Supply chain

Rapidly rising demand for retail and e-commerce logistics in China is providing warehouse property developers with a constant stream of business in both tier one cities along the coast and in the less developed inland regions.

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.

A decade into CAFTA-DR, the labor rights issue continues to cast a dark shadow over foreign-owned, low-wage manufacturing plants, especially in Guatemala.

Nicaragua has always occupied a special place among CAFTA member states.

A decade after its signing, and five years after full implementation, the Central America Free Trade Agreement may not have transformed Central America into the powerhouse of textile and apparel trade forecast by some optimists, but it has facilitated significant growth in that sector of the region’s economy, along with diversification into other sectors.

Foreign trade zones in the U.S. are enjoying a boom, partly because shippers are increasingly using the zones for exports, and even for distribution of retail products without any domestic components.

Wal-Mart’s recent decision to open a 1.2 million square-foot online retailing fulfillment center outside of Indianapolis suggests the state’s motto as the “crossroads of America” is well deserved.

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.

Forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers will learn by the end of the year just how far the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has mitigated many of their concerns with a proposed overhaul of ocean transportation intermediary rules.

Following the release of guidelines for ship and cargo contingencies plans from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a customs expert has shared his insight into what to do in the event of a serious labor disruption.

The Chinese government has identified logistics as one of the pillar industries to support economic growth, and the phenomenal development in this area can be seen in the annual report of Global Logistics Properties, the mainland’s market leader.

The P3 was a traditional vessel-sharing agreement, albeit a very large one, but for one distinct element that made it unprecedented in the annals of container shipping: its joint operations center.

Container lines considering launching major highly structured vessel-sharing agreements in Chinese trade lanes would be wise to consider factors other than just market share, said an attorney familiar with Chinese transportation policy.

NAPLES, Fla. — Truck driver hours of service rules could evolve to become more flexible, but only following concrete safety gains and reduced fatalities on U.S. highways, a federal regulator told trucking and logistics executives at the SMC3 Connections 2014 conference here.

Forwarders shipping goods via Shanghai are trying to decipher China Customs’ 24-Hour Advance Manifest (CCAM) regulations that either were implemented on June 3, will be implemented on June 28 or July 1, or will be strictly enforced from October 1, depending on the source.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is looking whether a program designed to alleviate congestion by encouraging shippers to move cargo during nontraditional hours at Los Angeles-Long Beach isn’t delivering better service in exchange for higher fees.

U.S. commodity exporters are enjoying another year of especially low freight rates, but these benefits are often negated by carriers’ sloppy processing of documentation, longer transit times and inland transportation costs from the nation’s interior.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero said that although more carriers are forging larger alliances via vessel-sharing agreements, there isn’t an immediate need to amend the law commissioners use to judge whether the pacts are anti-competitive.

A West Coast port strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union would have a multibillion-dollar impact on a still-shaky U.S. economy, according to a study commissioned by retailers and manufacturers.

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.

The growth of U.S. exports of containerized distillers dried grains to China has fallen in the last five months.

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

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued guidelines for ship and cargo contingency plans ahead of a possible West Coast trade disruption arising from the expiration of the longshore labor union contract.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero today said the agency is reaching out to container lines for specifics on their planned congestion surcharges ahead of potential work stoppages at U.S. West Coast ports.

WASHINGTON — U.S. manufacturers could lose a powerful resource that helps some of their foreign customers get loan guarantees they couldn’t secure in the private sector, which backers say allows many American exporters to stay globally competitive.

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

Canadian truck drivers are bristling at a U.S. proposal to more than double the fees they pay to authorities at the border.

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

What exactly is an e-commerce warehouse?

Logistics property developers in China continue to supply new warehouses to support a seemingly insatiable appetite for e-commerce distribution facilities.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will no longer require the air cargo industry to report its pre-screened volume monthly, saving shippers and forwarders hundreds of hours of time.

The Wal-Mart truck driver that earlier this month slammed into a limousine van, killing one comedian and badly injuring TV star Tracy Morgan, was speeding but wasn’t in violation of federal rules on how long he could be behind the wheel, according to a preliminary federal investigation.

WASHINGTON — The only U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner to cast a vote against the P3 Network said Chinese authorities might have done the agency “a favor by forcing us to look at our regulatory standards within this new world” of massive vessel-sharing agreements.

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.

WASHINGTON — With few short-term solutions available to solve the nation’s highway funding crisis, some in Congress are willing to back raising and indexing the federal fuels tax to inflation despite the political risks.

WASHINGTON — A former head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has blasted truck critics for “political opportunism” in falsely implying a recent high-profile truck accident is tied to an effort to rollback new federal rules for truck drivers.

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.

AGRO Merchants Group has been building its portfolio of temperature-controlled warehouse and distribution facilities at nine U.S. and European locations, and CEO Neal Rider says there’s more to come.

The furor over the truck crash with a limousine van that killed James McNair and injured comedian Tracy Morgan is spurring demand for tougher truck safety regulation, including stricter hours of service rules for truck drivers.