Logistics Technology News

Kuehne + Nagel posted a market-beating increase in container traffic, but the strong Swiss franc restrained growth in the global forwarding and logistics group’s second-quarter earnings.

Fast-growing Crane Worldwide Logistics is expanding, albeit cautiously.

Seko Logistics has invested in a 152,000-square-foot logistics center in Milton Keynes, England, to keep pace with rapid growth in U.K. retailers’ online sales.

The logistics demands of home delivery and a shopping explosion in emerging markets are revolutionizing the contract logistics field, according to Transport Intelligence’s new Global Contract Logistics 2014 report.

UPS will invest about $1 billion of its $2.5 billion budget for capital expansion over the next three to five years in the European market, new comments from the company’s CFO confirm.

Driverless trucks and completely automated warehousing systems may seem like futuristic gimmicks, but some technological advances could have a big impact on the shipping industry’s efficiency and reliability in the coming years, and they don’t involve robots and flying cars.

Damco, Maersk Group’s logistics unit, has started operations at the first international container freight station in Myanmar.

The “Uberization” of trucking appears to be gaining momentum.

ContainerPort Group has promoted Russel A. Graef to president, effective immediately.

The move to dimensional weight pricing should have a positive impact on FedEx, executives with the shipping giant emphasized on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.

CHICAGO — Third-party logistics providers looking to acquire other firms should focus on what capabilities the deal will bring, rather than just gaining customers inorganically.

Like other fashionable buzzwords in the past, the catchphrase “Big Data” has grabbed many headlines in recent months, even as it has left many potential users bewildered about its scope and potential benefits.

Imperial Tobacco announced plans to float its Logista transport unit on the Madrid stock exchange as its focuses on its core higher margin cigarettes operation.

David Abney will face his first big test as CEO of UPS in December, when the largest U.S. transportation company must avoid a repeat of last year’s holiday shipping debacle.

China’s rapid urbanization, its growing middle class and improved access to health insurance is stoking massive investment in production and driving demand for logistics and distribution in the health care sector.

Allcargo Logistics Ltd., India’s leading international freight forwarder and port-based logistics provider, reported its group net income fell 14 percent in fiscal year 2013-14

Major Japanese freight forwarder Yusen Logistics has opened a new warehouse in Jababeka in Jakarta, Indonesia, to capitalize on growth in Southeast Asia.

Container Corp. of India boosted fiscal year 2013-14 net income 3 percent from a year earlier to $161 million.

Fesco Transportation Group’s revenue and earnings declined in the first quarter.

Kuwait-based third-party logistics provider Agility has opened a new warehouse in the Khalifa Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, as part of its expansion strategy.

No logistics providers in China can offer nationwide coverage while thousands of low margin players with low market penetration drive up logistics costs that can account for as much as 40 percent of the cost of production.

Logistics providers operating in Thailand and the companies they service are no strangers to supply chain risk, and the latest installment of martial law imposed nationwide on May 22 saw them again reaching for contingency plans.

Growth in the express segment powered Transport Corporation of India to higher profit in fiscal year 2013-14, which ended March 31.

The revenue from China’s fast-growing e-commerce business is masking a decline in the price per parcel that is expected to spur consolidation.

Echo Global Logistics’ $37.3 million acquisition of the Watsonville, California-based transportation brokerage firm One Stop Logistics this week is expected to help the third-party logistics provider increase its domestic less-than-truckload brokerage business.

Much of the attention paid to the container shipping industry in the last few years has focused on the relentless drive of carriers to cut costs by ordering bigger, more fuel-efficient ships.

Expanding global operations and cost-cutting efforts lifted Nippon Express Co.’s group net profit 10.5 percent year-over-year in fiscal 2013, which ended on March 31, to ¥26.3 billion ($258 million), beating its own forecast of ¥25.0 billion.

The unaccustomed buoyancy of recent freight rate increases on U.S. trade lanes is giving third party logistics providers a sense that the worst may be over. But it’s too soon to call the coast clear, because they are still reeling from the impact of bad winter weather that caused delays and fueled higher costs.

Major Japanese international freight forwarder Kintetsu World Express Inc. (KWE) said that its net profit rose 3.1 percent in fiscal 2013, which ended on March 31, from a year earlier to ¥9.41 billion ($92.3 million) on a consolidated basis.

CEVA Holdings hailed contract logistics as a successful counterweight to flat ocean and air freight markets that drove a 7.5 percent increase in first-quarter earnings even as revenue shrunk.

Profits in international forwarding are becoming increasingly squeezed as competitors drop prices to gain volumes and as underlying rates remain weak due to overcapacity and slowing growth in both ocean and air markets.

Amazon has entered the French market with new investment in a parcel delivery company, another sign the e-commerce giant wants to take greater control of last-mile shipping to customers.

Major Japanese international freight forwarder Yusen Logistics Co. said that its group net profit surged 17.5 percent in fiscal 2013, which ended on March 31, from a year earlier to ¥1.32 billion ($12.9 million).

Gateway Distriparks Ltd., India’s leading port-based logistics provider, reported its consolidated net income in fiscal year 2013-14, from April 2013 to March 2014, was $22.5 million, climbing 7 percent year-over-year from $21 million.

Similar to how airline ticket aggregator sites find passengers the cheapest airfare, a new deal between e-shipping platform INTTRA and multimodal rate provider Catapult International will allow shippers and freight forwarders to find carrier rates online before they book shipments through INTTRA.

A surge in business during the first quarter carried over into April at Echo Global Logistics, as shippers turned to the third-party logistics provider for trucks.

CHICAGO — So-called Big Data, or the explosion of electronic information that can be analyzed, is more than just a buzz word thrown around by the likes of IBM and Facebook, but a way to increase truck utilization as capacity tightens.

Severe winter weather may have kept many consumers from shopping at stores in the first quarter, but it didn’t freeze their computer keyboards.