Supply chain

Troy Container Line will open new services to and from Bolivia; San Antonio, Chile; Callao, Peru; and Paraguay, via its partnership with the Argentina-based agent MSL.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was judged the leading gateway for developers and users of industrial real estate in 2012 based upon its consistent cargo volumes and available blocks of industrial space within the immediate port area, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle.

FedEx reported net income in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, ending May 31, 2013, was $303 million, down from $550 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year, ending May 31, 2012.

Russian president Vladimir Putin unveiled plans to spend nearly $14 billion on three large rail and road projects to ease transport bottlenecks and stimulate a slowing economy.

Once feared as the high-growth export juggernaut of East Asia, Japan has been slipping in and out of deflation and recession for years. So when the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently embarked on an aggressive monetary policy aimed at ending years of deflation in the world’s third-largest economy, economists rejoiced.

United Against Nuclear Iran on June 21 launched its Maritime Intelligence Network and Rogue Vessel Analysis system, a new initiative that tracks Iranian vessels and identifies and exposes the Iranian regime’s efforts to smuggle oil and cargo...

FedEx has retired its last Boeing 727 aircraft from service as part of the company’s modernization strategy.

Protests in the areas of Brasília, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil may lead to disruptions in transportation, according to FreightWatch International.

The U.S. is now a “listed” country with the European Commission, meaning U.S. companies do not need to obtain an export certificate from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before shipping certain pharmaceutical products to Europe...

The United States’ marine freight transportation system is increasingly underfunded and “facing serious challenges,” according to a report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

The sale of TNT’s domestic delivery business in China earlier this year as part of its global restructuring program will not disrupt its trucking and air links to the country, the integrator claims.

MercuryGate International, a transportation management system for logistics service providers and shippers, has partnered with e4Data Systems to establish MercuryGate EMEA.

Shippers aren’t only scaling back how much freight they plan to move this year and in early 2014, but also how much they plan to pay to transport their goods by rail, truck, air and sea.

The euro area’s member states have recommended Latvia to join the currency union on Jan. 1, 2014.

Surface transportation shippers expect trucking companies and railroads to ease up on the pricing pressure through 2013 and into early 2014, but their expectations on securing space for freight vary widely by mode, according to a quarterly survey by New York-based transportation research and consulting firm Wolfe Research. Shippers’ expectations of a deceleration in pricing growth comes despite their forecasts of same-store volume rising slightly under 3 percent this year, according to the survey.

India’s Kerala government has signed loan and project agreements with the World Bank to receive $216 million for the Second Kerala State Transport Project.

Ryder System has begun to take delivery of 39 light and medium duty compressed natural gas vehicles, which will be available in California for lease or rent.

C.H. Robinson Europe is expanding into Turkey to respond to growing demand for logistics services in the region.

The U.S. Senate has approved Michael Froman to be the next U.S. trade representative, Reuters reports.

E-commerce is remaking supply chains and the structure of the retail industry, driven by online retailers such as ThinkGeek, whose warehouse outside Columbus, Ohio, is managed by Exel.

Changing trade flows are placing demands on ports to develop export-oriented facilities, especially those that handle food products, both dry and refrigerated, according to Moffatt and Nichol commercial advisor Anne Landstrom.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics has named Christopher J. Connor as its new president and CEO, effective June 21.

Karel De Gucht, the European Union’s trade commissioner, will travel to Beijing on June 21 for the annual joint committee with Gao Hucheng, China’s minister of commerce, to discuss bilateral trade and investment relations.

Eno Center for Transportation has appointed Tay Yoshitani, CEO of the Port of Seattle, and Phil Washington, general manager of the Regional Transportation District in Denver, to its board of directors...

The European Union’s Transport and Tourism Committee has approved user rules for a new generation of digital tachographs for trucks and buses.

Neovia Logistics has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the contract logistics division of MIQ Holdings.

Spectrum Logistics and its parent company TOTE Logistics have hired Gregory Tuthill as vice president of the Spectrum team.

The U.S. Department of Defense has adopted as final, with changes, the interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement...

U.S. business logistics costs remained at 8.5 percent of GDP for the second consecutive year in 2012, according to the Council of Supply Chain Management’s annual State of Logistics Report.

FedEx Trade Networks has opened a new distribution facility in Romulus, Mich.

Yusen Logistics is adding a weekly service from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, to Los Angeles to its LCL network.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ordered E & K Trucking, based in Commerce City, Colo., to immediately cease its trucking operations...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun the first phase of a truck cargo pre-inspection pilot at the Pacific Highway crossing in Blaine, Wash., adjacent to Surrey, British Columbia.

A U.S. District Court judge in Portland ruled that the National Labor Relations Board last year had no right intervening in a contractual dispute between a container terminal operator at the Oregon port and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The Coast Guard has told Horizon Lines the carrier can convert two steam-powered ships to LNG and diesel propulsion in non-U.S. shipyards and still be able to operate the vessels in the Jones Act domestic trade.