Supply chain

The build-out of cold storage capacity is on fire around the world. From 2012 through 2014, total global capacity grew 20 percent to 552 million cubic meters, an increase of 92 million cubic meters in just two years, according to the 2014 IARW Global Cold Storage Capacity Report.

Drug giants AstraZeneca and Baxter are shifting more cold chain shipments from air to ocean, attracted by lower transportation costs, a reduced carbon footprint and mitigated security concerns, according to Outsourcing-Pharma.com.

The U.S. needs to boost its exports to fast-growing emerging markets, but it faces a number of barriers that stand in the way of a more balanced trade, Walter Kemmsies, chief economist of port design consultancy Moffatt & Nichol, told a panel at the 15th annual TPM Conference on Tuesday.

CEVA Logistics posted slightly lower revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2014 as currency movements outweighed market-beating increases in ocean and air freight volumes.

Panalpina’s profit more than doubled in 2014 as the Swiss forwarding and logistics company posted market-beating ocean and air freight traffic growth and narrowed logistics losses ahead of schedule.

The quality, availability and management of data has to improve if the supply chain is to efficiently handle the mountain of information that is now available to carriers and their customers, panelists said at the 13th annual TPM Conference in Long Beach, California.

With the air cargo industry under increasing competition from ocean carriers for certain cargoes, especially perishables, more sophisticated software and technology tools are helping drive the migration from ocean to air.

The challenges are abundant for second-tier suppliers moving west into China’s interior, a massive region rife with cheap labor but lacking necessary infrastructure and reliable transportation.

Global economic growth will accelerate next year driven by lower energy prices, a resurgent U.S. consumer as a global driver of growth, and stimulus measures being imposed by multiple central banks, IHS Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh told the 2015 TPM conference in Long Beach on Monday.

U.S. exports of agricultural goods have outpaced imports since 1960, generating a surplus in the nation’s farm trade and helping to “counter the persistent deficit in nonagricultural U.S. merchandise trade,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service. Much of the trade in this sector relies on an integrated global cold chain.

The shipping executive perhaps best suited to assess the relationship between container lines and non-vessel operating common carriers sought on Monday to set to rest the tensions that have long existed between the two, and very much continue today.

Norbert Dentressangle’s operating profit surged 18.6 percent in 2014 as it reaped an early benefit from its $750 million acquisition of Jacobson, the fourth largest U.S. logistics group.

Growth in the global reefer market this year will likely outpace the lukewarm performance of the past few years, according to industry analysts.

A bill introduced in the House of Representatives this week would establish national hiring standards for shippers, brokers and other parties contracting or using trucking companies.

A broad measure of business activity for the Chicago are plunged in February with much of the blame being laid at the door of the West Coast port labor standoff.

Singapore-based Global Logistic Properties Limited (GLP) has completed the acquisition of one of the largest logistics platforms in the U.S. for $8.1 billion.

Freight forwarder Expeditors International saw air freight volume soar in the fourth quarter, reaching a 19 percent year-over-year increase in December, as shippers tried to fly over West Coast port gridlock.

The Obama administration is discussing a plan that U.S.-flag carriers fear will further reduce their ability to carry food aid shipments financed by government agencies.

Kuehne+Nagel in 2014 became the largest non-vessel operating common carrier serving the overall U.S. import market, knocking longtime leader Expeditors International out of the top spot, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS.

Merely suggesting that U.S. domestic ships might be built overseas is enough to jeopardize U.S. orders for ships in Jones Act trades, U.S. Maritime Administrator Paul “Chip” Jaenichen told a congressional budget hearing Wednesday.

Kuehne+Nagel posted a new record result in 2014 driven by a return to profit from its inland division and what it described as dmarket-beating growth in sea and air freight traffic.

Damco’s decline deepened in 2014 as the Maersk Group’s freight forwarding and logistics unit saw ocean and air freight volumes slide in a growing market.

Retailer Home Depot said its import shipments have been delayed by West Coast port delays, but that it has been able to adjust its supply chain to keep stores supplied.

Annual costs to operate a hypothetical 500,000-square-foot distribution center with 150 employees could range from $11.3 million to $15 million among U.S. cities surveyed by a national site-selection company.

A looming shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could put U.S. international trade, not just national security, at risk, President Obama warned Monday, though in reality trade at ports of entry will not be delayed even in the event of a DHS shutdown.

A newly introduced U.S. House bill would allow shippers to pay for additional Customs staffing and extended gate times at the entire U.S.-Mexico border, and not just at ports of entry in Texas as they can now.

The completion of a long-awaited Pacific trade deal may still be a ways off, international officials say, so long as U.S. legislators continue to delay key trade legislation that would make the deal possible.

A healthier global economy, strong U.S. dollar and low fuel prices should give global logistics and transportation merger and acquisition activity a boost in 2015, according to consulting firm PwC US.

There is a growing disconnect between third-party logistics providers and manufacturers and retailers who say they are dissatisfied with the level of service they are being provided.

DSV is working to attract European importers with its new warehouse in Edison, New Jersey, the global third-party logistics provider’s second in the U.S.

In an encouraging sign for the still-struggling Japanese economy, the nation’s exports got off to a powerful start this year, with shipments to the U.S. and some other major trading partners in January rising at a double-digit pace compared to the prior year.

It’s too soon to determine whether a new police department tasked with protecting the Suez Canal will do enough to secure the region, a supply chain security expert told JOC.com on Wednesday.

The U.S. truck safety watchdog ordered three companies off the road in the space of a month for multiple driver and vehicle regulatory violations. Expect more such orders in 2015.

The gales of congestion that hit U.S. ports on both coasts at different times over the past year are boosting the business of one segment of the container industry: non-vessel-operating common carriers.

U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn, a major advocate of port funding, is leaving Congress to run for an open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The decision by Japan state postal service to takeover regional logistics operator Toll Holdings for $5.07 billion is the second mega-logistics acquisition involving Japanese companies in as many days, and another exceptional price.

A partisan debate on Capitol Hill is threatening to throw even more delays into already slowed U.S. supply chains. What began as a debate over immigration reform has evolved into a stalemate that has put at risk customs operations at airports, seaports and land borders nationwide.