Industries

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     Cheetah Software Services, a provider of information technology, has delivered the next version of its mobile application to Ward Transport and Logistics, a regional trucking company.    Running on the Android platform, Cheetah Mobile connects field workers with dispatch, customer service, management, and customers through two-way messaging, dynamic ETA updates, and POD verification.    Ward is running Cheetah Mobile on Android tablets because they provide la...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

   The White House on Tuesday said the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement will enter into force on March 15.     The announcement followed the completion over the President’s Day weekend of work by the United States and South Korea to review each other’s laws and regulations related to the implementation of the agreement. The United States has exchanged diplomatic notes with South Korea in which each side confirmed that they had completed their legal requirements and proc...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     The U.S. Export-Import Bank will provide small exporters with revolving credit through a new product called Global Credit Express (GCE).    "This new product will provide additional liquidity for eligible American exporters and access to financing at a reasonable cost," said Bank Chairman Fred P. Hochberg, in a statement.    Through GCE, small business exporters may be eligible for a revolving line of credit of up to $500,000 for 6 to 12 months. During t...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Eric L. Hirschhorn on March 1 will meet with leading Silicon Valley companies to update them on the reform of the country’s export control regulations.    The two-hour seminar, scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at SAP in Palo Alto, Calif., is sponsored by Women in International Trade – Northern California. The seminar will include a preview of proposed rulings and how companies are impacted by the e...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     Phoenix-based Banner Health said it saved $41.5 million in a single year through a partnership that focused on reducing supply chain costs, eliminating clinical variations and improving the overall quality of care delivery.    Banner said by partnering with Premier, a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals and 81,000-plus "other" healthcare sites, it gained access to a range of new practices and tools for its logistics management, including ...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     MercuryGate International, a transportation management solutions (TMS) service provider, has announced a partnership with JFE Pfe Ltd., a supply chain services provider, to create MercuryGate Asia Pacific.    MercuryGate has operated in the Pacific Rim region for some time, but said the move was to add a global face forits  TMS in the region, as well as to better support existing customers there.    Based in Singapore, MercuryGate Asia Pacific ...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

     Government logistics services provider LMI will establish a southeast region office via its recent acquisiton of Belzon Inc., a government consultancy in Huntsville, Ala.    LMI, which focuses on defense and intelligence, health care, homeland security, energy and environment, and civil government work, said the purchase was finalized, but did not disclose financial terms.    Belzon has done work in logistics planning, readiness management, program ...

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

   London-based advisory and research company Drewry said Tuesday it has opened a new office in Shanghai.    “Through this new site, Drewry is now better placed to serve key clients, while also using local market knowledge to support international clients,” the company said. “Drewry is no stranger to the Chinese market, having built long-established relationships over the past decade and completed numerous assignments for leading organisations, while also jointly organising the annual...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

     Spyros M. Polemis, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping, is calling for a moratorium on new ship construction.    Speaking at the a shipping conference in Athens, which was sponsored by the Financial Times of London, Polemis said "until the crisis is over we do need a moratorium on new orders for ships that have no economic purpose.    “Current markets would appear to be demonstrating just how seriously damaging the oversupply of s...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

     Expeditors International of Washington reported a profit for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31 of $92.8 million, 4 percent less than the same 2010 period.    Revenue for the quarter was $1.5 billion, down 5 percent, while net revenue was $476 million, a 5 percent increase.    For the full year, the company had a profit of $385.7 million, a 12 percent increase over 2010. Revenue was $6.15 billion in 2011, up 3 percent over 2010, and net revenue was $1.9 billion, up...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

     IBM has entered an agreement to buy Worklight, an Israel-based enterprise mobile applications development firm.    IBM said Worklight will become an "important piece of IBM's mobility strategy," and estimates in the Israeli press put the company's value at about $70 million.    Worklight builds HTML5 apps plus the middleware and security features to support them, including data management and analytics services. The HTML5 platform allows apps to wor...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

     Days after it rejected an acquisition bid from UPS, the Dutch document and package carrier TNT Express said it had a loss of 174 million euros ($230 million) in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to a profit of 4 million euros in the same 2010 period.    Revenues were 1.87 billion euros in the fourth quarter, 2.3 percent more than the same period a year earlier.    For the full-year 2011, the company lost 272 million euros, compared to a profit of 69 m...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

     Delta Mariner , the ship that slammed into a bridge across a reservoir on the Tennessee River last month, has resumed its voyage to Port Canaveral.    United Launch Alliance, the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that charters the ship from Foss Maritime to move rocket components from its manufacturing location in Decatur, Ala. to Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., said Delta Mariner , is expected to arrive in Port Canaveral on Feb. 23...

