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A South African firm’s decision last month to build an $8.1 billion plant in Louisiana that will triple its chemical production capacity in the U.S. underscores widespread growth in U.S. chemicals manufacturing and in supporting logistics and transportation services.

Drewry's benchmark spot rate from Hong Kong to Los Angeles lost all pricing gains associated with an Oct. 15 trans-Pacific general rate increase, and will rely on next week's Nov. 15 GRI to make up some ground.

The number of export and import containers moving through major ports in India expanded 7.34 percent year-over-year from April to October, the first seven fiscal months, as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making port development a major priority.

A 70 percent increase in truckloads moving from Canada to the U.S. and an improving North American economy boosted Canadian truck freight volumes in October, with spot market volumes rising 21 percent year-over-year, according to TransCore Link Logistics.

After weeks of remaining relatively quiet on U.S. West Coast labor tensions, Congress is raising its voice on the need for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers to forge a new labor contract.

Maersk Line is reviewing the ocean and inland services it provides in the trans-Pacific trade — a notoriously high-cost and unprofitable trade lane for container lines — with an eye to increasing the rates it gets for those services or eliminating those that don’t make money.

Brazil's Special Ports Minister Cesar Borges has asserted that $1.095 billion) will be spent on the nation's ports sector before the end of 2015.

Germany’s Deutsche Post DHL booked higher third-quarter earnings as strong gains in international express and domestic parcel shipments offset shrunken margins at its global freight forwarding unit.

The millions of products ordered online in China during the November 11 “Singles Day” will have to be delivered across mainland China in the next couple of weeks, placing intense pressure on distribution networks in the country.

The speed at which the oil price fell took Maersk by surprise as bunker fuel dropped $20 in the past month, but Maersk Group CEO Nils Andersen said customers would benefit from the lower prices.

The U.S. domestic carrier Horizon Lines is being broken up, the company announced on Tuesday, with its Puerto Rico service being shut down and its Alaska and Hawaii service being sold to existing carriers in those markets.

As the U.S. economy gets stronger and freight demand rises, large truckload carriers are beginning to add trucks, driving the JOC Truckload Capacity Index up 1 percentage point in the third quarter.

Man-hours paid to longshoremen in Los Angeles-Long Beach in October went through the roof because of the worst congestion the ports have experienced in more than a decade.

Bunker fuel prices continued to drop this week, as pricing has declined 30 percent since June.

Twelve container ships were anchored in the waters off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this morning, the most waiting at one time in San Pedro Bay in two years, surpassing the previous record set on Oct. 26 as congestion continues to crush the largest container gateway in the Americas.

Container ship capacity jumped 250 percent in the past five years in the Asia to West Africa trade, according to a new report from Alphaliner.

IHS Inc., a leading global source of data and analytical tools spanning several industries and based in Englewood, Colorado, said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire JOC Group Inc., the parent of JOC.com, from the AXIO Data Group, further building a rapidly expanding presence in the maritime and trade sectors.

Norway’s Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA posted weaker earnings and revenue for the third quarter as the auto and project shipping and logistics group saw a seasonal decline in ocean freight volumes and an unfavorable cargo and trade mix.

APM Terminals’ third-quarter profit soared to $345 million from $203 million a year ago as Maersk’s port operating arm booked gains from selling a terminal in the U.S. and a share of a French facility and increased volumes across its global network.

Facing a wave of surcharges tied to congestion at major global ports, European shippers are urging container lines to reduce the surcharges and include them in a single negotiable rate when possible.

Rising freight rates, partly resulting from “turmoil” in the U.S. domestic supply chain, could increase the share transportation and logistics contributes to national GDP, hurting the country’s global competitiveness, said the author of well-read annual logistics report.

Damco slumped to a $68 million net operating loss in the third quarter from a $1 million profit a year ago as ocean and air freight volumes declined in a growing global market and experienced one-off charges related to a business transformation.

Higher trucking rates drove year-over-year increases in less-than-truckload yield in the third quarter, as the U.S. economy expanded more than 3 percent for the second straight quarter. Lower diesel prices and reduced surcharges, however, curbed yield gains at many carriers.

Combined growth among the 50 largest transportation and logistics companies worldwide slowed to a halt in 2013 amid global economic uncertainty. The combined revenue of the 50 companies slipped 0.1 percent after increasing 2.6 percent in 2012 and 8.4 percent in 2011.

Maersk Group Chief Executive Nils Andersen reiterated Tuesday that the 2M vessel-sharing agreement between Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will launch in January.

CEVA’s third-quarter earnings grew 6.7 percent from a year ago as the Netherlands-based supply chain management group posted market-beating increases in ocean and air freight volumes.

The global idle container ship fleet has barely changed over the past two weeks with unemployment still at a four-year low, Alphaliner reports.

Merchandise imports will slow down in November, but probably not soon enough to help West Coast ports dig out of the congestion problems that continue because of operational issues and work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Maersk Line made a third quarter profit of $685 million, up almost 20 percent year-over-year as the Danish carrier increased freight rates and container volumes while keeping pressure on costs.

SEATTLE — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Monday pledged to continue working to ensure the ports of Seattle and Tacoma get a fairer share of U.S. federal funding and don't lose U.S.-bound cargo to Canadian ports by pushing for an alternative funding source to the Harbor Maintenance Tax.

Dockworkers at Los Angeles-Long Beach and Seattle-Tacoma picked up their productivity a bit this weekend, but the situation turned bad in Oakland when members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union walked off their jobs for three consecutive shifts.

Some shippers with sensitive cargo are diverting containers away from the U.S. West Coast to the port of Virginia, despite higher transportation costs, to avoid congestion and potential labor action.

Amid an environment of slowing demand and overcapacity, container lines have unrealized opportunities to improve profit margins by overhauling internal culture and expanding the scope of alliances, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Truck turn times at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex have increased more than 30 percent since last year, according to statistics provided by the Harbor Trucking Association to JOC.com, a result of crisis-level congestion.

The massive congestion and delays experienced by shippers using the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach slowed freight movement inland and contributed to reduced shipment numbers in October and higher shipping costs, according to the latest Cass Freight Index.

Customs agents striking in the Lagos-Apapa port complex could cause crippling congestion at the Nigeria’s largest gateway, the port said today.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India’s largest private port infrastructure developer, posted a 68 percent increase in consolidated net profit for the fiscal second quarter, which ended Sept. 30, on the back of strong growth in cargo volumes.

Blue Dart Express, India’s leading air express and logistics services provider, reported relatively flat fiscal second-quarter net profit as a 24 percent rise in operating costs offset a 23.5 percent increase in operating revenue.

The Panama Canal container shipping route has become the less-popular route for carriers sailing from Asia to the U.S. East Coast for the first time in history, according to new data from Drewry Maritime Research, with more than half of capacity in the trade sailing via the Suez Canal.

Banking on economic expansion and its own history, Old Dominion Freight Line plans to repurchase as much as $200 million of its own stock over the next two years.