Supply chain

A bipartisan group of 32 U.S. House members are pushing back against a recently filed amendment to repeal requirements that domestic waterborne cargo be shipped in U.S.-flag ships owned, built and operated by Americans.

California’s roadways and freeways are in desperate need of repair or expansion, so the trucking industry is willing to examine a variety of funding mechanisms that will raise billions of dollars to address the problem immediately.

Challenged by the need to make their companies ever more cost-effective and competitive, third-party logistics companies are compelled to assess ever longer — and often more confusing — lists of new technology options.

Russia’s potential as an emerging logistics market was downgraded by 66 percent of respondents in the sixth annual Agility Emerging Markets Survey that was released Monday, with an additional 10 percent of the logistics professionals surveyed believing the market has lost all potential.

U.S. agriculture shippers are welcoming Washington’s recent decision to finally open up the border to more Mexican trucking companies as the move will end retaliatory tariffs on their products and will help them find truck capacity.

Shippers will increasingly turn to technology to find ways to cope with extreme delays and disruption caused by port congestion, labor disputes and other crises and build more flexibility into their supply chains, says an executive at software provider Descartes Systems Group.

Asian countries dominated the 2015 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index released today with four nations ranked in the top 10 emerging markets – China, Indonesia, India and Malaysia.

India’s trade deficit with the rest of the world narrowed to a 10-month low in December, as imports declined more than exports, according to the latest trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Kerry Logistics has formed a joint venture with Indonesia’s PT Puninar Saranaraya (Puninar Logistics) as it expands its business in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

DHL Express has opened a new distribution and consolidation center in Chandigarh, near Delhi, to cater to the growing trade demand in the northern India region.

For years, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been urging Congress and the White House to raise the federal fuels tax to help maintain and expand aging highways and bridges. For years, Congress and the White House have said no. It’s time to try and try again, the head of the largest U.S. business lobbying group said Jan. 14.

Twenty-five years after a consent decree settling a federal racketeering lawsuit reshaped the Teamsters union, the government agreed to phase out direct oversight of union affairs.

The American business climate is “improving” and will continue to improve in 2015 as the U.S. economy grows at a faster pace, but it’s not time for a “victory lap,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue said.

Giving Mexican carriers U.S. authority may not solve the chronic equipment imbalance and capacity problems at the U.S.-Mexican border, a logistics official says.

The acquisition of Columbia Colstor in Washington state gives refrigerated food transporter Lineage Logistics a bigger presence in the Pacific Northwest.

Challenges remain for second-tier suppliers of major manufacturers in China’s inland production centres more than 14 years after the Go West policy was introduced to shift factories away from the wealthier coastal areas and boost the economies of its poorer central provinces.

The Chinese government said it will ban imports of U.S. poultry and egg products because of recent detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza in backyard poultry and wild birds in the Pacific Northwest.

Global Logistic Properties has signed new lease agreements in China for 1.1 million square feet in the past two weeks as the Singapore-listed developer continues to expand its distribution and e-commerce network in the country.

U.S. shippers are the most optimistic they have been in nearly three years about freight growth, but they are also bracing for the sharpest uptick in transportation costs, excluding fuel costs, since 2011, according to a recent survey.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with slightly more than a dozen federal agencies to help them better determine what shipments are high risks and which ones can be cleared faster because they pose less of a potential threat.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue to go beyond standard operating procedures until the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex is free from congestion and productivity is back to normal, the assistant director for field operations at the agency in Southern California said Thursday.

The limited attention the contentious labor negotiations and broader port congestion have received within the Beltway speaks somewhat to the disconnect between the freight industry and Washington.

Asia forwarders are preparing for a busy first quarter with a six-week sweet spot between the western year end and a late Chinese New Year expected to drive up cargo volumes being shipped out before the mainland's most important holiday.

Since taking the reins of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in March 2014, Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske has met with shippers, brokers and others to better understand trade facilitation and what the agency can do to help. Associate Managing Editor Mark Szakonyi met with the former U.S. drug czar in early December to discuss how Customs will work this year to expedite cargo processing without sacrificing security.

Federal regulators are preparing a host of final and proposed trucking regulations for release and comment this year, but delays caused by lack of staffing and other issues may slow the process.

Satellite-based container tracking and communications giant Orbcomm extended its international reach and technology base by acquiring Canada's SkyWave Mobile Communications.

Kerry Logistics Network’s acquisition drive has continued into the new year, as the company added majority stakes in two Canadian forwarding companies barely a week after acquiring a Dubai-based logistics operator.

It’s not clear how many rules the FMCSA will be able to complete in the last two years of the Obama administration, and rules on driver coercion and electronic logging are likely to be challenged in Congress or in court — which could delay their implementation.

Shippers, transportation providers and infrastructure pundits have warned for years that the U.S. needs to go beyond maintaining its freight network and prepare for the day when freight growth takes off. That day has come, and there’s little sign that Congress and the Obama administration are ready to make the needed investments in the nation’s highways, roads and bridges.

NYK joined "K" Line and CSAV in pleading guilty to U.S. price-fixing charges over the past year related to roll-on, roll-off shipping services.

After two years of preparations, Nippon Express Co. has set up a subsidiary in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, joining a growing army of Japanese transportation, logistics and other firms aiming to cash in on what is widely seen as Asia’s last frontier market.

Western ocean carriers, port operators and freight forwarders are bracing for a slump in Russia’s freight traffic as the nation heads for recession and double-digit inflation in 2015.

UK parcel delivery firm City Link, which filed for bankruptcy last week, will lay off most of its 2,780 employees in the coming days after failing to attract buyers.

Fresh food is fast becoming the next e-commerce frontier in China, and the country-wide demand is driving the expansion of cold chain logistics in the mainland that has been a weak point for years.

The door to China’s domestic courier market is about to be opened a little wider for foreign service providers, as the State Post Bureau prepares to green light Kerry Logistics and Japanese firms Yamato Logistics and OCS (Overseas Courier Service) to operate in the mainland express market.

United Parcel Service has agreed to the acquisition of Polish pharmaceutical logistics firm Poltraf from Poland-based investment fund Ortie Capital Investment.

Mitsui-Soko Holdings Co. will take a controlling stake in Sony Supply Chain Solutions Inc. for about 18 billion yen (US$151 million), marking the latest in a series of acquisitions by Japanese transportation and logistics companies targeting subsidiaries of struggling domestic electronics giants.

Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings will receive a $100 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to build up Myanmar’s transport and logistics infrastructure urgently needed to create sustainable economic growth.

The Japanese government has recently expressed concern to the U.S. government regarding the delays of U.S. forage exports because of U.S. West Coast port congestion, according to an agriculture shipper group.