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The announcement that Mediterranean Shipping Co. will invest in the Total Terminals International facility at the Port of Long Beach comes barely one month after the port announced that CMA CGM is taking an equity stake in the Pacific Container Terminal that is operated by SSA Marine.

Port of Tacoma, Wash., has hired Tom Bellerud to lead container terminal business development.

Mediterranean Shipping Company has increased its investment at the Port of Long Beach, according to J. Christopher Lytle, the port’s executive director, in his “State of the Port” announcement.

U.S. Lines has postponed its general rate increase for dry cargo from all origins to all destinations in the trans-Pacific westbound trade from Feb. 18 to March 1.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. will hike rates on all export cargo from North Europe, Baltic and Eire to Canada’s west and east coasts, effective March 1.

International Airlines Group, created from the merger of British Airways and Iberia, has confirmed that Iberia and its trade unions have not reached an agreement regarding the airline’s transformation plan proposals...

Halterm Container Terminal has signed a seven-year contract with Newfoundland-based intermodal company Oceanex that could generate more than $60 million in annual revenue for the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based terminal...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed 2013 percentage standards for four fuel categories that are part of the agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard program.

William P. Doyle, who was nominated by President Obama to be a Federal Maritime Commissioner, was recently ceremonially sworn in at the Federal Maritime Commission, following his official swear-in on Jan. 10.

Con-way Multimodal, a freight brokerage division of Con-way’s operating unit Menlo Worldwide Logistics, has named Corey Bingham as director of business development.

Hapag-Lloyd will increase rates from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to Mexico, Central America, the west and east coasts of South America, Panama and the Caribbean on March 1 by $300 per 20-foot-equivalent unit.

Shippers seeking lower LTL costs need to start not by seeking lower rates but by sharing “cleaner” shipping data, speakers told the SMC3 Jump Start 2013 Conference on Jan. 21.

In the week ending Jan. 26, intermodal volume rose 1.6 percent year-over-year to 238,397 trailers and containers, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Boskalis, the Dutch dredging and marine services group, yesterday acquired 182,654 shares in Dutch sea transporter Dockwise. All shares were acquired through Euronext Amsterdam and were purchased at an average price of 18.50 euros...

Shipping company NYK Line today reported profit in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2012, ending Dec. 21, 2012, was $39.8 million and revenue totaled $17.6 billion.

Teams of special agents and officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and other agencies have seized more than $13.6 million in fake NFL merchandise.

There is a seismic shift under way in global trade patterns as developing nations in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas account for an increasing amount of fast-growing global trade.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., on Thursday said she wants a more “equitable” use of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund dollars within a long-delayed bill key to authorizing port and inland waterway project.

Japanese ocean carrier “K” Line reported profit in the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2012, was 9.4 million yen (about US$102.9 million), up from a net loss of $461.5 million during the same period in 2011.

Greek bulk shipowner Capital Product Partners today reported a net loss of $35 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, dropping from a profit of $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Chattanooga, Tenn.-based truckload carrier Covenant Transport reported profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $1.5 million, up from a net loss of $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

North American truckload transportation business Knight Transportation reported profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $17.7 million, up 1.3 percent from $17.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

North American trucking and transportation company Landstar System today reported its profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $34.0 million, increasing 4 percent from $32.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Finland-based lifting equipment manufacturer Konecranes reported profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 22.3 million euros (about US$30.3 million), dropping 2.9 percent from $31.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Truck manufacturer PACCAR today reported net income of $1.1 billion in 2012, the 74th consecutive year of profit and an increase of 7 percent from $1.0 billion 2011.

Unlike in the U.S., foreign container lines can’t reposition empty containers at Canadian ports, and the result is additional rail and truck costs that often are passed to shippers.

The U.S. housing recovery bodes well for containerized imports of furniture and other home goods this year.

Trucking company Ryder System today reported its profit in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $53.8 million, rising 12 percent from $48.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

UPS reported a net loss of $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, falling $2.5 billion from a profit of $725 million in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Duisburg’s container traffic reached an all-time high in 2012 even as total throughput at the world’s largest inland port slumped 12 percent on sharply lower coal and steel shipments.

Air cargo rates are bottoming out as global demand is set to grow in 2013 after two consecutive years of decline, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Incheon Airport handled 2.4 million metric tons of cargo in 2012, down from 2.54 million metric tons in 2011 as volumes declined in nearly every major lane.

The European Union closed an antitrust investigation into a German container feeder ship cooperative after its members agreed to abandon a compensation system for laying-up vessels and an information exchange scheme.

HAROPA, an alliance of three ports on the Seine river, including Ports de Paris, Grand Port Maritime de Rouen and Grand Port Maritime du Havre, reported container traffic in the waterway increased 1 percent year-over-year in tonnage...