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The Port of Virginia blamed a 1 percent year-over-year decrease in container traffic in February on severe winter weather and warned it was still grappling with cold and icy conditions that have brought down productivity.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners agreed to extend until the end of September use of a near-dock storage yard for loaded and empty containers. The 30-acre site at the undeveloped Pier S facility was designated a temporary equipment storage yard and was schedule to close on March 31.

Even before congestion begins to clear West Coast ports, freight shipping activity in the U.S. is rising, a trend that will put more pressure on freight rates and capacity, according to the Cass Freight Index.

The Port of Houston’s largest container terminal was closed a second full day on Wednesday and so was part of the shipping channel it is served by, as authorities clear the mess caused by the Monday collision of two vessels.

Carriers in the trans-Pacific eastbound market are hoping to leverage robust volumes, higher spot rates and the disruption tied to the recent U.S. West Coast labor standoff to achieve higher rates in annual contracts with shippers that take effect on May 1.

The yawning cargo imbalance on the North America-Mediterranean container trade is still widening and carriers need an economic recovery in southern Europe to narrow the gap, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Deutsche Post DHL’s fourth quarter earnings slumped 17 percent even as the German mail, express and freight forwarding giant posted strong gains in ocean container and air freight revenues.

Ericsson head of distribution logistics Robert Mellin took a swing at the air cargo industry that he said was delivering service levels well below expectations and was failing to evolve at the same pace as other modes of transport.

Forwarders are reporting a steady rise in shipper enquiries into the China-Europe rail route from higher value shippers looking for an alternative to expensive and often unreliable air freight and the lengthy ocean shipping.

Seven years ago the idea that a relatively obscure bulk port in a sparsely populated region of Western Canada would become one of the fastest growing container gateways in North America would have drawn smirks, and did, even though the vision of a gateway for Asia trade at that location went back to the early years of the 20th century.

U.S. federal agencies able to slow and hold imports are finally getting down to brass tacks as the deadline for President Obama’s new comprehensive trade system nears.

Rail service during the 2014 soybean harvest in the upper Midwest has been noticeably better than last year, according to the latest survey by the Soy Transportation Coalition.

The largest less-than-truckload and full truckload carriers in the U.S. got larger last year, enjoying strong revenue growth fueled by U.S. economic expansion and acquisitions and mergers.

The Port of Gothenburg, Sweden’s largest container port, said sulphur emissions have fallen by 80 percent since the beginning of the year when tighter sulphur emission controls came into force but warned that many vessels are still failing to comply.

YRC Freight is expediting inbound shipments breaking free of the container logjam on the U.S. West Coast, as retailers rush to get spring goods to store shelves before Easter.

U.S. retailers appear generally upbeat on their ability to deliver spring merchandise to stores, with some telling investors that U.S. West Coast port congestion has had minimal impact on their supply chains, according to earnings calls in recent weeks.

Mumbai-based diversified logistics firm J.M. Baxi Group consolidated its cargo terminal business with a 30-year concession to operate a new multipurpose freight facility at the Port of Paradip, a major state-owned general cargo gateway on India’s east coast.

The Port of Houston’s largest container terminal was closed Tuesday until further notice after a tanker and bulk carrier collided on the Houston Ship Channel, causing a flammable chemical from the former to leak.

Planned mid-March general rate increases on Asia-Europe stand little chance of sticking as the container shipping industry enters the slow season seemingly powerless to arrest declining spot rates on the trade.

The legal wrangling over the classification of drayage company drivers as being either employees or independent contractors has been going strong for 10 years now, yet closure could still be many years off.

U.S. container exports plummeted 15 percent year-over-year in January as the West Coast labor standoff combined with a higher U.S. dollar and sluggish growth overseas created a sobering start to the new year for a key Obama administration priority

U.S. containerized imports this month are expected to rocket 16.9 percent year-over-year as West Coast ports make headway in reducing a massive cargo backlog caused by a labor showdown and retailers bring in spring merchandise, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker.

New Jersey legislators on Monday voted to send Gov. Chris Christie a bill to dissolve the bistate Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor and transfer its New Jersey operations to the state police.

Cargo sourced directly from beneficial cargo owners is becoming a steadily larger piece of Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s U.S. import cargo, further underscoring its transformation from an outsider, dependent on intermediaries for freight, to the largest carrier serving the U.S. market.

A consortium led by Montreal-based Fiera Axium Infrastructure has acquired Montreal Gateway Terminals from a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, the companies announced Friday.

Bruised by the experience of the current West Coast port disruption, shippers speaking at the 15th annual TPM Conference last week in Long Beach, California, gave a ringing endorsement of service and reliability as key elements in ocean carrier relationships.

Pennsylvania-based logistics company Kane is Able will open a dedicated distribution facility in Salt Lake City, Utah, to serve fast-growing dietary supplements maker Nutrabolt.

The Port of Rio Grande, in southern Brazil, shared a double dose of good news on Friday: truck flow operations had returned to normal and it’s moving forward with its dredging plans.

Clarksons posted higher profit and revenue in 2014 but the world’s biggest maritime services company said it faces “extremely challenging” conditions in some shipping markets.

A new design for a refrigerated ship built for banana shipments and roll-on, roll-off cargo promises more capacity, faster loading and unloading, and better fuel efficiency than its counterparts, its designer says.

Grimaldi Group is close to sealing a $300 million order for five large car carriers that will operate on the North Atlantic trade lane.

There were 221 kilograms of lithium ion batteries in the belly hold of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that vanished in March last year, according to the first comprehensive report into the disappearance of the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing aircraft.

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), the container transport division of Hong Kong-listed OOIL, reported a 161 percent increase in its 2014 net profit, driven by a sharp 10 percent drop in bunker costs and solid increases in revenue and volumes.

The Philippine Ports Authority and Malacañang, the presidential palace, announced last week that port operations in Manila have returned to normal after a visit from Pope Francis last month significantly disrupted business on the waterfront.

The four-alarm chemical fire at Port Metro Vancouver that shut down operations at the port for nearly 24 hours has been extinguished and operations on the south shore of Burrard Inlet have resumed.

British postal service Royal Mail has launched a new Chinese-focused online shop front to capture soaring demand in the mainland cross-border e-commerce market and rising interest among local consumers for premium UK-made products.

The key to making the Cargomatic free-flow program work is to have enough BCO partners to generate a sizable block of containers each day to keep the equipment operator or operators busy, Mark Wheeler, general manager at WBCT, told a workshop at this week's TPM Conference in Long Beach.

The truck drivers that shuttle containers to and from marine terminals are the backbone of the shipping industry, but that’s not how they are treated at marine terminals, said Robert Curry Sr., president and CEO of California Cartage Co. and a 60-year veteran of the harbor drayage industry.

The International Longshoremen’s Association said it will not undermine the International Longshore and Warehouse Union by seeking cargo diverted to East and Gulf Coast ports by the recent West Coast contract standoff.