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The U.S. freight-related transportation industry and warehouse sector gained 3,100 jobs in February from January, but the most promising signs for increased freight transport came from sizable growth in the construction and manufacturing industries.

The large locks at the western end of the canal in Brunsbuettel, Germany, have to be repaired and will be out of service for about two to three weeks, according to a German-language announcement by...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Los Angeles-Long Beach seaport have seized a shipment containing 445 counterfeit “Beats by Dr. Dre” headphones and 28 all-terrain vehicles that violated EPA standards.

Cosco Group recently held a christening ceremony for its new container ship, the Cosco Belgium, at Nantong Cosco KHI Ship Engineering in China.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has certified the final environmental impact report for the proposed Southern California International Gateway intermodal railyard, setting the stage for construction of the rail infrastructure project.

The Twitter feed from TPM 2013 was on fire through the three-day conference. Here are just some of our favorites.

Hapag-Lloyd’s biggest shareholder Klaus Michael-Kuehne said Hamburg Süd should have an equal share in the planned merger of the two German ocean carriers.

Finnair Cargo has postponed its freighter operation to Mumbai, India, until the second half of 2013.

The president of the Americas for APL is telling ports on both coasts to prepare for an onslaught of large container ships because the economic, operational and environmental benefits of big ships are so compelling.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the New York Shipping Association tentatively agreed on a local contract that, if ratified, likely means East and Gulf Coast ports will avoid a work stoppage this year.

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s prime minister, have launched negotiations for a free trade agreement between the European Union and Thailand.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the New York Shipping Association have tentatively agreed on a local contract covering 4,500 ILA members in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Graybar has opened two new branches in Carrizo Springs, Texas, and Dickinson, N.D., and a new sales office in Rockford, Ill.

The U.S. exported $184.5 billion in goods and services in January and imported $228.9 billion of goods and services, resulting in a goods and services deficit of $44.4 billion, up from $38.1 billion in December 2012...

The Prince Rupert Port Authority is preparing for the construction launch of the Ridley Island Road, Rail Utility Corridor in British Columbia, CFTK-TV reports.

Towne Air Freight will relocate its regional hub in Atlanta to a larger facility in early April.

Dukal has chosen Georgia’s Port of Savannah as its major port of entry and established a new distribution center in the city’s foreign trade zone.

In his annual State of the State address, Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott emphasized the need for strategic infrastructure investments and announced his budget recommendation of $288 million in seaport improvements this year.

Hapag-Lloyd will increase rates for dry commodities on its trade from British Columbia to East Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, effective April 1.

Container lines owned half of U.S. intermodal chassis in 2009, but their share fell to 32 percent last year and will drop to 20 percent by the end of 2013, consultant Steve Rubin told the JOC’s 13th annual TPM Conference.

Clarksons’ pretax profit plunged to £20.4 million ($30.6 million) in 2012 from £32.2 million in 2011, as the world’s biggest ship broker was buffeted by weakening shipping markets that saw rates in some sectors slump to their lowest levels since the 1980s.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk plans to add more vessels to its Singapore hub, Bloomberg reported.

Rinchem Co. has opened a 65,000-square-foot chemical logistics facility in Hollister, Calif.

Containers that fell off of a U.S. Navy contract barge bound for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, no longer present a seafaring hazard, The Miami Herald reported.

Damn Shiprepair Rotterdam has redelivered seven container vessels to Hamburg Süd, after installing the Becker Twisted Fin on each one.

Representatives of the International Longshoremen’s Association and its New York-New Jersey employers planned to resume negotiations today on a local agreement that’s key to the coastwide master contract for East and Gulf Coast dockworkers.

The Descartes Systems Group reported net income of $7.8 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, a jump of 73 percent from $4.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 and 152 percent from $3.1 million in the FY 2013 third quarter.

Colombia’s Buenaventura Container Terminal, part of Grup Maritim TCB, has implemented new optical character recognition, Match Maker and differential GPS systems on quay and yard cranes...

Government regulatory agencies are seeking the support of importers in their attempts to secure the nation’s borders while at the same time facilitating the clearance of legitimate cargo.

China’s official purchasing managers index dropped to 50.1 in February from 50.4 a month earlier.

Harbor truckers urged the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to do more to make Southern California the gateway of choice for shippers and carriers, and the top item on their wish list is to reduce congestion at marine terminal gates.

Horizon Lines will shift its Northeast U.S. port call for its Puerto Rico service from Elizabeth, N.J., to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Terminal.

India’s Ennore Port has decided to split its container terminal project into three separate terminals, after an earlier attempt to build the terminal with private funds collapsed last year...

Seaspan reported profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $58.98 million, rising $34.47 million, or 150.8 percent, from $23.52 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

PTA Holdings, through its subsidiary Nortford, today announced that operations at its equipment service facility in Fredericksburg, Iowa, have begun.

The volatile U.S. refrigerated freight trade will make a comeback in 2013 after declining in 2012, “a modest comeback but still a comeback,” Journal of Commerce Economist Mario O. Moreno told the 13th annual TPM Conference.

BNSF Railway will begin testing a small number of locomotives using liquefied natural gas as an alternative fuel later this year, said Matthew K. Rose, BNSF chairman and CEO, at the CERAWeek conference today.

U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J., has introduced the Multimodal Opportunities via Enhanced Freight Act of 2013, also known as the MOVE Freight Act, which is designed to ensure all transportation modes and system connections...