Supply chain

U.S. and Singapore shippers and transportation providers in their countries’ trusted trader programs are poised to see faster cargo processing after customs agencies from both countries yesterday signed two major agreements.

The ports of Seattle and Tacoma are one step closer to creating an alliance to protect and even expand their container market share after getting a green light — one of two needed — from U.S. maritime regulators.

Japan and Turkey have kicked off negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, as Tokyo sees the newly industrialized country as a potentially lucrative market and strategic gateway to other markets in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere.

U.S. House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a bipartisan bill to limit Federal Maritime Commission members’ terms, reauthorize the FMC and Coast Guard budgets at current levels, and establish a national maritime policy to encourage U.S.-flag shipping.

Eurasian Economic Union and Mercosur officials met last week to see how members could strengthen trade relations and increase the movement of goods between trade blocs.

Plans to raise the minimum insurance coverage U.S. trucking companies must maintain to operate could affect hundreds of thousands of trucking companies, large and small, and their shipper customers.

DB Schenker, the logistics unit of Germany’s state-owned railroad company Deutsche Bahn, is seeking $2.6 billion in damages from 13 airlines that operated a global air cargo cartel.

Manufacturing of labor intensive products has been migrating away from China in the past few years, much of it to neighbouring Vietnam, but that process appears to be speeding up, according to the latest reading of the HSBC purchasing manager’s index.

China is speeding up its process of ditching a two-year ban on Brazilian red meat with a resumption of imports expected before Christmas, said Brazil’s agriculture minister, Neri Geller. And Saudi Arabia is expected to resume imports of Brazilian beef by the end of this year.

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America on Wednesday charged that ocean carriers may be violating the U.S. Shipping Act with their congestion surcharges at West Coast ports.

Keeping track of the constantly changing rates and amendments in the container booking system is complex and an exercise in frustration for forwarders, beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) and NVOCCs, but crucial to establishing a bottom line cost, believes CargoSphere president Neil Barni.

Toll Holdings will offload assets and business units this financial year raising $85 million as Australia’s largest logistics provider tries to improve revenue after a rough first quarter.

Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV just need approval from Ukraine and China to merge and create the fourth-largest container lines, after Mexican regulators gave the tie-up the green-light this week.

It’s not just Brazilian ports that are struggling to meet demand. Brazilian road and rail projects are also suffering from severe delays caused by bureaucratic red-tape.

The supply of land is the greatest challenge facing logistics property developers in China as they struggle to match supply of modern warehousing facilities to the demand being generated by a rapidly increasing consumer market.

A federal judge has refused to block the next phase of a multiyear increase in tolls for bridges used by trucks and cars crossing waterways between New York and New Jersey.

DHL Supply Chain will expand its warehousing and transport capabilities in China by 50 percent over the next three years, investing $140 million in modern logistics facilities across the country to address huge demand for services from inland cities.

Fresh from a dismal third quarter, freight forwarding and logistics provider Damco is expanding its multimodal presence in China’s electronics manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioners voted 3-2 to ask members of the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement more questions on their proposal to permanently include westbound trans-Pacific trade in their discussion agreement.

The good news is the U.S. economy will continue to expand through at least 2017. The bad news is it won’t expand that much

Amid pleas of major shippers for a federal mediator, President Obama says he's confident U.S. West Coast longshoremen and waterfront employers can reach a labor contract.

Yusen Logistics has opened a new warehouse in Vietnam’s Hai Phong City to tap growing electronics and auto manufacturing production in the country’s northern region.

Two global logistics companies will set up shop in the Goodman Group’s newly-constructed Xiqing Logistics Park in Tianjin, reflecting the demand for modern warehousing to serve booming Chinese e-commerce business.

U.S agriculture shippers yesterday urged President Obama to “intervene personally” by bringing in a federal mediators to help reach a U.S. West Coast labor contract deal and end slowdowns at West Coast ports.

Washington D.C. politics is the most gridlocked it's been in 40 years, providing little hope for freight-related legislation, said Bruce Carlton, president and CEO of the National Industrial Transportation League, a major U.S. shipper group.

When Bradley S. Jacobs thinks about technology and the future of transportation, he thinks big. The CEO of XPO Logistics believes autonomous driverless trucks and three-dimensional printing will change the way goods are produced and shipped within the next few decades, utterly changing global supply chains.

India’s global merchandise exports in October fell for the first time in seven months on a year-on-year basis, primarily due to a sharp decline in engineering shipments, according to provisional government statistics.

European Union trade partners are implementing trade-restricting measures at at “alarming” pace and their efforts to remove such hindrances has slowed, according to an annual EU report on protectionism released yesterday.

A system aimed at expediting the customs clearance of goods traded between members of the Association of Southeast Nations will get its first test in in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Transplace is deploying technology that helps shippers get goods across the U.S.-Mexican border more quickly, cutting truck transit times by improving the customs process.

China’s e-commerce business catches the headlines because of the sheer scale of internet shopping in the country, but the growing trend towards ordering goods online is seeing huge investment in infrastructure and technology being made outside its borders, both in Asia and in the U.S.

Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren is pressuring the Obama administration to help prevent a potential U.S. West Coast port strike and has invited his friend and Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon to help.

Freight forwarding and logistics services growth fueled a 51 percent year-over-year increase in Allcargo Logistics’s consolidated net profit in its the fiscal second quarter, which ended Sept. 30.

The seven U.S.- and Canada-based Class I railroads told U.S. regulators they shouldn’t have to provide any more data on their operations than they are already sending unless the Surface Transportation Board begins a rule-making process.

The U.S. Maritime Administration today released the first phase of a manual aimed at helping port authorities plan and fund port infrastructure improvements.

After weeks of remaining relatively quiet on U.S. West Coast labor tensions, Congress is raising its voice on the need for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers to forge a new labor contract.

Brazil's Special Ports Minister Cesar Borges has asserted that $1.095 billion) will be spent on the nation's ports sector before the end of 2015.

Germany’s Deutsche Post DHL booked higher third-quarter earnings as strong gains in international express and domestic parcel shipments offset shrunken margins at its global freight forwarding unit.

The millions of products ordered online in China during the November 11 “Singles Day” will have to be delivered across mainland China in the next couple of weeks, placing intense pressure on distribution networks in the country.

Damco slumped to a $68 million net operating loss in the third quarter from a $1 million profit a year ago as ocean and air freight volumes declined in a growing global market and experienced one-off charges related to a business transformation.