Supply chain

Russia’s leading stevedoring companies have voiced their disdain for proposed initiatives of the Russian Federal Customs Service and some state officials to curb the powers of customs offices to service import-export cargo in the Big Port of St. Petersburg, Russia’s largest container port.

The Thursday rollout of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ACE “single window” for filing experienced few problems until Friday, when the long-delayed initiative frustrated brokers and shippers with network errors and system-wide crashes.

Criticism and confusion from U.S. shippers, particularly U.S. exporters, greeted the Friday announcement by the 13 terminals at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex that they will not offer weighing services to support implementation of a global container weight rule.

Meeting the new International Maritime Organization requirements under the Safety of Life at Sea amendment that all containers be weighed before loading for shipment could increase the cost of ocean freight transport by more than 10 percent, according to a new report.

Warehouses and distribution centers near the largest U.S. population centers are filling up fast. The vacancy rate of 6.4 percent at the end of 2015 was the lowest in 15 years and is expected to get even tighter this year as retailers’ demand for space outstrips supply.

Since the beginning of this year volumes across Russia’s shipping industry have begun to show signs of recovery after a dismal 2015 in which Western sanctions and the low price of oil devastated the country’s transportation firms.

The first of many deadlines in the rollout of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ACE “single window” initiative came and went Thursday without any major hiccups.

The top Europe-based global freight forwarders were able to maintain or improve their earnings despite volatile freight rates and stagnating cargo volumes in 2015.

Shippers that use forwarders to move full-container-load boxes will not escape responsibility to comply with global container weight rules even if they are not officially the “shipper” under the carrier’s bill of lading.

Transportation providers have more than enough capacity to handle peak-season cargo volumes this summer and fall, but cargo interests say a lack of reliability and predictability within the supply chain will cause problems in moving cargo efficiently if not corrected.

A proposed class-action complaint filed with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission seeks unspecified damages for car buyers who allegedly paid higher costs for motor vehicles because of price-fixing by roll-on, roll off carriers.

Amazon has already taken a first step in Germany to reduce its reliance on established logistics companies, cutting the ribbon on a parcel sorting center outside Munich late last year. In Munich, Amazon also is using more than 200 delivery vans operated by a subcontractor to offer last-mile delivery to customers.

In the past few months, Amazon has moved openly and aggressively to increase its reach, capabilities and capacity in the logistics and distribution arena. The Seattle-based company purchased thousands of trailers blazoned with Amazon logos in the U.S., registered as a non-vessel-operating common carrier to better manage the flow of goods from China to the U.S. and leased 20 U.S. domestic cargo planes from Air Transport Services Group.

Agility Logistics net profit for the fourth quarter of 2015 rose 5 percent year-over-year to 14 million Kuwaiti dinars, or $46.4 million, in spite of a weaker performance from its cornerstone logistics division, the company said in a statement Monday.

The application programming interface, long the means of connecting software and hardware, may be about to digitally rewire transportation networks.

News that the International Atomic Energy Agency had verified Iran’s compliance with requirements to curtail its nuclear program raised the hopes of project shippers eager to help restore Iranian infrastructure and energy production. But most companies will have to wait a while — and the wait may be longest for U.S. companies, which are likely to be stuck in line behind their European Union counterparts.

Once dominated by paper documentation and the Excel spreadsheet, invoicing and freight payment is on a relentless march toward electronic data interchange as a new group of autonomous startups and large 3PLs enter the business.

Los Angeles-based startup Cargomatic has named two logistics veterans, one from Coyote and another from CEVA logistics, to its leadership team.

With an ever-increasing number of firms competing in the global logistics supply chain, investment in new connective logistics technologies has seen a sharp rise in recent years.

A directory of US warehousing and service providers in 2016.

There are now less than 100 days before a new international container weight rule goes into effect and the rollout is taking shape in very different ways in each of the 162 participating nations, with some governments giving clear guidelines while others haven’t provided any direction at all to date.

The net effect of China’s export slowdown on Kerry Logistics was being mitigated by customers shifting their manufacturing operations to Southeast Asia, said group managing director William Ma.

DHL Express said it will invest 100 million euros ($112 million) in a new totally automated sorting center at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to keep pace with rising demand for parcel deliveries in the Paris region.

Ocean carriers are telling exporters that even though they are required to provide a single, certified weight for containers that includes the weight of the container itself, exporters are not legally responsible for verifying the weight of the container.

Dutch ports, led by Rotterdam, are to appeal an EU ruling that they must pay corporation tax from next year.

The European Shippers’ Council has urged the EU to "abolish" completely rather than modify ocean carriers’ pricing system of general rate increases.

Compliance with the new container weight verification rule that will be imposed on July 1 is beginning to crystallize around two key points for shippers: What is the carrier cut-off time for submission of the Verified Gross Mass, and will boxes without the VGM be stopped at the gate?

To Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group, logistics isn’t simply a business. It’s also a change agent that has increased global prosperity significantly in recent decades as trade agreements pulled down market barriers and helped reshape not just trade lanes, but also economies and even societies.

Washington state legislators are once again pushing to reform the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Fee in an effort to secure more funding for the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, two gateways facing stiff competition from Western Canadian ports for U.S.-bound cargo.

Shippers seeking to avoid supply chain disruption on July 1 when a new container weight rule takes effect need to be mindful of one key fact irrespective of what they may or may not be hearing from government enforcement agencies: No matter what country a ship is departing from, container carriers cannot load a container for which it has not received a verified gross mass declaration from the shipper.

Suggestions that Amazon.com’s forays into air freight and logistics might disrupt the business of traditional package carriers or compete with them are “fantastical,” FedEx founder and Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said Wednesday. “Let me emphasize I choose this word carefully,” Smith said.

In a followup to a previous trade advisory, customs authorities at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust have set up a separate wing to handle processes related to “direct port delivery” for the clearance of import freight from India’s biggest public container gateway as part of larger program to facilitate trade and ease congestion in the harbor.

Logistics property developer Goodman has secured 100 percent of its Brazil operating platform, giving the Australia-based company complete control over the 190 million square feet it has under management.

Stronger-than-expected online shipping demand pressured various points in FedEx's transportation network in December, raising volumes on air and ground in the quarter that ended Feb. 29.

U.S.-Mexico cross-border trade experts say it will be nearly impossible for U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump to pursue many of the cornerstones of his trade platform: including his now-infamous wall and severe tariffs on Mexico imports.

U.S. transport and supply chain firm XPO Logistics has strengthened its presence in the U.K. after signing contracts with major supermarket chains Iceland and Aldi.

UPS is looking past low diesel prices by spending $100 million on a dozen compressed natural gas stations and 380 new tractors throughout the U.S. as part of an effort to log 1 billion miles with alternative fuel vehicles by the end of 2017.

The U.S. Coast Guard shrugged off suggestions that the rollout of a controversial new container weight regulation is mired in confusion and concern at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Japan’s government has set an acceptable discrepancy between the verified gross mass and actual weight of a container at the upper end of its proposed range as the July 1 implementation of the International Maritime Organization's Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, container weight rule looms.

Allcargo Logistics Ltd., looking to tap into rapidly growing logistics demand in India, on Tuesday unveiled a plan to construct a new “logistics park” at Jhajjar in the northern state of Haryana.