Monday, February 20, 2012

     IAG Cargo, which combines British Airways World Cargo and Iberia Cargo, has launched a free iPhone and Android phone application that allows customers to track air freight documented on both carriers' air waybills.    The app gives real-time tracking information on shipments via  waybill numbers and barcodes, while also allowing companies to plan their next shipments. Customers can select their origin and destination, and the app will display a wide choice of...

Monday, February 20, 2012

     Access to the ports of Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., played a key role in Caterpillar Inc.'s decision to build a new plant in Athens, Ga., the company said Friday.    The 1 million-square-foot facility will manufacture small track-type tractors and mini-hydraulic excavators and employ 1,400 people when fully operational.     The announcement also underscores the recent phenomenon of near-shoring, the slowly growing trend of some U.S. man...

Monday, February 20, 2012

     Last week, SAP launched its first consumer app, Recalls Plus.       Recalls Plus addresses the often cumbersome process of tracking consumer goods recalls via a new engagement system with share options and social networking. It also allows consumers to track recalls on individual products, product categories, and food allergens on mobiles.    While doing this, SAP brings this information to consumers directly, bypassing all manufacturers a...

Monday, February 20, 2012

   WOW Logistics has appointed Mike Gebhardt as its director of business development.    Gebhardt, previously with OHL and Saddle Creek Corp., comes to WOW with a background in the warehousing and distribution industry.    Based in Appleton, Wis., WOW is a third party logistics services firm with 7 million square feet of warehouse space in 23 locations across three states.

Monday, February 20, 2012

     Motorola Solutions unveiled its SL Series portable radio and its new XPR 5000 mobile radio to address new issues in the modern logistics environment.    The two devices fall under its MOTOTRBO umbrella that focuses on voice quality, extended battery life, and a large application developer program aimed at increased productivity and enhanced worker safety.    The SL Series weighs less than the average smartphone, and Motorola said it's aimed the slim design at...

Monday, February 20, 2012

     Unisys Corp. is in talks with India’s shipping ministry to provide security systems to domestic ports to avoid traffic congestion and piracy threats, according to a report in India’s Economic Times .    The project involves drawing a port-security roadmap for threats, as well as a vessel traffic management system, with a deal possibly signed by March, according to the report.

Friday, February 17, 2012

     Third-party logistics provider Performance Team will open a container transloading facility at the Port of Charleston to shuttle cargo from ocean containers to truck trailers for distribution throughout the Southeast.    Performance Team will operate from the Wando Welch Terminal's container freight station and handle both import and export cargo.    Performance Team said transloading cargo onsite will increase its efficiency, reduce costs, and...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     Zumiez, a specialty retailer of sports related apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories, will relocate its e-commerce fulfillment operations from the company’s headquarters in Everett, Wash., to the Kansas City area this May.    Zumiez will lease a 153,000-square-foot space and create 100 new jobs in the area. Zumiez said it is moving to better address its online business needs and increase the speed of products it delivers throughout the United States.    "T...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     A study by Pike Research, a market research and consulting firm, found that intelligent transportation systems (ITS) will continue to see increased investment worldwide despite tightening purse strings.    Pike estimates global investments in smart transport technology will reach $13.1 billion from 2011 through 2017.    ITS, also called smart transportation systems, includes electric vehicles, vehicles with advanced telematics systems, new and ...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has received 15 license applications and changes for review.    The FMC received non-vessel-operating common carrier license applications from AA Shipping, Houston (Barbara C. Mozie, president); Eagle Van Lines, Temple Hills, Md. (Christos Georgeakopoulos, vice president); J.K. Moving & Storage, Sterling, Va. (Charles S. Kuhn, president); NIT Logistics, Hackensack, N.J. (Esra Terer, corporate secretary); and TBIF, Bozeman, Mont. (Way...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     Central Freight Lines, a less-than-truckload carrier based in Waco, Texas, announced Thursday it will test 15 compressed natural gas tractors with the help of a grant from the Houston-Galveston Area Council.    If the Peterbilt tractors perform well under operational conditions, the company said it may buy another 200 of these low-emission trucks for use in South Texas.    The regional coordination agency is using $17.5 million in federal funds to subsidize f...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     Old Dominion Freight Line's warehouse in Thomasville, N.C., will be able to offset more than 90 percent of its energy costs with the help of recently installed rooftop solar panels, the company said.     The 1.8 megawatt system is the first foray into solar energy for the less-than-truckload carrier, which has an extensive network of cross-docks around the country. It can produce more than 2.2 kilowatt hours of electricity a year.    The project is the t...

