Latest news

The new energy independence of the U.S. has sent African imports of crude oil plummeting, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime and Trade.

The leader of the management group that negotiates with West Coast longshoremen said this week that the negotiating process that yielded months of disruption through February is “not sustainable.”

Everybody's working for the weekend, the song goes, but cargo thieves work on the weekend, with most thefts occurring Friday and Saturday. Memorial Day weekend could see a spike in activity, after an increase in thefts in the first quarter.

The long-stalled privatization of the port of Piraeus is finally underway with three foreign companies bidding for control of the leading Mediterranean transhipment hubs.

German freight forwarder Thermotraffic is expanding its network of temperature-controlled branches throughout Europe, with the latest addition at Frankfurt Airport’s Perishable Center Frankfurt.

An expansion project at the U.K.’s Port of Tilbury will add significant cold storage capacity when completed this year and rank as one of the largest reefer facilities in Europe.

It was business as usual on the volatile Asia-Europe trades that lost half of the general rate increase implemented last week, falling 23.5 percent to $658 per 20-foot container, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SFCI).

The U.S. West Coast labor dispute that choked California’s ports for months may have been resolved but the effects continue to lift volumes at the world’s largest air cargo carrier, Cathay Pacific.

A country that is seldom mentioned as an alternative to manufacturing in mainland China is Taiwan, its neighbour and disputed territory just across the strait.

West Coast ports say they’ll have productivity back to normal by the end of May after more than four months of congestion, but, in the meantime, some shippers continue to struggle with delays and lost business.

The Port of Virginia is falling short. Record volumes and a return to profit in the past year have been matched with near-unprecedented congestion and user dissatisfaction, Port Director and CEO John Reinhart said Thursday.

While besuited port industry executives milled about hotel ballrooms at the Virginia International Trade Symposium Thursday, truck-driving men and women in shirtsleeves marched in protest on the streets outside.

U.S.-based PACCAR is expanding its truck rental and leasing to Australia, where it plans to offer Kenworth and DAF trucks to private shipper fleets and carriers.

Alan H. Shaw has been named executive vice president and chief marketing officer by the board of directors of Norfolk Southern Corp., Wick Moorman, chairman and CEO, said today.

CaroTrans, a non-vessel-operating common carrier, will begin a weekly direct less-than-container load service from Montreal to Le Havre, France, on May 22.

Evergreen Line this month will launch a new intra-Asia service in partnership with Cosco and China Shipping, enhancing the Taiwan carrier’s intra-Asia operations.

Cosco Container Lines earlier this month launched a bi-weekly service from Yueyang, a city by the Yangtze River in Hunan province, to Vietnam and Thailand, allowing shippers to get their goods delivered a week faster than through past transfer services.

Southern California truckers who said they were improperly charged late fees for containers they couldn’t return on time to gridlocked ports received mixed decisions in the first arbitrators’ rulings on their cases.

Blue Dart Express, India’s leading air express and logistics services provider, reported its net earnings in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31, remained relatively flat compared to the profit in the previous year, despite significant revenue growth.

China Cosco Holdings pushed ahead with its fleet scrapping plan last month by dismantling two container ships and two bulk carriers.

Finnlines scraped a small profit in the first quarter as it spent heavily on technology to comply with tougher environmental regulations for ships sailing in North European waters.

A study commissioned by the British Frozen Food Federation suggests frozen foods can help reduce waste and even greenhouse gas emissions.

India produces about 30 percent of the world’s bananas, but poor post-harvest facilities and cold chain infrastructure means less than 1 percent make it to foreign markets. However, one fresh produce company, Pick N Serve Foods, is finding huge potential in exports, particularly to markets in Oman, Dubai, Qatar and Kuwait.

A decision by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) to implement a container booking system to better manage truck movements at its flagship Manila terminal will be welcomed by the port that bore the brunt of choking congestion last year.

Neptune Orient Lines recorded an $11 million net loss in the first quarter as both revenue and container volumes carried by its liner division, APL, declined sharply, accompanied by falling revenue per box.

Despite accelerating China business, Global Logistics Properties (GLP) reported a 29 percent fall in net profit for the year ending March 31, mostly due to profit sharing with the consortium of investors that own a 33.8 percent stake in GLP China.

Hanjin Shipping began its march toward a positive annual result this year with a first-quarter net profit of $21 million, its results buoyed by continued cost cutting and lower bunker fuel prices.

Convinced that Oakland will return to normal operations by the end of May, port executives are looking ahead to the beginning of peak-shipping season this summer, and they will soon roll out a series of operational improvements to prepare for the next surge in cargo.

U.S. shippers will likely see even higher domestic intermodal rail prices if the International Trade Commission rules against the Chinese manufacturers of 53-foot containers at the end of the month.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to dig out of the vessel backlog that has plagued the largest U.S. port complex since last fall. For the third consecutive day, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported that no container ships were at anchor.

APT Terminals and a dockworkers union offer disputing views on the impact of a labor dispute at Peru's Port of Callao, a major maritime gateway on the West Coast of South America.

ACT Research expects the number of active Class 8 tractors in the U.S. to climb from 1.35 million last year to 1.43 million this year, but faster economic growth and a driver shortage could blunt any advantage for shippers.

Legislation pushed by the third-ranking Senate Republican aims to keep Congress more in the loop on port congestion flare-ups and gauge how labor negotiations impact port performance.

Shippers and logistics providers need more advanced transportation management systems to meet a host of logistics challenges that didn't exist in 2000, 3GTMS CEO Mitch Weseley told the ALK Transportation Technology Summit.

India's federal government awarded 10 new public-private partnership port development contracts in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended in March.

U.S. ports on the lower Mississippi River cannot yet accommodate Capesize vessels, but the Obama administration is taking steps to see that they can.

Hapag-Lloyd swung to a first-quarter profit of 128.2 million euros ($143.6 million) from a year-earlier loss of 119.1 million euros as a stronger dollar and lower bunker prices helped to offset weaker freight rates.

Maersk will continue to invest in the expansion of APM Terminals despite its port unit posting a reduced profit for the first time in “many, many quarters and years,” according to Nils Andersen, the group’s CEO.

The global cold chain is in the midst of rapid expansion. Stakeholders view refrigerated cargo as a growing and profitable segment of their business and sizable investments are occurring on multiple fronts to build and strengthen the integrated global cold chain.