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A new ship design could be just what the refrigerated shipping industry — and banana shippers, in particular — needs to remain in control of their supply chain.

Pressure is building on Congress and federal maritime regulators to more aggressively address the high demurrage and detention fees shippers are being hit with as a result of port congestion.

Crowley Liner Service called competitor Trailer Bridge’s allegations of patent infringement “specious” and said it would continue to use the disputed equipment to load and discharge flat-deck barges in the Puerto Rico trade.

Shippers on the spot market will pay $518 more to ship a 20-foot container from Asia to North Europe next week as postponed general rate increases kicked in and prices came roaring back, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).

Chinese president Xi Jinping left this week to visit countries that will play a key role on the Silk Road Economic Belt that Beijing is pushing hard in its bid to secure uninterrupted trade links with Central Asia, Africa and Europe.

They’re a few months behind schedule, but Seattle and Tacoma are one step closer to solidifying their Northwest Seaport Alliance, after submitting a final draft of their agreement this week.

The World Shipping Council urged the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission not to apply a broad regulatory brush to highly specific disputes over demurrage and detention fees for late pickup or return of containers at congested ports.

German train drivers will continue their strike until Sunday after their union today rejected a proposal from Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway, for an independent mediator to help resolve their dispute.

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada’s largest port, is a step closer to building a new container terminal. The port has submitted an environmental impact statement for a new three-berth container terminal in Delta, British Columbia.

Orbcomm's first-quarter revenue rocketed 149 percent as the acquisition of SkyWave and InSync kicked in to boost use of its asset-tracking services.

The next frontier in refrigerated cargo visibility is here, and it doesn’t involve just tracking a container. No, the latest technology, made possible by machine-to-machine communication and the Internet of Things, not only allows for that, but also for controlling a container remotely to protect its contents throughout the journey, and for an interactive environment in which assets communicate with each other and exchange data.

Vessel acquisitions by U.S.-listed owners have dropped dramatically this year. The only public companies that are still buying in both the secondhand and newbuilding markets are container ship lessors.

Waberer’s International, one of Europe’s largest trucking operators, is purchasing 500 new trailers as it expands business in Germany and its freight-hauling network in western Europe.

APM Terminals in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Nhava Sheva) — India’s busiest container port complex — strongly refuted a trade advisory by logistics providers blaming the deteriorating terminal gate activity for long truck queues outside its facility, known as Gateway Terminals India.

Costamare is set to pocket more than $100 million from an offering of preferred stock in the Greece-based container ship owner.

Iranian authorities released the container ship Maersk Tigris on Thursday, nine days after it was seized by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

A week-long strike by German locomotive drivers that is scheduled to run until Sunday could be called off earlier as their union considers calls for an independent mediator to settle the dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company.

APL Logistics is not standing still while its acquisition by Kintetsu World Express (KWE) is finalized and today announced plans to expand its presence in Indonesia, the second major investment since being sold.

Hong Kong sellers using global e-commerce platform eBay have embraced overseas warehouses as a way of boosting sales and avoiding disruption and rising logistics costs during peak shipping seasons.

After the world financial meltdown and recession of 2008, many hoped that the market balance in multipurpose shipping could be restored by at least 2015.

The speed to market requirement of online shopping means cross-border e-commerce has always relied on air transport, but easing import regulations at Shanghai’s free trade zone is allowing container shipping lines to participate in the fast growing sector.

USA Truck posted its first profitable first quarter in eight years this week. It also marks the fourth consecutive profitable quarter for the firm as it pursues a new corporate strategy as a “capacity solutions provider,” the company said.

Rail logistics provider Tiger Cool Express is making strides with equipment purchases and a growing customer base. Its success is all the more impressive given that service from Class I freight railroads experienced a difficult 2014 and continues to struggle. Cool Cargoes spoke with CEO Tom Finkbiner to get his take on where the intermodal rail industry is failing and how and where it can make improvements to better support time- and temperature-sensitive shipments such as fresh produce.

Saying that predictions of 20 percent over-capacity on all-water services to the East Coast this year “were based on faulty assumptions,” a carrier discussion agreement in the eastbound Pacific is recommending two general rate increases and a peak season surcharge.

West Coast port congestion hit international shipment volume hard and affected domestic volume during the opening months of 2015, the Intermodal Association of North America said in its latest quarterly analysis.

Port congestion and labor issues took a toll on West Coast port volumes in 2014, as West Coast ports lost market share and East Coast ports gained market share, according to a report by CBRE Americas Research.

Logistics service provider Expeditors International of Washington said its first quarter operating income jumped 25 percent, aided by higher airfreight volume from West Coast port congestion.

One developer is betting big on BNSF Railway’s Kansas City logistics park. NorthPoint Development this week announced the construction of a 822,104-square-foot speculative building at the park.

Don’t call the Freightliner Inspiration a “driverless truck.” The heavy-duty tractor, unveiled yesterday by Daimler Truck North America, is an “autonomous commercial vehicle,” but the driver is still a key part of the “collaborative vehicle system.”

Logistics providers out of India’s largest container port complex — Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust — are again reporting abrupt terminal gate closings and long truck waits, even as the stakeholders put in place a spate of proactive steps to streamline gate activity and truck flow in the past few months.

Direct ChassisLink has expanded its Direct ChassisLink pool in Southern California and has contributed to the pool formerly included in the Grand Alliance pool. The Direct ChassisLink pool now has 28,000 units in Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Four super post-Panamax cranes that will span 22 rows of containers have been delivered to the Port of Houston’s Barbours Cut Container Terminal after a 73-day voyage from South Korea.

The economics of the mega-ships of 18,000 20-foot-equivalent units that container lines are building and deploying may not be all they are cracked up to be. The savings that carriers are touting as the reason for ordering them may not be as great as advertised when all their costs are factored in.

Greek dock workers are due to stage a 24-hour strike on Thursday to protest the privatization of the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki.

Container lines hoping to see freight rate increases supported by a significant rise in export orders will be disappointed by data emerging from the giant Canton Fair in Guangzhou as transaction volumes, numbers of visitors and value of deals were all down compared to last year’s event.

Carriers accepting record low rates on Asia-Europe routes while regularly trying to impose general rate increases are managing to irritate both customers with contractual arrangements and those using the spot market.

An employee-based trucking model backed by venture capital that was announced Monday in Los Angeles-Long Beach is expected to gain traction in harbor drayage, but it won’t dominate the industry any time soon.

Fresh off the announcement of yet another acquisition, XPO Logistics’ hunger can’t be sated with CEO Bradley Jacobs eying more deals in Europe and North America.

U.S. lawmakers won’t likely pass a long-term highway bill before the June deadline, but when they do, shippers and transportation providers should expect the nation’s freight network to get added attention.