Supply chain

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.

Three companies this month have announced investments in temperature-controlled facilities near the Port of Charleston.

Tough screening regulations applying to air cargo being flown into the European Union will be enforced from July 1, but with just two weeks to go the industry has little idea which carriers, airports and forwarders have met the security requirements.

The U.S. Congress is considering taxing oil companies to pay for federal highway construction, as legislators debate whether to save the primary engine of surface transportation infrastructure funding with a short-term fix or something more ambitious.

Debate over driver fatigue and how many hours truck drivers should spend behind the wheel exploded on the national stage this week after an accident claimed the life of one celebrity and injured another.

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.

U.S. retailers expect containerized imports to increase 7.5 percent in June year-over-year, with growth tapering through September but rising back up again in October.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will assess cybersecurity at ports across the nation after a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that showed the DHS wasn’t doing enough to stop cyber threats.

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

The U.S. trucking industry scored a rare victory against new federal hours of service rules after a Senate committee voted to suspend the revised restart provision.

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

There is no letup in the demand for modern logistics facilities in China, but local and foreign companies are competing for a limited number of available warehouses outside the developed logistics centers.

New Orleans Cold Storage has plans to more than double the size of its existing storage space at the Port of Charleston, South Carolina.

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

Roughly 70 shipper and transportation provider groups are urging the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ask Congress to repeal a controversial container scanning mandate.

The US Congress is rummaging through the stamp drawer to find dollars for federal highway construction.

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

Congressional appropriators, or those with the purse strings, aren’t bound to follow the guidance set forth by the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, which President Barack Obama is expected to soon sign into law.

E-commerce sales generated some heat for The Home Depot during a frigid winter. Online purchases rose by $232 million or 40 percent in the first quarter as the home improvement retailer’s website drew more than 3 million visitors a day.

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.

Gil Kerlikowske oversees the largest U.S. law enforcement agency and the second-largest revenue-collecting source in the federal government.

The Senate’s vote for the Water Resources Reform and Development Act has sent the long-delayed port and waterway bill to President Obama for his likely signature.

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.

Dry van and flatbed spot market truck rates remained steady this week, while refrigerated trucking rates continued their upward trend.

Growth at North America’s two largest cold storage companies has mushroomed in recent years, with both looking at overseas opportunities.

The warehouse and distribution center industry grew strongly in 2013, and this momentum continued into the first quarter of 2014.

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.

U.S. shippers haven’t been this optimistic about volume growth in the coming 12 months since The Hurt Locker won the Academy Award for Best Picture and an Icelandic volcano disrupted flights to and from Europe.

Trucking is a notoriously fragmented business. The Department of Transportation estimates there are 500,000 trucking companies in the U.S., with 97 percent of them operating 20 trucks or less.

While some cold storage companies are growing rapidly, the head of one midsize warehouse company says that doesn’t apply throughout the industry.

For the first time since the 2008-09 Great Recession, shippers have a “small smile on their faces” when it comes to the economy, National Industrial Transportation League President and CEO Bruce Carlton said. Their increasing optimism in the economy, however, doesn’t quell their concerns over a myriad of other issues, from tightening capacity to infrastructure investment. Carlton recently spoke with JOC senior editors William B. Cassidy and Mark Szakonyi about the expectations NITL members have for the coming months.

Singapore’s rising prominence as a strategic logistics hub for Southeast Asia was further illustrated by the recent investment in warehouse and distribution facilities in the city-state by DHL and Menlo Logistics.

The Japanese economy posted strong growth in the first quarter of this year as consumer spending, a key driver of expansion, surged ahead of the sales tax hike on April 1, according to a preliminary report released by the Cabinet Office last week.

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.