Supply chain

Yusen Logistics Co.’s fiscal first-half net profit more than tripled thanks to robust revenue growth driven by solid cargo volumes, a weaker yen and the end of an antitrust lawsuit-related extraordinary loss in the United States.

Riding a flurry of acquisitions, XPO Logistics’ third-quarter earnings this year exceeded company targets and Wall Street expectations.

Revenues were down 3 percent to $1.7 billion and operating income was up 21 percent to $192 million year-over-year at Expeditors International of Washington in the third quarter.

Sojitz Corp., a major trading house in Japan, has acquired Illinois, U.S.-based MET Logistics Inc., commonly known as Juno Logistics, for an undisclosed sum.

Geodis has completed the $800 million acquisition of Ozburn-Hessey Logistics that gave Europe’s fourth-largest logistics and transport firm a strong U.S. presence.

Despite flat revenue, Transport Corporation of India’s net income increased 9 percent year-over-year in the second fiscal quarter to $3.6 million, aided by tight cost controls and growing express cargo demand driven by e-commerce growth in the country.

U.S. shippers expect muted freight volume growth through the third quarter of 2016 as they continue to pull from existing stocks before placing new orders after inventories ballooned during the gridlock at West Coast ports.

Customs brokers and forwarders are urging the federal government not to botch the late February roll-out of the ACE “single window” program, noting how Australia’s implementation of a similar system roiled supply chains in 2005.

Australia logistics firm Qube Holdings' $1.2 billion raid on Asciano, whose Patrick subsidiary is the country’s largest stevedore, has the blessing of shipping industry players and sounds the death knell to Canada management group Brookfield’s $6.4 billion takeover bid.

Container lines, U.S. shippers and logistics providers are coming together to figure out the best way to prepare for the July 1 start of new global regulations requiring the weighing of containers before they are allowed to be loaded onto a ship.

Deutsche Post DHL has written off 345 million euros ($380 million) of costs after deciding to abandon Net Forwarding Environment, a customized IT restructuring program aimed at turning around its troubled global forwarding unit.

U.S. infrastructure projects focused on improving freight movement got more backing from the federal government in the latest round of a popular grant program.

Too few shippers are ready to meet new global regulations requiring the weighing of containers before they are allowed to be loaded onto a ship, said Chris Welsh, secretary general of the Global Shippers’ Forum, the largest global shipper group. Welsh spoke with JOC.com Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi in late September about the risks of not complying with the rules set to take effect July 1, ways to meet the International Maritime Organization regulations and the complicated issue of who exactly is a “shipper.”

Even though global trade growth has slowed, there’s still plenty of opportunity out there as the list of the fastest-growing global transportation providers shows.

Despite softer demand in the North American truckload and ocean shipping markets, C.H. Robinson Worldwide increased freight volume, net revenue and net profit in the third quarter.

DSV, the Danish transport and logistics company acquiring U.S.-based rival UTi Worldwide, raised its 2015 earnings outlook after posting strong third-quarter results.

U.S. House legislators advocating the scanning all containers that come into the U.S. used a Tuesday congressional hearing on the threat of dirty bombs, or explosives using radioactive materials and conventional explosives, to reiterate their calls for the long-delayed federal mandate.

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday approved a three-year deadline extension for U.S. railroads to install new safety technology, avoiding a catastrophe that railroads have said would cripple the network fluidity intermodal shippers depend on.

UPS is expecting a short-term revenue bump from a double-digit increase in holiday shipments this year and a longer-term boost, to the tune of some $100 million, from its recent acquisition of freight broker Coyote Logistics, the company said Tuesday.

China’s economic slowdown threatens container terminal operators and container-backed securities, according to two new financial advisory reports.

TNT Express, the Dutch parcel delivery company being acquired by its larger U.S. rival FedEx, almost halved its third-quarter operating loss but remained under pressure from economic volatility in Australia, Brazil and China.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has voted to seek comments on possible changes to rules covering contracts that govern most ocean container shipments to and from the United States.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission voted 4-1 to change licensing and financial responsibility requirements for ocean transportation intermediaries, despite objections from one commission member.

XPO Logistics Chairman and CEO Brad Jacobs spoke with Alessandra Barrett, senior content editor, at the JOC Inland Distribution Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, about his company’s fast growth through about $7 billion in acquisitions this year. Jacobs, a keynote speaker at the conference is close to completing the acquisition of U.S. trucking and logistics company Con-way for $3 billion.

Blue Dart Express, India’s leading express air and logistics service provider, posted a 74.5 percent jump in net earnings in the second fiscal quarter, as operating revenue grew robustly, helped by lower fuel costs and new business strategies.

Gati Ltd., India’s leading express distribution and supply chain solutions provider, reported its group net profit in the second quarter of fiscal 2015-16 fell 16.5 percent year-over-year to $892,000 from $1.07 million.

China’s logistics and courier services are preparing for Alibaba’s annual Singles Day online shopping frenzy on Nov. 11 that last year saw 278 million orders placed in just 24 hours and sorely tested the mainland’s distribution network.

Intermodal logistics giant Container Corporation of India reported its net income surged 21 percent in the second fiscal quarter from a year earlier to $36 million.

European Union antitrust regulators will not challenge FedEx’s 4.4 billion euros ($5 billion) acquisition of TNT Express, the companies said.

Plummeting fuel surcharges took a bite out of the refrigerated transporter's total revenue, but strong dedicated and brokerage business helped build underlying profits, shore up weaker truckload unit in the third quarter.

Panalpina’s operating profit shrank nearly 8 percent in the third quarter on lower ocean and air traffic and negative currency movements.

Frank Peake, former president and chief operating officer of Sea Star Line, has lost his appeal of his conviction and five-year prison sentence for participating in a price-fixing conspiracy in the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico market.

The warehouse and distribution industry is hiring high-functioning adults with behavioral disabilities to address a looming labor shortage, and employers have discovered that for functions such as pick-and-pack, inventory storage, shipping, receiving, tagging and labeling, the new workers are performing at or above the level of the existing workforce.

Customs and Border Protection directors Friday urged West Coast brokers and forwarders that haven’t done so to begin filing trade documentation through the evolving “single window” initiative that CBP and several participating government agencies have established, even though mandatory electronic filing is still more than four months away.

The transition from cold warehouse or cold carrier to third-party logistics services provider is fairly mature. But that’s not to suggest it’s stopped. A thriving industry continues to evolve, and that’s very much the case with the cold chain sector.

UPS is adding more than 41,000 new postal codes, most of them in Asia, to its global express business as the giant integrator embarks on the largest one-time expansion of the service in its history.

The Mombasa County government is trying to extract more fees from users of the Port of Mombasa at two points in the supply chain, which would further drive up shipping costs in East Africa’s largest container gateway.

UPS has announced rate increases effective Dec. 28, 2015 that will raise costs for shippers using the services of the world’s second-largest transportation provider.

Diogo Lobo, vice president of international logistics at Lineage Logistics, recently shared his perspective on where the company and cold chain logistics industry is heading.

Vacancies for warehouses and distribution centers in the “red hot” New Jersey market dropped to 7.2 percent in the third quarter, the lowest rate since the recession took hold in 2007.