Friday, February 17, 2012

     The Netherlands-based document and small package delivery company TNT Express said Friday it received and rejected an unsolicited acquisition bid from UPS.     Atlanta-based UPS offered 9 euros per share, TNT said, or a total of about 4.99 billion euros ($6.4 billion).    TNT said its supervisory and executive boards "carefully considered the indicative proposal and explored its rationale, merits and risks for shareholders and all other stakeholders...

Friday, February 17, 2012

   The Johannesburg, South Africa-based Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and Imperial Logistics, a logistics services provider, have launched a Supply Chain and Logistics Program to provide teaching and research in the fields of logistics, supply chain management, and transportation management.    The goal of the program is to raise awareness of supply chain management systems for firms in the Southern and greater Africa regions, and also create supply chain ...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

     The Port of Seattle announced that cargo operations and deliveries returned to normal Wednesday as a contingent of port truck drivers ended a two-week work stoppage to protest pay and safety conditions.    An estimated 300 to 400 drivers that shuttle containers between the port, local warehouses and rail ramps walked off the job Jan. 31 in an effort to get classified as employees instead of independent contractors and draw attention to alleged occupational hazards such...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

     The United States and European Union on Wednesday announced that starting June 1 organic products certified in Europe or the United States may be sold as “organic” in either region.    The United States and Europe are considered the world’s largest producers of organic crops, with a collective value of $52 billion (40 billion euros).    The agreement’s signing took place at the BioFach World Organic Fair, the largest trade show for organic products in the world. &...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

   Elemica, a supplier of supply chain integration and optimization services, has introduced its new Elemica Transportation Management solution (ETM) that’s based on Oracle’s transportation management service.    The service is available as a subscription offering and promises to optimize logistics and transportation processes. The ETM provides visibility over the logistics order lifecycle and anticipates the needs of its customers, largely the chemical industry.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

     A2b Fulfillment will now provide Kigo Footwear with inventory management and fulfillment support.     An existing agreement required third-party logistics provider A2b to provide Kigo with warehousing, storage, and shipping services.    Kristin Serrano, Kigo's chief operating officer, said the company’s recent growth necessitated outsourcing. She said the footwear manufacturer was “forced …to decide which tasks are the most important for us to do an...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

     Florida-based Sylectus, a unit of Qualcomm Enterprise Services, has reached agreement with MacroPoint to offer an “intuitive" fleet tracking application for trucking companies.    Sylectus said the offering will allow 3PLs, fleet owners and managers, freight brokers, and carriers to track loads and drivers without requiring any new hardware or long-term contracts. The application will offer a “pay-for-play” model that can add location tracking to any existing transportation...

Thursday, February 16, 2012

     Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) said it plans to grow its aircraft and aviation services company ASL Aviation Group.    Antwerp-based CMB entered the passenger and cargo aviation business in 1998, and it’s been one of the fastest emerging operations in the company’s transport assets portfolio. CMB is known in the maritime industry for its fleet of post-Panamax-, cape- and handy-size bulk vessels.    ASL is a joint venture between CMB (51 percent) and 3P Air Freight...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

   The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that there is a “reasonable indication” domestic manufacturers of large residential washers imported from South Korea are allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value.     The ITC also determined similar washers imported from Mexico, while not subsidized, are also sold at less than fair value in the United States.    The commission made its determination in a 4-1 vote on Fr...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

     The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined there is a “reasonable indication” that domestic manufacturers of utility-scale wind turbine towers are injured by imports allegedly subsidized by China and from both China and Vietnam sold in the United States at less than fair value.    The commission made its determination in a 5-0 vote on Friday.    As a result, the Commerce Department will continue its investigations on imports of these products, wit...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

   Leavitt Partners and Park City Group have paired to create a joint solution to improve supply chain visibility for food and drug safety.    The partnership will leverage Park City’s product "synchronization" technology that maintains inventories, tracks product movement, and is used to settle financial transactions among buyers.    Leavitt Partners, a health care and food safety consulting firm, said the firms will start with a database of seller and b...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

