American Shipper

   The European Parliament could soon establish guidelines to increase the alternative fuel infrastructure across the European Union, adding fueling stations filled with electric, hydrogen and natural gas for ocean and road transport.    European Commission officials, who celebrated the development, say the vote solves the issue in the alternative fuel industry of not having […]

   JF Hillebrand Group AG, a third-party logistics specialist in the beverage industry, has acquired Houston-based Satellite Logistics Group.    Terms of the deal were not disclosed.    SLG specializes in reverse logistics solutions and related services for the beer and beverage industry, including its Kegspediter keg management, LogiTrax transportation management, and EcoBev beverage disposal. SLG’s […]

   The World Trade Organization released a final report this week backing the European Union’s ban on trade in products of commercial seal hunts. In 2010, Canada and Norway initiated a WTO challenge against the European Union’s ban.

   United Arab Shipping Company is introducing two new feeder services to improve its service in Asia.    “The dedicated and direct services will run weekly, covering Japan, Central and South China, Thailand, and Vietnam effective (at the) end of November 2013,” the company said. “These new services will provide UASC customers with expanded coverage […]

   The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. LLC, last week began dredging Miami’s ship channel to 50-feet after more than 15 years of planning, design, permitting, gaining legislative authorization and settling lawsuits, the Port of Miami Authority said Thursday.    The latest estimate now pegs the […]

   In the wake of last summer’s highly publicized accident in which a train hauling crude oil crashed into the center of a Canadian town and killed 45 people, the freight rail industry is pressing the federal government to raise the standards for tank cars used to transport flammable liquids.    In comments filed earlier […]

   The company said transported volume reached 493,512 TEU in the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 5.6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2013 and of 0.8 percent  compared to the third quarter of 2012.

   “The evidence is overwhelming at this point that the four dominant freight railroads are financially strong,” he said. “It’s time for the STB to re-focus its mission on supporting the businesses and people who use the rail network.”

   The FDA has defined importers as the party directly responsible for ordering food from overseas under its proposed Foreign Supplier Verification Program. Importers must verify that suppliers meet food-safety standards.

   A merger between American Airlines and US Airways could reduce service to rural airports and small communities if the Department of Justice’s settlement is approved as is, Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee wrote in a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.    In the letter, John D. Rockefeller, IV, Bill Shuster, […]

   The bevy of current and future trucking regulatory changes could strain capacity in a truckload market that currently sits at 90-percent utilization, noted FTR Associates’ Noel Perry.    Perry, who spoke recently at a lunch hosted by Cowen and Company, predicted a price increase of between 4 percent and 5 percent for next year, […]

   Year-over-year truckload volume comps turned positive in May after several years of negative or near-negative growth, but that change was largely due to a corresponding decline in length-of-haul. Absolute index volumes remain well below pre-recession levels. We attribute the bulk of freight market lethargy to persistent weakness in underlying core economic growth. Y/Y dry […]

   The lawsuit claims the commission, which was created in 1953 to fight corruption, “has gone off the rails to pursue a future role for itself that is well outside the purposes and goals that led to its creation.”

   CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container shipping company, said it had a profit attributable to shareholders of $70 million in the third quarter, compared to $363 million in the same 2012 period.    Revenues in the third quarter were $4.1 billion, down 2.1 percent from the $4.2 billion reported in the same period […]

   The Department of Transportation’s new National Freight Advisory Committee on Thursday unanimously recommended that Congress pass legislation to ensure the full amount of Harbor Maintenance Tax collected each year from seaport users is spent for dredging to keep shipping channels at their maximum authorized depth, according to the American Great Lakes Port Association.   […]

   Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo has flown four full freighters’ worth of Beaujolais Nouveau wine around the world in November.     Bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau, which are sold in the same year they are harvested, are released for sale each year on the third Thursday of November. In order to get the wine to market in […]

   The investment banking firm Jefferies cautioned, however, that it thinks “most of the cost savings potential may have been exhausted, particularly after a steep cut in fuel consumption in 2013.”

   In October, FreightWatch International recorded 52 thefts, down from 84 incidents in September and 74 in August.    During the past three months, thefts were down by 9 percent compared to the preceding three-month period, but the average value skyrocketed by 58 percent.    Thefts involving the food and drink sector accounted for 22 […]

   The European Commission said it has “opened formal antitrust proceedings against several container liner shipping companies to investigate whether they engaged in concerted practices, in breach of EU antitrust rules.”

   The U.S. International Trade Commission voted to investigate imports of certain windshield wipers — “flat blades” or “beam blades,” as referred to by the automotive industry — and related components.    The investigation is based on a complaint filed by Trico Products Corp. of Rochester Hills, Mich., on Oct. 21. The complaint alleges patent […]