Supply chain

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.

The world’s economic focus during the 1980s and 1990s was trained on the Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Now Argentina’s top agricultural official says the focus is about to shift south.

WASHINGTON — There’s plenty of bad news coming from Washington when it comes to long-term highway funding. With the federal Highway Trust Fund, the main engine of highway construction, set to dry up as soon as late August, states are already shelving long-term projects. In other words, trucking companies shouldn’t expect any relief to congestion, even if there is still enough money to fill potholes left by the brutal winter.

For years, truck drivers have complained about being pushed by dispatchers and others to violate federal regulations to meet unrealistic delivery deadlines. Soon, truckers may have a way to push back.

Meat and produce exporters looking to bypass California’s 22-metric-ton weight limit on over-the-road shipments soon may be able to ship overweight containers to the Port of Oakland by barge.

BARCELONA, Spain — In the middle of the rolling coastal mountains near this Mediterranean seaport a huge auto plant sprawls. The SEAT plant, which serves as the headquarters of Spain’s only domestic automaker, makes four different models, three under SEAT brand names and the Audi Q3, which is part of the family of cars produced by Volkswagen of Germany, which acquired control of the Spanish company in 1986. Most of the plant’s production is bound for export markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

In 1988, when the Berlin Wall was still standing and Russia was still a part of the Soviet Union, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Moscow. The first of the chain’s restaurants to open inside a communist country, it drew crowds and global attention. Today, McDonald’s has 35,000 restaurants in more than 100 nations.

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.

WASHINGTON — Long-delayed legislation agreed to by House and Senate leaders yesterday will allow U.S. ports to take on deepening projects without congressional approval and obtain federal reimbursement later.

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.

The rapid growth in China’s e-commerce market, reflected in the hype surrounding the forthcoming U.S. IPO of Alibaba, is exposing an acute shortage of quality warehouse and distribution center space that developers and governments are rushing to address.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he is pushing legislation that would force U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide measurable benefits to members of trusted trader programs and would require other federal agencies to speed cargo clearance at ports of entry.

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.

Attorneys for Thomas Farmer claim the former Crowley Liner Services vice president’s antitrust conspiracy indictment is invalid because Puerto Rico is neither a state nor a nation.

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.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in Chicago last week it’s “plausible” that Congress will reform the nation’s corporate tax system by the end of the year, giving President Barack Obama the $150 billion he needs for his four-year, $302 billion transportation plan.

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.

Japan and the United States failed to reach a deal in bilateral negotiations over the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement during President Barack Obama’s three-day visit to Tokyo, which ended on April 25.

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

The world’s largest third-party logistics providers showed minuscule growth in 2013 for the second consecutive year, as sluggish trade growth affected forwarding volume and other 3PL segments saw only modest increases.

While agribusiness investments are a thriving sector for multinational expansion, Ukraine’s more mature sectors — energy, mining and metallurgy — remain highly inefficient and subject to corrupt practices, according to Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

A rise in European exports helped lift Kuehne + Nagel’s ocean freight traffic by a market-beating 6.9 percent in the first quarter.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The severe capacity constraints shippers experienced on U.S. roadways in the first quarter will become the norm unless the federal government acts to offset the impact of new regulations with productivity-enhancing measures.

Goodman Group plans to increase its investment in China to $3 billion in the next three to four years, Philip Pearce, the Australia-listed global industrial property developer’s China country manager, said in Shanghai.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Booming U.S. oil and natural gas production is “one of the most underappreciated megatrends,” a senior equity research analyst told the Transportation Intermediaries Association conference here.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La., are calling for a six-year transportation bill that would maintain current spending levels but adjust for inflation, while drawing funding from tax reform — not higher fuels taxes.

The Senate yesterday confirmed President Obama’s nomination to the Surface Transportation Board, thrusting Debra Miller into the rail regulatory agency as it grapples with a myriad of issues.

It has been several months since China’s first Pilot Free Trade Zone (Shanghai FTZ) launched in Shanghai, but the shipping and logistics industry is still waiting for more policies to be clarified.

Opponents of allowing larger and heavier trucks on the nation’s highways are already calling foul on a yet-to-be-released study by the U.S. Department of Transportation and want President Obama to put the research on hold.

Despite growing concerns about tight supplies and rising prices, U.S. red meat exports performed well in February...

Australia has secured a significant competitive advantage in the lucrative Japanese beef market over its main rival, the United States.

Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t have much faith in Congress getting it act together soon to pass a surface transportation bill.

Foreign investment in the five founding members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, last year topped $128.4 billion, five times the 2001 level, Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin said in a report carried today by the South China Morning Post.

Gefco, the global auto logistics group, posted record revenue of €4 billion ($5.5 billion) in 2013 and said it plans to double sales by 2020 by spreading its geographical footprint and moving into new industrial sectors.