Supply chain

Hong Kong’s exports and imports of goods both decreased year-over-year in February, Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department reported.

Washington appears to be finally waking up to the growing need to speed up the movement of goods across the U.S.-Mexico border.

FedEx Express has expanded its alternative-energy vehicle fleet with the introduction of 10 new all-electric commercial vehicles for use in Hong Kong.

Monterey Bay International Trade Association has signed a City/State Partners program contract with the Export-Import Bank of the United States to accelerate export business by...

Lumber production in the U.S. and Canada improved in 2012, with total output being 8 percent and 5 percent higher year-over-year, according to Western Wood Products Association, Wood Resource Quarterly reports.

Japan and the European Union formally agreed on Monday to kick off negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement aimed at eliminating import tariffs on most products traded between them.

Two Italian ship guards accused of killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in February last year returned to New Delhi on Friday evening, easing a standoff that threatened to strain diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Whether recent legislation that funds the federal government for the next six months will prevent slated furloughs at Customs and Border Protection that could snarl freight traffic at U.S. ports of entry is unclear.

U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., has introduced the Customs Training Enhancement Bill, which is intended to facilitate the sharing of information between the private sector and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to allow the U.S. government to better identify foreign companies that illegally avoid customs duties.

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union have sent a joint letter to U.S. Sens. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and other officials...

Terreno Realty Corporation, a U.S. industrial real estate company, has acquired an industrial property in Burien, Wash., for about $6.5 million.

Two shipping firms based in Germany and Cyprus have pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice charges and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships...

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, and David Vitter, R-La., ranking member of the...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun requiring all exporters of U.S. pork to report weekly export sales to the agency’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

The European Parliament’s international trade committee has urged the European Union to reinstate Myanmar’s duty and quota free access to the EU market, in support of the European Commission’s proposal to back Myanmar in its reforms.

DB Schenker Logistics will launch a new service for French wine producers at the ProWein trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, from March 24-26.

The New Jersey Legislature approved and sent to Gov. Chris Christie a bipartisan bill creating specific penalties for cargo theft.

UPS has appointed Cindy Miller as president of its European business and Derek Woodward as president of the emerging markets division, effective April 30.

CenterPoint Properties has started construction on a new Ace Hardware build-to-suit for lease, located in Wilmer, Texas.

Performance Team has hired Jim Townsend as its chief information officer.

Ball Metal Beverage Container has signed an industrial lease for a 163,000-square-foot space in the Monroe Logistics Center in Ohio with landlord Industrial Developments International.

The European Commission today decided to refer Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union for its incorrect application of the rules on airport groundhandling.

Schenker AG’s supervisory board has appointed Heiner Murmann to its management board, effective May 1. He will be responsible for the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary’s air and ocean freight.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously passed the bill Wednesday, suggesting WRDA could receive a vote on the chamber floor as early as next month.

Trade negotiators from China, Japan and South Korea will hold their first round of negotiations on a free trade agreement among the three major Asian economies later this month.

Toll Global Forwarding has named Paul Chinery as director of air freight for its U.K. operations.

CEVA Logistics has launched a new China to Europe railway service.

The Senate could vote on the Water Resources Development Act as soon as April, after the Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously approved the bill today.

FedEx today reported net income in the third quarter of fiscal year 2013, ending Feb. 28, 2013, was $361 million, dropping 31 percent from $521 million in the same quarter in the previous year.

Echo Global Logistics has acquired Open Mile, a Boston-based non-asset transportation service provider that combines high tech automation with freight management services.

UPS said today that it has become the first global express delivery company to be wholly owned in Vietnam, following its acquisition of the 49 percent interest of VN Post Express in the two companies’ express delivery joint venture.

Geodis Wilson has appointed Ivy Boyer as its chief marketing officer.

The federal sequestration could cut Customs and Border Protection’s manpower to the equivalent of about 5,000 agents over the the coming months, a former chief of the staff of the agency said Monday.

On the vast plains of Brazil’s Matto Grosso, farmers of wheat and soy are enjoying productivity rates that exceed those of their counterparts in the United States. But freight costs in west-central Brazil are also 50 percent higher than on the Great Plains of North America, dramatically undermining Brazil’s productivity advantage.

The American Society of Civil Engineers today released its 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, which found that the U.S.’s cumulative GPA for infrastructure rose slightly to a D+ from a D in 2009.