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Hamburg-Sud’s revenue grew 16.8 percent to 6.1 billion euros ($6.92 billion) in 2015 as Germany’s second-largest ocean carrier reaped the benefits of its acquisition of Chilean container line CCNI and its move into the east-west trade lanes.

Rotterdam’s container traffic shrank by 3.9 percent in the first quarter, extending a decline in 2015 that has narrowed Europe’s largest box port’s lead over second-ranked Antwerp, which continues to grow its market share.

Mega-ships have a detrimental impact on supply chains by reducing capacity for just-in-time production and forcing factories to increase safety stocks, according to the transport procurement head of a major global shipper.

The Ocean Alliance was born in Shanghai on Wednesday as CMA CGM, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line and OOCL signed a memorandum of understanding to offer more than 40 global services connecting markets in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Hong Kong has become the latest jurisdiction to set a tolerance level between the verified gross mass of a container declared by a shipper and its actual weight under the new IMO container weighing rule, which comes into effect on July 1.

West Coast ports have regained the market share of U.S. containerized imports they lost last year during the longshore labor disruptions, but industry analysts say the deployment of bigger ships through the enlarged Panama Canal later this year could swing the balance back to the East Coast.

CMA CGM, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line and OOCL on Wednesday morning are expected to announce in Shanghai that they will form a shipping alliance, a move aimed at blunting the power of the major vessel-sharing agreement between the two largest global container lines, Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co.

Truck tonnage increased year-over-year in March but dropped 4.5 percent from February, when the American Trucking Associations' For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index shot up to unusual height.

Freight volumes sputtered in March, climbing 1.4 percent from February and dropping 1.5 percent year-over-year, while shipper spending on transportation dropped 1 percent from February and was down 7 percent from March 2015, according to the Cass Freight Index.

Erratic weather, the retooling and shutdown of Mexican auto plants and the weak peso continued to hurt Kansas City Southern Railway’s intermodal volume for another quarter, but the railroad still delivered a profit.

Importers and exporters using the Port of New York and New Jersey to move containers to and from destinations within 260 miles of the largest East Coast port will save $5, an effort by the New York Shipping Association to fend off competitors from its regional distribution base.

There is mounting speculation that Amazon is interested in acquiring a stake in Frankfurt-Hahn Airport to establish a major European distribution hub.

Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said she is committed to working with ports, beneficial cargo owners and transportation providers to improve the global competitiveness of U.S. ports, with the first task being to promote better sharing of transportation data.

Kuehne + Nagel’s first-quarter earnings increased 10.5 percent as solid growth in container traffic offset a decline in air cargo traffic.

Container lines can reserve transits for vessels of up to 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units through the Panama Canal, providing carriers with the ability to gain greater economies of scale, which may or may not be passed onto shippers.

Singapore-listed Hutchison Port Holdings Trust reported year-over-year drops in revenue, operating profit and net income of 7 percent, 10 percent and 26 percent for the first quarter of 2016.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma in March registered its third consecutive month of increased containerized exports, although imports declined 36.4 percent compared to an especially busy March 2015, according to statistics published by the alliance on Monday.

U.S. retail sales may have dropped in March, but demand for toys, especially those related to Disney’s hit movie Frozen, created a surge in containerized toy imports and boosted sales for Hasbro.

Canadian Pacific Railway might still make another play to acquire a Class I railroad. But if Chief Executive E. Hunter Harrison wants to succeed where he has failed twice before — with CSX Transportation in 2014 and with Norfolk Southern Railway this year — he’ll need to take a more diplomatic approach to sway legislators, regulators, shippers and shareholders, rail analysts told JOC.com.

Congressional representatives from western states and U.S. agricultural interests are urging the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to launch early talks to extend their current contract beyond the Jul. 1, 2019, expiration date.

Spot market rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific edged lower for the second straight week, demonstrating that general rate increases taken by some carriers on April 1 are eroding.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services posted better-than-expected earnings in its first quarter of 2016 with fuel surcharge revenue declines offset by volume growth across the company’s segments, increased contract pricing and improved network operations.

The port of Paranagua, Brazil’s second-largest in tonnage terms and third-largest in container traffic, could soon have another container terminal, although some remain skeptical about the Novo Porto project with a capacity of 1.5 million twenty-foot-equivalent units and cost of 4 billion reais ($1.1 billion).

Logistics providers out of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust are again reporting long truck lines and frequent gate closings at terminals in India’s busiest public container gateway, reminiscent of the gridlock in the second half of last year following labor disruptions that diverted some cargo to nearby private, or minor, ports.

Container lines will continue to aggressively target the depressed breakbulk and project cargo market with “close to zero” freight rates for the foreseeable future, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.

In a major surprise, China’s Cosco has decided not to submit a bid to acquire Greece’s state-owned railway.

U.S. federal safety officials on Monday began a second effort to locate the data recorder of the sunken El Faro in an effort to solve the mystery of the deadliest U.S.-flag vessel accident in more than 30 years.

Spot freight rates on the Asia-Europe trade are changing daily, and the enormous pressure this places on forwarders trying to stay on top of the shifting prices is giving impetus to technology companies offering automated solutions to manage the volatility.

In the first two months of this year, 19 container ships with a total capacity of 58,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units have been sent for scrapping, continuing a late 2015 surge in vessel demolition, according to data from Drewry.

Canada's largest port could run into a "brick wall" limiting maritime expansion in coming years, unless provincial rules restricting land use can modified and some local political ill-will overcome.

In the aftermath of the West Coast labor debacle — and all the cross-border diversions, air cargo routing and alternative sourcing remedies that came with it — ocean carrier results for 2015 were mixed, with 19 of the JOC Top 40 ship lines moving goods in the U.S. trades posting volume declines. Separately, 21 of the JOC Top 40 U.S. export container carriers and 15 of the JOC Top 40 U.S. import container carriers posted declines in volume.

The number of deaths on U.S. roads caused by fatal crashes with large trucks dropped 5 percent in 2014, ending a four-year increase, the Department of Transportation said Friday.

LONG BEACH, California — Pacific Maritime Association President Jim McKenna on Friday formally requested that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union join employers in launching early talks to extend the existing West Coast labor contract beyond its July 1, 2019, expiration date.

On the back of roaring chicken exports the rapidly growing Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua will spend $310 million to boost its capacity 1 million 20-foot equivalent units to 2.5 million TEUs after receiving a concession running through 2048. The investment will also allow the port to handle ships with capacities of up to 12,000 TEUs.

The market for industrial real estate is booming nationwide, with record occupancy rates at the start of 2016 that are fueled in part by demand from logistics companies, two recent commercial real estate reports say.

Steve Russell, who founded and led the Celadon Group's transformation from a small dry van carrier in 1985 into one of the trucking industry’s most formidable firms, died on Friday. He was 76 years old.

In an unsurprising but welcome move for U.S. ports pursuing major harbor deepening projects, both houses of the U.S. Congress this week pushed forward legislation that would exceed White House and congressional targets for port funding.

Deutsche Bank said it has reached an agreement to sell Maher Terminals, the 454-acre port terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to a global infrastructure investment company, eight years after the German bank acquired it at the height of the pre-recession container import boom for $2.3 billion in 2007.

China’s Cosco, Russian Railways and Italy’s state-owned railway, Trenitalia, are expected to submit initial bids for Greece’s national rail operator by today’s deadline.

Container Corporation of India this week lifted its port congestion surcharge on containerized freight railed to inland distribution points after its parent company Indian Railways canceled the decree that created the fee.