Logistics Technology News

Logistics Plus, a global provider of transportation, logistics and supply chain solutions, has opened offices in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt, and formed a Logistics Plus Eqypt operation that includes a warehouse in Badr City just outside of Cairo.

In a deal expected to close on Aug. 1, Scarbrough International, a Kansas City-based logistics and customs brokerage firm, will expand its operations south and into Mexico.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide is priming its $330 million Global Forwarding division for faster growth in 2015, naming Mike Short president and opening new offices in Asia and Europe.

Agility Logistics’ net profit for the first quarter of 2015 rose 5 percent year-over-year, at $39.3 million, the company said Friday.

Blue Dart Express, India’s leading air express and logistics services provider, reported its net earnings in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31, remained relatively flat compared to the profit in the previous year, despite significant revenue growth.

Shippers and logistics providers need more advanced transportation management systems to meet a host of logistics challenges that didn't exist in 2000, 3GTMS CEO Mitch Weseley told the ALK Transportation Technology Summit.

Damco’s reduced first-quarter loss came at a price as the Maersk Group’s freight forwarding and logistics unit ceded more market share to its rivals.

Deutsche Post DHL said it is reviewing the restructuring of its freight forwarding business, which it blamed for a dip in first-quarter profit.

Large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the global transportation and logistics industry posted year-over-year increases in value and number during the first quarter of 2015, PwC US reported.

Major Japanese international freight forwarder Kintetsu World Express Inc. saw its group net profit surge on the back of strong revenue in the fiscal year ended March 31, despite an antitrust lawsuit-related extraordinary loss in the United States.

Nippon Express Co.’s net profit remained almost flat in the fiscal year ended March 31, even as its revenue grew robustly on the back of a weaker yen and brisk exports of auto and electronics parts.

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.

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.

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.

CEVA’s earnings were up almost a fifth in the first quarter higher air and ocean freight volumes and the benefits of a new business model offset significant exchange rate fluctuations

INTTRA is moving into a new market: selling data to the beneficial cargo owners that book cargo space through its e-commerce portal, to provide visibility into the movement of containers at every step on their ocean voyage..

Global contract logistics is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 6.8 percent through 2018, led by increases in Western Europe, the U.S, and China, according to a new survey by U.K.-based Transport Intelligence.

Major Japanese international freight forwarder Yusen Logistics Co. said that its group net profit more than doubled in the fiscal year ended March 31, as its revenue grew robustly and its strenuous cost-cutting efforts paid off.

Indian logistics and trucking major Gati Ltd. says e-commerce growth helped drive consolidated net profit up 59 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31.

As the U.S. economy came screeching to a halt in the first quarter — at least those parts that contribute to gross domestic product growth — UPS improved revenue, shipment volumes and profit, a sign that things may not be as bad as the economic indicators seem to say.

The acquisition of French logistics giant Norbert Dentressangle will create new global opportunities for XPO, boosting its annual revenue to $8.5 billion.

At its worst, the months of congestion and gridlock at West Coast ports left beneficial cargo owners nearly blind in trying to pinpoint where their shipments were in the supply chain. Unlike the visibility it has given industry stakeholders under normal conditions, technology couldn’t even save the day. The sophisticated electronic tools shippers use to manage and track their cargoes just didn’t work as advertised.

Panalpina’s earnings jumped 10 percent in the first quarter as a market-beating increase in ocean container volumes more than offset sluggish growth in air freight.

Third-party logistics provider C.H. Robinson Worldwide has opened the doors at two new global forwarding offices: one in Ho Chi Minh City and another in Antwerp.

Kerry Logistics has formed a strategic partnership with China’s state-owned rail operator as it begins to tap into Beijing’s One Belt One Road national trade strategy that was announced in March.

The world’s 50 largest logistics companies generated nearly $248 billion in revenue last year, up nearly 5 percent from 2013’s $237.4 billion, according to Pittsburgh-based research and consulting firm SJ Consulting Group.

Net earnings at the world’s largest ocean freight forwarder crept up in the first quarter, but revenue dipped.

After FedEx Corp. unveiled a $4.8 billion deal to acquire Dutch company TNT Express this week, the immediate focus was on how the merger would significantly boost the U.S.-based company’s footprint in the European express market.

FedEx Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a €4.4 billion ($4.8 billion) agreed takeover of TNT Express, two years after European regulators shot down United Parcel Service’s bid for the Dutch company.

Air cargo shippers using Chicago O’Hare International Airport are experiencing delays because of major road construction around the hub and inconsistent service from third-party handlers. A surge of cargo from shippers unwilling to brave West Coast port congestion isn’t helping.

Japanese trading giant Mitsui & Co. has signed an agreement to sell Transfreight North America, its wholly owned U.S. logistics subsidiary, to Penske Logistics for an undisclosed sum.

Major Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. has unveiled plans to set up a logistics subsidiary in Myanmar to cash in on the increasingly promising local market and further strengthen its footprint in the entire Southeast Asian region.

DB Schenker Logistics profit stalled in 2014 even as the company increased ocean container, air freight and trucking volumes.

Truck drivers employed by Agility in Kenya ended a strike and are back at work, the company said, after a Kenyan court issued an order calling the strike “unlawful, and therefore unprotected.”

Global trade management company Amber Road adds new sourcing and manufacturing capabilities by acquiring Hong Kong-based ecVision.

Deutsche Post DHL’s fourth quarter earnings slumped 17 percent even as the German mail, express and freight forwarding giant posted strong gains in ocean container and air freight revenues.

North American customs broker Livingston International will be opening a new U.S. headquarters in Chicago, which has become a virtual hub for fast-growing third-party logistics companies during the past decade.

Logistics giant Transport Corporation of India has launched a coastal container feeder service between West India and South India, a growing route that has seen the entry of rival feeder lines in recent months.