     Kewill, a provider of global trade and logistics services and a Gold-level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), announced it has achieved Oracle Validated Integration of Kewill Flagship with the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.    Kewill Flagship provides an enterprise parcel shipping service for Oracle’s E-Business Suite users and the validated integration allows for the system to give easier implementations, lower costs, and improved ease of use.    The validated...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

     Union Pacific plans to invest $200 million in South Louisiana to meet current and expected shipper demand from the petrochemical plants along the Mississippi River.    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and UP Chairman James R. Young announced the investment Tuesday.    Jindal said "rail lines are the backbone of the chemical and manufacturing industries in Louisiana, and Union Pacific's expansion will allow the railroad to better serve key plants along the Mississi...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

     President Obama signed into law Tuesday legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for $63 billion over four years and paving the way for accelerated development of the NextGen air traffic control system.    The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 sets the direction and spending priorities of the agency for the first time in a decade. The previous multi-year blueprint expired more than four years ago, requiring almost two dozen short-term extens...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

     Internet retailers and other e-commerce services will generate half of the United Kingdom's parcel volumes in the pre-Christmas peak within five years, according to Global Freight Solutions (GFS).    The study by GFS, a U.K. parcel and carrier manager, found the number of packages sent by e-commerce firms during November and December last year increased 15 percent from 2010.    Director Simon Veale said Web retailers accounted for 37 perce...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

     Hamburg, Germany-based bulk logistics services provider Hoyer has expanded its operations in Russia and Ukraine.    The company has opened offices in Moscow and Odessa. In addition, Axel Brewe has been named head of development in Russia and central Eastern Europe.    Brewe will continue to build and expand the existing tank container network, including investments in company vehicles and local infrastructure, Hoyer said.    The Moscow office, initially ...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

     India remains significantly underrepresented as a player in global trade, according to APM Terminals Chief Executive Officer Kim Fejfer.    "The opportunities for development throughout India, one of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies, are exciting and energizing and APM Terminals is committed to being a part of that growth," Fejfer said during a keynote speech at the India Ports Conference in Mumbai this week.    Although India’s economy is now the...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

   French freight company Flash Europe has continued its expansion by taking over the British express logistics provider v-one.     Flash said this acquisition is important because of v-one’s success with automotive markets. Flash also said v-one will round out its time-sensitive freight offerings for both air and road freight.    James Griffiths of v-one will be head the company in the United Kingdom.    Flash's operations now cover 78 countri...

Monday, February 13, 2012

   U.S. import and Peruvian export advocates last week sent a letter to Peruvian Foreign Trade Minister Jose Luis Silva and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging elimination of a “yarn forward” rule of origin on apparel as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.    The Peruvian Associación de Exportadores (ADEX) and members associations of the U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership Apparel Coalition sent a joint letter on behalf of U.S. and Peru apparel producers, reta...

Monday, February 13, 2012

     U.S. Customs and Border Protection said front-line personnel seized $51 million worth of counterfeit perfume at ports of entry in fiscal year 2011, ended Sept. 30.    Fake perfumes labeled with brand names cost the legitimate manufacturer lost sales and possible reputation if customers associate the inferior product with the company. Counterfeit perfumes also pose a potential health hazard because they are often contaminated with unknown chemicals.    The bor...

