Supply chain

The majority of shippers and logistics providers in a CargoSmart survey had no plans to comply with the new container weight rule that will be in effect from July 1, and Drewry found that none of 20 NVOs the analyst met during an April tender process were ready to comply.

Federal Maritime Chairman Mario Cordero expects the U.S. container shipping industry to be prepared for the SOLAS container weight rule that takes effect July 1.

A major U.S. exporter on Thursday urged Congress to send the Coast Guard back to international authorities and request clarification on a new and controversial container weight rule in order to avoid severe port congestion. The Tyson Fresh Meats executive said the rulemaking process was kept under wraps and made without input from shippers.

European shippers, freight forwarders, port authorities and terminal operators have made a joint appeal to their national governments for a coordinated implementation of an international regulation requiring all containers to be weighed before they are loaded onto ships.

The government of India, buoyed by the success of a three-day maritime investor conference last week, is looking to speed up the award and construction of highway projects in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, which began April 1, as part of a larger scheme to revamp the country’s transport system.

Hong Kong has become the latest jurisdiction to set a tolerance level between the verified gross mass of a container declared by a shipper and its actual weight under the new IMO container weighing rule, which comes into effect on July 1.

Kuehne + Nagel’s first-quarter earnings increased 10.5 percent as solid growth in container traffic offset a decline in air cargo traffic.

U.S. retail sales may have dropped in March, but demand for toys, especially those related to Disney’s hit movie Frozen, created a surge in containerized toy imports and boosted sales for Hasbro.

Spot freight rates on the Asia-Europe trade are changing daily, and the enormous pressure this places on forwarders trying to stay on top of the shifting prices is giving impetus to technology companies offering automated solutions to manage the volatility.

The market for industrial real estate is booming nationwide, with record occupancy rates at the start of 2016 that are fueled in part by demand from logistics companies, two recent commercial real estate reports say.

In an unsurprising but welcome move for U.S. ports pursuing major harbor deepening projects, both houses of the U.S. Congress this week pushed forward legislation that would exceed White House and congressional targets for port funding.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday showed little interest in getting directly involved with the controversy surrounding the SOLAS container weight rule.

Failure to comply with the new container weighing safety regulations in the United Kingdom will be a criminal offence, punishable by a heavy fine or a prison term, according to a UK law firm.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner Richard Lidinsky, Jr. said that U.S. shippers didn’t have enough of a voice in the creation of the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS container weight rule and criticized the World Shipping Council for “hijacking” the rulemaking.

China’s Alibaba Group has continued its expansion into the lucrative and largely untapped Southeast Asian e-commerce market, acquiring a controlling stake in the region’s largest online retailer Lazada Group for $1 billion.

CargoSmart has joined global shipping platform Inttra to offer shippers an online container weight submission solution to help the industry comply with an amendment to the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea convention.

A new U.S. Department of Transportation push to promote coastal and inland waterway container services has come despite signs that such efforts have a poor track record.

Walking through the exhibit hall at the Transportation Intermediaries Association conference, one might mistake it for a technology convention. Freight brokers believe technology is the key to expansion in a “modest” economy.

The world’s 50 largest logistics companies generated nearly $230 billion in revenue last year, according to Pittsburgh-based research and consulting firm SJ Consulting Group. Although that total was 5.8 percent less in dollar terms than the $244.17 billion in revenue during 2014, the decline was tied to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar vs. other currencies, and not reflective of an actual decline in company revenue.

Import cargo volume at the largest U.S. container gateways has begun its seasonal rise, but is expected to be largely flat compared with last year’s record high numbers, the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said in their monthly Port Tracker report.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says that while it is safeguarding against a redux of the “fumbled” initial rollout of its new electronic filing system, it cannot “100-percent guarantee” users won’t face the same glitches and network errors when the remainder of system filers are onboarded later this summer.

Snowman Logistics Ltd., India’s leading cold chain logistics solutions provider, is ramping up its operations to meet expected growth in reefer cargo shipments.

The Federal Maritime Commission is trying to facilitate industry discussion of the new container-weight rules set to take effect July 1, FMC Commissioner William Doyle said.

Industrial real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle has snagged Walter Kemmsies, a noted economist with a focus in logistics, from infrastructure advisor Moffat & Nichol.

Agriculture shippers are asking Congress to determine whether the U.S. government can revise or downright revoke a new international container weight rule, ahead of a congressional hearing on the controversial regulation next week.

Sweeping new food safety rules are moving from the regulatory menu to the plates of U.S. shippers, logistics operators and carriers engaged in food transportation.

Federal investment is expected to fall nearly $130 billion short of the investment in land- and waterside infrastructure ports will make over the next five years, according to a survey of members of the top port lobby in the nation.

The value of California’s exports declined in most categories in February according to the Beacon Economics monthly report, although Beacon’s projection for the rest of the year is “tepidly optimistic.”

The U.S. Congress will look into the impact the global SOLAS container weight rule will have on exporters next week, the latest sign of how some shippers’ frustration with the rule is mounting ahead of the July 1 deadline.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the glitches that riddled the initial rollout of its new electronic filing system over the past week are resolved and it’s safeguarding for when the remainder of system filers are onboarded this summer.

Ship brokers have joined the chorus of concern over the impact of a regulation requiring shippers to verify the weight of a container before it is loaded on board a ship that comes into effect on July 1.

If recent trends are an indication, U.S. importers have little reason to be concerned the verified gross mass declarations of containers will be checked by the U.S. Coast guard when the SOLAS container weight rule takes effect July 1.

Russia’s leading stevedoring companies have voiced their disdain for proposed initiatives of the Russian Federal Customs Service and some state officials to curb the powers of customs offices to service import-export cargo in the Big Port of St. Petersburg, Russia’s largest container port.

The Thursday rollout of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ACE “single window” for filing experienced few problems until Friday, when the long-delayed initiative frustrated brokers and shippers with network errors and system-wide crashes.

Criticism and confusion from U.S. shippers, particularly U.S. exporters, greeted the Friday announcement by the 13 terminals at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex that they will not offer weighing services to support implementation of a global container weight rule.

Meeting the new International Maritime Organization requirements under the Safety of Life at Sea amendment that all containers be weighed before loading for shipment could increase the cost of ocean freight transport by more than 10 percent, according to a new report.

Warehouses and distribution centers near the largest U.S. population centers are filling up fast. The vacancy rate of 6.4 percent at the end of 2015 was the lowest in 15 years and is expected to get even tighter this year as retailers’ demand for space outstrips supply.

Since the beginning of this year volumes across Russia’s shipping industry have begun to show signs of recovery after a dismal 2015 in which Western sanctions and the low price of oil devastated the country’s transportation firms.

The first of many deadlines in the rollout of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ACE “single window” initiative came and went Thursday without any major hiccups.

The top Europe-based global freight forwarders were able to maintain or improve their earnings despite volatile freight rates and stagnating cargo volumes in 2015.