Supply chain

Nippon Express Co., Japan’s largest international freight forwarder, saw its net profit rise at a double-digit pace in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in March despite paltry revenue growth.

Gateway Distriparks Ltd., India’s leading port-based logistics provider, recorded a 43 percent fall in its net earnings during the third fiscal quarter, hit by slowing container volumes resulting from sluggish demand and supply chain disruptions caused by foul weather in Chennai in early December.

Tight cost controls coupled with low fuel prices helped trucking giant Transport Corporation of India post healthy results in the third fiscal quarter, according to a company filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Singapore Post’s steady expansion into e-commerce and logistics lifted the company’s nine-month net profit by almost 18 percent to $101.9 million from April through October, with 40 percent of the revenue coming from overseas.

Echo Global Logistics revenue and net revenue in fourth quarter rose on the the company’s recent acquisition of Command Transportation, but related integration costs dragged down profit by double digits.

Japan’s government has drawn up the drafts of guidelines and revised ministry ordinances, which contain penalties and variation between the verified gross mass and actual weight of a container, for the smooth implementation of the International Maritime Organization's looming Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, container weight rules.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will extend deadlines for certain criteria that will be required after the rollout of its “single window” initiative on Feb. 28, according to the brokers, forwarders, importers and exporters who say they simply won’t be ready to meet those requirements by the end of the month.

Saying it will be impossible to implement the SOLAS container weight rule by July 1 without severely disrupting trade, U.S. exporters are calling on the Coast Guard to delay the rule until it can be amended and determined that they won’t face a competitive disadvantage against foreign exporters.

Ukraine is slashing tariffs on container cargo transportation by 60 percent in an effort to attract more volume from China to the European Union, according PJSC Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine, the country’s largest railroad.

Robust growth in GLP’s China business, strong gains in Japan and a storming entry into the U.S. market drove up the third quarter earnings of the logistics property developer by 64 percent.

Lower fuel prices and a softening used truck market constrained fourth-quarter revenue growth at Ryder System, but demand for Ryder’s fleet and supply chain services remained strong.

Shippers using C.H. Robinson Worldwide to move truckload freight saw pricing drop 3 percent on average in the fourth quarter. The logistics operator's volume, net revenue and profit, on the other hand, all rose.

U.S. lawmakers are looking into a new way to streamline how the federal government appropriates funds for port development projects, yoking together authorization and appropriation.

UPS surmounted peak-season challenges to deliver 692 million packages in its busiest season — a 7 percent increase from the previous year. Big Brown said it expects higher revenue, profits and volumes in 2016, as e-commerce keeps growing.

E-commerce ocean freight booking service Inttra, container lines and forwarders are working to create processes for a new type of form that will allow shippers to electronically send the verified gross mass of their container shipments to carriers in an attempt to eliminate a potentially huge bottleneck to trade once a new global container weight requirement takes effect in July.

Global integrator DHL and JD.com, China's largest online direct sales company, have signed an agreement to cooperate on a range of cross-border supply chain initiatives driven by the mainland’s fast growing e-commerce market.

Container Corporation of India, a state-owned intermodal rail operator, is set to jump into the shipping game as a non-vessel operating common carrier as part of a wider effort to diversify its business.

Logistics companies are investing heavily to keep pace with global e-commerce demand.

Shippers moving goods between the EU and Russia are poised to see their trucking costs rise because of the expiration of an agreement that allowed Polish freight operators to haul cargo to Russia.

Yusen Logistics Co.’s net profit more than doubled in the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in March on a year-over-year basis thanks to solid revenue growth, particularly overseas, and a negligible extraordinary charge.

The main ports of China’s Yangtze River Delta will introduce compulsory emissions reduction requirements from April 1 this year with non-compliant ships potentially facing fines of up to $15,000 under national air pollution laws.

Gati Ltd.’s net profit tumbled by a third in the three months through the end of December as India’s leading express distribution and supply chain solutions provider booked lower revenue amid tight market conditions.

Two small, uncompleted container ships will get new life as specialized carriers of offshore wind turbines for Siemens’ Wind Power & Renewables Division, which says the vessels could slash 20 percent from the components’ transportation costs.

Global logistics companies continue to pile into the Asia e-commerce market, with Damco launching a China solution and DHL expanding its growing presence in the region deeper into Thailand.

Hansa Heavy Lift in December completed two voyages along the western boundary of the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic region, a route that has been opened wider by climate change the shrinkage of polar ice.

The potential merger of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways, and the resulting tie-up such consolidation could spur, would shake up the Class I industry — and their shipper customers — to a degree not seen since the Staggers Act of 1980 dramatically reduced the number of major railroads operating in the U.S.

U.S. customs brokers and forwarders are asking Customs and Border Protection to halt all software changes tied a system aimed at streamlining the filing of import and export documentation just weeks before it’s set to take effect, saying the Automated Commercial Environment, or single window, isn’t ready.

When a container without a signed weight declaration shows up at a marine terminal as of July 1, when a new SOLAS rule takes effect, what happens next? Will the terminal allow the container in, hoping that the weight will arrive in time for the container to be handled and loaded without having to be pulled aside? Or does the terminal avoid the risk, telling the carrier and its customer that containers without the Verified Gross Mass won’t be allowed in under any circumstances?

Maersk Line had added a new service from Latin America to Europe and a new call on an existing service in the trade lane in an effort to tap one of the areas where container lines can still gain steadily profitable business: reefer cargo.

The world is awash in steel, but it won’t solve the problems of breakbulk carriers struggling with overcapacity, flat demand and low rates for their multipurpose vessels.

Two large chemical plants in Tianjin will be relocated at a cost of $4.4 billion this year after the conclusion of safety checks that began after deadly explosions tore through the north China port in August.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration tells trucking and shipping interests it "can't do it alone" in 2016, seeks a better partnership with those it regulates in the Obama administration's last year.

Despite unexpected volatility in the first few weeks of 2016, Cushman & Wakefield anticipates one more year of strong absorption of industrial real estate space before demand in the warehouse and distribution sector slows down.

Kerry Logistics in less than two months will complete the acquisition of an as-yet-unnamed U.S. forwarder, the latest part of the company’s expansion via acquisitions and joint ventures.

Adding the 300 vehicles, seven UK depots and training capabilities of Circle Express will bolster Rico's same-day delivery capabilities. The acquisition points to growing global interest in same-day service.

Jawaharal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest container handler, last week more than doubled its refrigerated cargo-handling capacity when it opened a new reefer site in the harbor.

The support of China’s state-owned energy companies is central to the success of plans by the central government to reduce the output of emissions from ships that pose a danger to public health in the vicinity of its major ports.

A seemingly widespread lack of clarity in China surrounding the implementation of the new container weighing requirements does not bode well for the global regulations that will become law in just five months and apply to every container loaded on to a ship.

Breakbulk shipping has retained a share of the market for U.S. imports of natural rubber, despite a global trend toward use of containers to transport the essential but damage-sensitive industrial commodity.

Wind energy equipment has been a rich source of cargo for breakbulk and project cargo carriers, but local and regional sourcing is cutting into international transportation providers’ share of the business.