Monday, February 13, 2012

   The owner of the containership Hanjin Osaka has declared “general average,” following an explosion in its main engine on Jan. 8.    MS Pelapas GmbH & Co. KG is the vessel owner, according to the shipping information database Equasis. It lists F. Laeisz as the ship manager, and a brochure on the F. Laeisz Website says the 1992-built Pelapas and its sister ships Perugia and Pereira are under long-term time charters to Hanjin. The vessels have a capacity of 4,024 TEUs an...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     APL said it will begin phasing out its U.S. fleet of container chassis during the first half of 2012.     The Singapore-based shipping line expects to stop providing chassis at inland locations by the end of the year, divest itself of chassis at East Coast ports in 2013, and complete the phase out in early 2014.    “This is the direction the container shipping industry is moving,” said APL Americas President Gene Seroka, who is based at the company’...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     According to new research from analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of active remote container tracking units used on intermodal shipping containers reached 77,000 in the last quarter of 2011.    Berg Insight predicts a compound annual growth rate of 66.9 percent, projecting that 1 million trackers will be in use by 2016. This growth would see the penetration rate of tracking systems in the total container population rise from 0.4 percent in 2011 to 3.6 percent in 2016. &n...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     The Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG), a private-sector panel that provides advice to the federal government on the policy and regulation of U.S. defense trade, is now accepting membership applications for the upcoming 2012-2014 term.    “Membership on this panel presents an exciting opportunity to participate in the administration’s Export Control Reform Initiative, seeking to better align the export control process with emerging global security challenges,” the State De...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     Pacer International said it had a profit of $1.1 million in the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2011, compared to a loss of $1.1 million in the same period a year earlier.    Revenue in the quarter was $358 million, compared to $373 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. About $289.7 million of that came from the company's intermodal business which was up 3 percent from the same period a year earlier. On the other hand, revenue from logistics was $68.3 million, down nea...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     North Carolina’s Railinc Corp., which provides data services to the rail industry, has finished its first round of tests and implementations for its comprehensive equipment performance monitoring (CEPM) program and CEPM-Wheelsets.    The CEPM-Wheelsets lets rail carriers, equipment owners, wheel shops and repair shops have a clear look at the health and history of wheelsets through the CEPM’s tracking options to help plan repairs and manage both the wheels and rel...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS), a provider of plastic pallets with embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, appointed Meredith Neizer to chief operating officer.    She brings more than 30 years of experience in the supply industry to iGPS.    Neizer joins iGPS from US Foods where she was senior vice president of operations. She has also held senior positions at Martin-Brower, a foodservice distribution company, and at liner carrier Maersk L...

Friday, February 10, 2012

     Provista, a Texas-based supply chain improvement company, has launched Provista Pro, an inventory management tool for its medical industry customers.    Provista, which has 70,000 sites in health care, education, hospitality and corporate markets in the United States, said its tool provides data across the entire supply chain, will ensure the best price available for supplies, can coordinate prices among multiple customer locations, will reduce the amount of money invested ...

Thursday, February 09, 2012

     Owens Corning has an active policy to transport as much of its building materials and supplies as possible on trucks powered by liquefied natural gas engines to save fuel costs, Wayne Johnson, the company's manager of global carrier relations, said Jan. 24 at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in Washington.    The Toledo, Ohio-based manufacturer has a contract with Dillon Transport for 25 dedicated LNG tank trucks to haul sand and asphalt to plants in ...

Thursday, February 09, 2012

     Pantos Logistics, a South Korea-based freight logistics business, opened a new logistics center in Laem Chabang, Thailand to enhance its warehouse and distribution business.    The new 10,000-square-meter distribution center was built close to the Laem Chabang port, the largest container terminal in Thailand, and Pantos said the facility will allow it to handle up to 200,000 cubic meters of cargo annually.    Pantos said it also will focus on the large n...

Thursday, February 09, 2012

     Drewry, a maritime research firm, said the car carrier industry is "better positioned than most others in the shipping industry, who suffer from large newbuilding orderbooks, to weather a double-dip recession."    Publicizing a new report on the sector, Drewry said "the downturn hurt car-carrying vessels, with capacity utilization falling significantly," but added "operators are now less likely to charter tonnage for long periods, instead placing an emphasis on fu...

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

     The head of international logistics for toy manufacturing giant Mattel said his company looks for long-term partnerships with ocean carriers and places a premium on efficiency during the Christmas season.    “We have industry-specific needs,” said Curt White, Mattel's senior vice president of worldwide logistics and international operations, in the CMA CGM company magazine's winter issue. “Obviously we need to run our operations as efficiently as possible during p...

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

   Ohio-based Owens-Illinois (O-I), a glass container manufacturer, has announced plans to create a supply chain operation with a new technology group to leverage its research and development.    Al Stroucken, chairman and chief executive officer, said the move should give O-I better visibility in its supply chain and in turn give it greater flexibility when shipping goods to customers.    The change in structure will have Ed Snyder, who joined the company in ...

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

   The United States in Geneva on Monday signed agreements with the European Union and Japan that will bring an end to longstanding trade disputes over “zeroing.”    Zeroing is a label sometimes used to describe a methodology used in antidumping calculations for aggregating unfairly-traded (“dumped”) transactions with other transactions.    The disputes started nearly nine years ago, when the EU first requested World Trade Organization consultations over the use of zero...

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

     Fred P. Hochberg, chairman and president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, is meeting with Vietnamese government officials this week in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi to boost U.S. commercial ties and business opportunities with the Southeast Asian country.    In 2011, Ex-Im Bank authorized only about $1 million in financing to Vietnam. However, nearly $1.5 billion in infrastructure projects are currently in discussion, including satellite, thermal power, and renewable energy projects...