Cool Cargo News

Cargo thieves in the U.S. target food shipments above all other cargoes. Although some shipments aren’t particularly high-value, others such as temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals, seafood, beef and alcohol can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And reselling these commodities on the gray market puts consumers at risk.

Tasked with regulating products originating in more than 150 countries, the Food and Drug Administration is becoming more global in its approach rather than U.S.-centric and is boosting its foreign presence.

Refrigerated trucking company Marten Transport increased its profit while adding trucks in the second quarter, as dedicated revenue rose more than 60 percent.

The heat is on for the cold supply chain industry as it prepares for the roll-out of new, more stringent federal regulations this fall. Now an Israeli company may have a solution to at least one of the challenges the industry will face when the Food and Drug Administration hands down its new regulations.

The global healthcare transportation industry urgently needs a new generation of cold chains to cope with rapidly rising demand for pharmaceuticals, especially from emerging markets, and ever stricter compliance from regulators, according to a new study by DHL.

The former president of Con-way Freight will lead one of the largest temperature-controlled logistics companies as demand for cold-chain services grows.

Canadian National Railway is buying more refrigerated intermodal equipment as the prospect of tighter regulation of food supply chains poses a challenge for shippers.

After a double-digit gain in refrigerated container volume in the first quarter, the Port of Philadelphia is set to gain even more reefer traffic as a result of two new services to Latin America and possibly grab more U.S. East Coast market share.

China's largest fresh produce e-tailer, FruitDay, signed off on a $70 million tie-up with direct online sales giant JD.com in the single biggest e-commerce fresh produce deal made in the country so far.

It’s no secret that specialized carriers are losing refrigerated cargo market share to containerized carriers, but details about why it’s happening, how much cargo is really shifting and who ultimately will control which pieces of the market are less apparent.

The Port of Savannah is ramping up its refrigerated cargo capacity after substantial year-over-year growth in reefer cargo at the Georgia port.

German freight forwarder Thermotraffic is expanding its network of temperature-controlled branches throughout Europe, with the latest addition at Frankfurt Airport’s Perishable Center Frankfurt.

An expansion project at the U.K.’s Port of Tilbury will add significant cold storage capacity when completed this year and rank as one of the largest reefer facilities in Europe.

A study commissioned by the British Frozen Food Federation suggests frozen foods can help reduce waste and even greenhouse gas emissions.

India produces about 30 percent of the world’s bananas, but poor post-harvest facilities and cold chain infrastructure means less than 1 percent make it to foreign markets. However, one fresh produce company, Pick N Serve Foods, is finding huge potential in exports, particularly to markets in Oman, Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait.

The global cold chain is in the midst of rapid expansion. Stakeholders view refrigerated cargo as a growing and profitable segment of their business and sizable investments are occurring on multiple fronts to build and strengthen the integrated global cold chain.

Samskip and VGB — the Dutch Association of Wholesalers in Floricultural Products — tested a refrigerated rail shipment of plants from the Netherlands to Sweden using a new flora container developed by Rotterdam-based UNIT45.

The Tampa Port Authority has approved a $20.8 million spending plan to build a new refrigerated warehouse in an attempt to win back perishable food shippers to Port Tampa Bay.

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.

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.

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.

Former executives at a defunct refrigerated rail service have filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against BNSF Railway, alleging the railroad’s failing service reliability and shirking of professional commitments drove the company out of business.

State-owned logistics provider Container Corporation of India has opened a $1.6 million temperature-controlled facility in Adarsh Nagar, near Delhi, the latest investment in line with parent Railways’ fiscal year 2015-16 budget plan announcement last month.

The build-out of cold storage capacity is on fire around the world. From 2012 through 2014, total global capacity grew 20 percent to 552 million cubic meters, an increase of 92 million cubic meters in just two years, according to the 2014 IARW Global Cold Storage Capacity Report.

Drug giants AstraZeneca and Baxter are shifting more cold chain shipments from air to ocean, attracted by lower transportation costs, a reduced carbon footprint and mitigated security concerns, according to Outsourcing-Pharma.com.

With the air cargo industry under increasing competition from ocean carriers for certain cargoes, especially perishables, more sophisticated software and technology tools are helping drive the migration from ocean to air.

U.S. exports of agricultural goods have outpaced imports since 1960, generating a surplus in the nation’s farm trade and helping to “counter the persistent deficit in nonagricultural U.S. merchandise trade,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Much of the trade in this sector relies on an integrated global cold chain.

Growth in the global reefer market this year will likely outpace the lukewarm performance of the past few years, according to industry analysts.

Fresh food is fast becoming the next e-commerce frontier in China, and the country-wide demand is driving the expansion of cold chain logistics in the mainland that has been a weak point for years.

Gati Ltd., India’s leading express distribution and supply chain solutions company, reported its group net profit in the fiscal second quarter totaled about $2 million, a more than two-fold increase from the same period in 2013.

European retail services company Musgrave Retail Partners expands refrigerated transportation services by acquiring Irish firm Allied Logistics.

In an effort to tap growing Asian perishable demand, a Japanese logistics firm and a Chinese fishing company today joined to create a cold chain logistics provider that will serve China and then eventually Southeast Asia.

U.S. shippers’ increasing difficulties in finding long-haul trucks to move their loads is making intermodal rail, including the transport of refrigerated goods, more a “capacity play” than about saving money.

Russia, struggling after it enforced food embargoes on European Union countries, is ramping up its chicken imports from Brazil, registering a massive 291 percent year-over-year increase in imports of the white meat in September.

A group of Mexican produce and meat exporters are sold on the idea of starting weekly ocean service between the ports of Veracruz, Mexico, and Philadelphia, saying it would be faster, cheaper and provide better security and cargo integrity than current trucking routes.

Fruit shippers in Central Washington hoping for refrigerated rail service to be reinstated at the Port of Quincy, Washington, have a long wait. After Cold Train suspended the reefer service, BNSF stopped any intermodal service to the port.

In its first attempt to regulate transportation-related food safety, the Food and Drug Administration has confused quality with safety, a move that could force the automatic rejection of countless loads and push cargo claims and insurance rates up sharply, shippers, carriers and industry associations say.