that lasted more than 40 hours.

The Asia-Europe trade will continue to hog the headlines in 2016 with a return to the bear market of 2009 looking increasingly likely against a backdrop of slumping freight rates, stagnating traffic, surging surplus capacity and shrinking vessel utilization.

The 10-day shutdown of Land Air Express of New England by federal regulators should sound warning bells for U.S. trucking companies, freight brokers and shippers. If they need additional convincing, the announcement Friday that those regulators aim to simplify their efforts to detect unsafe motor carriers and get them off the road should do the trick.

Thanks partly to its acquisition of non-asset truckload specialist Coyote Logistics, UPS is opening new routes into shippers' cross-border supply chains.

Freight demand is likely to stay even lower than usual in early 2016, thanks to retail inventories that climbed higher in November and a drop in December retail sales, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

After a chemical fire closed the biggest terminal at South America’s largest container gateway, container lines are considering rerouting cargo away from the facility of Tecon Santos to other terminals at the Port of Santos and other Brazilian ports.

Spot freight rates in the eastbound Pacific drifted lower this week, though they remained in a narrow range that reflects a Jan. 1 general rate increase by carriers in the trade.

Japan’s Toyo Construction Co. and JFE Engineering Corp. have won a contract to build a new container terminal at the Port of Thilawa near Yangon, Myanmar, to expand one of the country’s key logistics hubs.

More than 100 shippers groups urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to drill down on port productivity metrics via a new initiative aimed at helping Uncle Sam better monitor marine terminal congestion.

Container traffic at the Port of Los Angeles in December declined 4.9 percent from the same month the previous year, reflecting the normal seasonal lull and the loss of a handful of services to the neighboring Port of Long Beach.

Rotterdam’s container volume shrank by 0.5 percent year-over-year in 2015 but total throughput reached a record on a sharp rise in crude oil shipments.

Deutsche Bahn is said to be facing growing opposition from the German government to its plan to partially privatize its DB Schenker Logistics unit as part of a broad restructuring to finance growth and cut debt.

Despite oft-repeated claims by DP World Subcontinent that its flagship terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust is operating normally and truck turn times are no more than the normal average, logistics providers in India’s largest container harbor said the roadway to the private facility continues to remain clogged and gating in containers is a chore.

Like a mirror image of the ocean container shipping industry, the shipping lines that operate the multipurpose ships that carry breakbulk and project cargoes are suffering from overcapacity, lack of global demand and low freight rates. And like the container fleet, multipurpose ships are getting ever bigger.

Two years since the devastating 2013-14 winter wreaked havoc on U.S. intermodal rail networks, North America’s largest railroads are on the cusp of restoring reliability and speeds to the level shippers once took for granted.

The market completely ignored the Jan. 15 general rate increases levied by carriers on the Asia-Europe trades, with spot rates plunging 21 percent this week, according the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

PSA International said throughput at its global terminals fell by 2 percent in 2015 as a result of tepid growth in global trade and structural changes in the industry.

China Merchants will acquire a 21.05 percent stake in Dalian Port Co., making it the second largest shareholder of the northeast China port operator, as the country continues to restructure its state-owned sector.

Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railway would have to convince U.S. rail regulators that a potential merger won’t set off a wave of Class I consolidation in order to get the greenlight, U.S. Surface Transportation Board Chairman Daniel Elliott said Thursday.

Fire at South America’s busiest container gateway of the Port of Santos has crippled operations at the port for the second time in less than a year, closing a marine terminal that handles about a third of the port’s container volume, according to a Reuters report.

Truckload carrier U.S. Xpress is offering a big pay hike to accident- and ticket-free solo truck drivers, a route other trucking companies may choose in 2016.

Container volume moving through the Port of Long Beach in December increased 5.1 percent over December 2014, helping to propel the port to the third best year in its history.

Money, environmental and labor issues are complicating the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s effort to replace or retrofit old trucks with newer, less-polluting engines.

Amazon has received a license from the Federal Maritime Commission to operate as a non-vessel operating common carrier of cargo from China to the United States, the latest sign of how the e-commerce giant is taking a more active role in transporting its own freight.

A proposed $272 million CSX Transportation intermodal hub would give shippers using the Port of Wilmington better access to the fast-growing markets of Charlotte, Raleigh and the Research Triangle, along with the entirety of the CSX network.

An analysis of federal data by the American Trucking Associations shows the truck-related fatality rate dropped in 2014 for the second straight year, and is 40 percent lower than it was a decade ago, despite increased travel by truckers and motorists on U.S. highways.

Maersk Line said it will appeal Russia’s ruling that the container line violated anti-competitive laws, saying that the publishing of general rate increases is legal and key to informing customers.

Canadian Pacific Railway criticized the head of Union Pacific Railroad for pledging to try to stop Class I industry consolidation, pointing out that the U.S. Western railroad became the largest in North America because of numerous mergers and has praised consolidation.

Shippers and ocean carriers pushing for capacity and productivity improvements at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust could see some results, as the port administration has significantly increased the length overall limit for ships calling at India’s biggest container gateway.

From the opening of the Panama Canal’s expanded locks to container weight regulations and the impact of mergers and acquisitions, 2016 will feature a new round of challenges and opportunities for shippers, carriers and transportation providers. Three shippers — Alison Leavitt of the Wine and Spirits Shippers Association, Greg Boyle of Philips, and Susan Pellechio of Staples — discuss their concerns for the year ahead.

The world’s fifth-largest container line, Hapag-Lloyd, expects no major tonnage changes on all-water container services through the Panama Canal before the end of this year.

Amsterdam Schiphol airport retained its ranking as Europe’s third-largest air freight hub in 2015 despite posting a larger decline in traffic than fourth-ranked London Heathrow.

DP World Subcontinent said it is working to end the protracted slowdown at its flagship terminal in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest, public container gateway.

The top executive at the largest U.S. railway said Wednesday he will do everything within his power to prevent further consolidation within the Class I rail industry, the likes of which has been suggested with the proposed tie-up of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways.

Just as Class I railroads announce service has finally recovered to 2013 levels, harsh winter weather is testing their improved train speeds and dwell times.

Shipper spending on surface transportation fell 2.7 percent in December from November and was down 5.2 percent year-over-year, according to the Cass Freight Index.

Deepening of the Port of Charleston’s 45-foot channel to 52 feet moved a step closer this week when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended congressional authorization of the project.

CSX Transportation forecasts flat intermodal growth in the first quarter, as the loss of international intermodal business to Norfolk Southern Railway is expected to offset domestic volume increases gained from highway conversions and a key customer shifting loads away from its U.S. Eastern rail archrival.