Latest news

In the hyper-competitive world of refrigerated transportation, ocean carriers are always on the lookout for new solutions to control the atmosphere inside their containers while satisfying their drive for energy efficiency and improved environmental sustainability.

Major container carriers such as Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., United Arab Shipping Co., Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd are among those making significant investments in their reefer business to help offset slower growth in other business areas.

Nittsu Research Institute and Consulting Inc. a subsidiary of Nippon Express Co., Japan’s largest international freight forwarder, predicts that Japan’s international air cargo trade will contract for the first time in two years.

The Russian government will begin work on a new deep-sea port in the enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, by the end of the year.

Kuehne+Nagel’s third-quarter operating profit grew 9 percent year-over-year as lower costs and a switch to the U.S. ocean container market from the troubled Asia-Europe trade more than offset negative currency movements.

Privately-operated Mundra Port recorded double-digit container throughput growth in the first fiscal half, driven in part by diversions from Jawaharlal Nehru Port disruptions and congestion that dragged down volumes at India’s largest public container handler during the same period.

The U.K. has sold its remaining stake in Royal Mail, raising 591.1 million pounds ($910 million) for a 13 percent shareholding and ending the state’s involvement in the 499-year old postal company.

There isn’t much to Rossville, Tennessee, in the far eastern reaches of metropolitan Memphis: rolling farmland, stretches of highway and a Norfolk Southern Railway terminal.

Long Beach had one its best Septembers ever, continuing a recent trend in which West Coast ports are regaining some of the market share they lost this past year due to congestion and work slowdowns that accompanied the coastwide dockworker negotiations.

Containerized imports at the Port of Oakland in September increased for the seventh straight month, demonstrating that the Northern California port has recaptured some of the market share it lost earlier this year during the congestion that plagued all West Coast ports during the longshore contract negotiations.

The world's second-largest transport operator is adding more than 41,000 postal codes to its international guaranteed package service, expanding its delivery footprint in Asia and other regions.

An arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said stronger action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, and that a carbon tax on shipping would be a way to achieve it.

A Tokyo-based research firm has significantly downgraded its outlook for the Japanese container trade in fiscal 2015, predicting a 1.3 percent contraction compared to its previous forecast of 2 percent growth.

Brazilian port and trade associations have won an extension of a policy allowing terminal operators to import equipment with little to no tax.

Pharmaceutical companies have increased their oceangoing share of shipments. Ocean carriers and cold chain service providers are happy for the business, but the moves have also creased concerns over insurance and liability.

The Egyptian government is being asked to provide more clarity into plans for the development of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) as it seeks foreign investment to meet its ambitious goals for the area around the canal.

PSA International this weekend broke ground on a fourth container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, which will provide a future avenue to ease congestion at India’s largest container gateway.

Singapore’s Ministry of Transport and terminal operator PSA Corporation are planning to develop a container truck system that will boost port productivity by increasing the flow of boxes within the port and across the city-state’s streets.

The Italian government has announced the price of shares for Poste Italiane’s imminent initial public offering, valuing the state-owned mail, logistics and financial services company at up to 9.8 billion euros ($11 billion).

Hapag-Lloyd is pressing ahead with its initial public offering despite market volatility that has prompted some other German firms to re-think their share listing plans, the chief executive of the world’s fifth largest ocean carrier said.

APM Terminals has signed a contract for four ship-to-shore gantry cranes and 14 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes for its Vado container terminal under construction on Italy’s north-west Ligurian coast.

The first stage expansion of Yard 7 at Manila International Container Terminal Services (MICT) will be completed by the end of the year, increasing the terminal’s import capacity by 18 percent.

Analysis of the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement continues to pour in, with a top China economist predicting it will slash 2.2 percent off the mainland GDP while maritime analyst Drewry said the deal would lead to increasing container volumes.

Singapore-based APL has added a new connection to its recently announced Eagle Express service between Asia and the U.S. that will link the islands of Guam and Saipan to Yokohama from Nov. 24.

If there is one take-away for shippers, carriers and labor from the West Coast port congestion of 2014-15, it has to be that reliability is always more important than cost and transit time in determining cargo routing.

Growth in consumption of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish in emerging and newly industrialized countries should accelerate in the coming years, creating tailwinds for reefer container and specialized reefer operators.

SSA Marine Vice President John DiBernardo says it is no wonder that many container terminals today are struggling to handle the cargo surges generated by big ships. They continue to do business much as they did in the days of breakbulk shipping, acting as storage sheds as they await the arrival of truckers who show up in randomly.

Shippers that operate truck fleets are urging U.S. lawmakers to give states more flexibility to determine whether to allow heavier trucks on their roads.

China’s New Silk Road trade route initiative will benefit both China and Pakistan. And while international opposition is expected, internal politics pose the main threat to the largest-ever foreign investment in the Pakistani state.

Spot rates on containerized imports from Asia were flat to down this past week even though October is normally the peak month of the year in the eastbound Pacific. Hopes for a strong peak season are therefore fading fast.

An increase in the annual subsidy for operation of U.S.-flag ships under the Maritime Security Program survived in a U.S. House-passed bill to end the United States’ 40-year-old ban on oil exports, but the bill’s chances of becoming law remain iffy.

Retailers project that U.S. containerized imports from Asia this month will rise only 3.3 percent year-over-year, a further sign that what normally is the busiest month of the annual peak season in the eastbound Pacific will be only a “bump” this year.

Under XPO, Con-way Freight will offer economy as well as priority service, and XPO will pursue opportunities to leverage trucking networks on both sides of the Atlantic, Jacobs told the JOC Inland Distribution Conference.

Investigators seeking to determine why the TOTE Maritime cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin last week with the loss of its 33-member crew are taking a close look at the vessel’s sister ship.

Efforts to merge Brazil’s Special Ports Ministry (SEP) with the Ministry of Transport seem to have been put on hold, at least temporarily, with the appointment of Helder Barbalho as the ministry’s new leader.

Nearly a year after labor stoppages at U.S. West Coast ports burned scores of perishables shippers, the industry’s largest advocacy group refuses to relent in its push for greater transparency in how ports are operated and negotiations with unions are conducted.

Kazakhstan Railways, the national railway company of Kazakhstan, will build a 1 million 20-foot-equivalent unit container terminal in Klaipeda, Lithuania, home to one of the largest Baltic seaports.

Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines may incur a group net loss in the first half of fiscal 2015, which started in April, due to an extraordinary charge resulting from the collapse of Daiichi Chuo Kisen Kaisha, a mid-size domestic peer and equity-method affiliate.

After a flurry of acquisitions the past four years, XPO Logistics, the fastest-growing company in trucking and logistics, is going to take a breather to integrate backroom services and take hundreds of millions of dollars of cost out of its operations.