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Weak finances are forcing ocean carriers to rely more heavily on lessors to provide them with containers.

ArcBest’s net profit tripled year-over-year to $17.2 million as revenue rose 14 percent to $658.6 million in the second quarter.

Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association, which represents a half-dozen export facilities in Oregon and Washington, are not concluded, though both parties say weekend bargaining has gone well.

North American intermodal volume growth this year appears to be on track to exceed the 4.6 percent gain seen in 2013 after traffic rocketed 8.2 percent year-over-year in the second quarter.

A $668.5 million tunnel that allows drayage trucks to bypass congested downtown streets opened with minimal fanfare yesterday at PortMiami.

According to the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization, enough food is grown worldwide to feed everyone on the planet. The trick is to make sure food doesn’t disappear before consumption because of waste or post-harvest loss, that it can be transported where it’s needed and that the population with the food deficit can afford to pay.

As the world's largest corporation, Wal-Mart holds hefty leverage over its vendors. Its next mission is to eliminate waste within its massive system, even on food, and vendors are taking note.

The Panama Canal Authority and the consortium hired to build a third set of locks have amended their construction contract to reflect a March settlement of a payment dispute that interrupted work for two weeks.

Consider the trans-Atlantic market an oasis of calm. For a container shipping industry focusing on the opportunities and pitfalls in the much larger Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific trades, or the rapidly growing north-south trade linking Asia to Africa and Latin America, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Declining operating standards across Europe’s rail network are threatening the future of intermodal transport, a leading combined transport company warned.

China’s factory output and total new orders in July rose to their highest levels since March last year, improving the operating conditions of mainland manufacturers and supporting carrier predictions of third quarter container volume increases in the seasonal build up to Christmas.

A specialized reefer carrier is taking steps to renew its aging breakbulk fleet by purchasing two new container vessels.

Port Metro Vancouver’s penalty system for terminals is cutting truck turn times and drawing attention from other North American ports struggling with drayage challenges. And congestion seen earlier this year at Rotterdam has continued, prompting diversions and surcharges, and the congestion is spreading to other ports in the North Europe range.

Regional Container Lines has reorganized the port rotation of its Manila-Singapore (RMN) Service by adding a call at Batangas, Philippines, in an effort to circumvent growing delays at the nearby port of Manila.

At times, there can be such a thing as too much freight. When total shipments per day at YRC Freight rose 4.8 percent in the second quarter, and freight tonnage was up 5.9 percent year-over-year, the increase meant more hiring, more handling and higher operating costs.

The G6 Alliance is performing abysmally compared with its competitors when it comes to schedule reliability, according to a new SeaIntel report.

Consumer spending on over-the-counter health care products in Myanmar is anticipated to grow from around $140 million in 2013 to $480 million by 2020, providing a huge and growing market for distributors and logistics providers.

Despite a loss at the World Trade Organization last fall, China isn’t prepared to give in on a dispute over U.S. poultry that has exposed U.S. producers to steep anti-dumping and countervailing duties in what was once their largest overseas market.

Several container lines announced this week general rate increases for the month of September.

More than a year after the container ship MOL Comfort and its 4,382 containers sank in the Gulf of Aden, shippers are watching developments in a Japanese court and awaiting a classification society’s report on the sinking.

The first half of 2014 saw the start of several stories that JOC.com will most likely be covering for the next year and perhaps beyond.

Hawaii-focused Matson remains interested in entering the Alaska market if one of the two Jones Act carriers in that trade decides to sell.

Jones Act carrier Matson posted slight declines in second-quarter net profit and operating income but said it expects its operating results in the second half of 2014 to show improvement from a year ago.

India’s refusal to give in on protecting its food subsidy program spelled the end of a World Trade Organization pact aimed at improving global trade facilitation.

Terminal operators are responding to the tsunami of large vessels that have descended upon global ports by dramatically ramping up their productivity in turning the mega-ships. But the gains realized are only a taste of what will be necessary when the next generation of vessels arrive on the scene by 2018, industry analysts say.

U.S. federal dollars to states for highway construction will keep flowing through May now that Congress approved a bill just hours before the main engine of such funding would have expired.

IAG’s cargo revenue slumped more than 12 percent in the second quarter as the carrier exited freighters.

Hapag-Lloyd announced it is temporarily diverting vessels deployed on one of its Europe-Asia services from Rotterdam to Antwerp as congestion worsens at Europe’s biggest container port as the peak shipping season gathers speed.

Diversions from the West Coast to avoid longshore labor negotiations are creating delays of up to two to three weeks for some ocean cargo moving from Asia to the U.S. East Coast, according to a freight forwarder.

Container Corp. of India, the country’s largest intermodal logistics provider, reported its net income rose 6 percent year-over-year in the first fiscal quarter, from April to June, to Rs. 261.88 crore (about $43.7 million).

The largest container terminal operator in the Port of New York and New Jersey has lost another bid to reduce the fees it must pay to the port authority.

Operations at the APL terminal at the Port of Los Angeles were back to normal this afternoon after several weeks of congestion that frayed the nerves of harbor truckers and tarnished the reputation of a terminal that had been considered a model of efficiency in the industry.

A group of pro-Palestinian activists will not be gathering en masse at Port of Oakland’s Berth 57 on Aug. 2 to protest the arrival of ships belonging to the Israel-based carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the group announced on its Facebook page.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said port terminals handled record container lifts during the first half of 2014 despite winter storms that produced severe congestion during the year’s first weeks.

Rick Gabrielson, senior manager for import transportation at Target Corp., has been named vice president of transportation at Lowe’s Cos.

Norbert Dentressangle’s $750 million acquisition of Iowa-based Jacobson Companies not only gives the European logistics giant a larger footprint in a faster-growing economy but also one with more supply chain management outsourcing potential.

The strength of the 2014 economic recovery isn’t being questioned at Old Dominion Freight Line and Saia, two of the most profitable U.S. less-than-truckload carriers.

After hitting record gross revenue and net revenue in the second quarter, Echo Global Logistics sees more opportunity in helping shippers secure space in an increasingly tightening market.

The strengthening U.S. economy, a second-quarter surge in freight and higher rates boosted revenue and profit at Con-way’s less-than-truckload, logistics and truckload divisions.