American Shipper

   The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and FreightWatch International announced an initiative aimed at combating cargo theft.    FreightWatch, which reported an 8.3 percent increase in the number of cargo thefts last year, will offer Chubb transportation insurance customers a 10 percent discount on real-time shipment tracking services. Using covert tracking devices, FreightWatch tracks […]

   Rikvin, a company that facilitates Singapore company incorporation, offshore company setup, accounting, taxation and other related corporate services, has begun a new push to get companies to sign up for the Global Trader Program (GTP) to enhance their trade with Singapore.    The Southeast Asian nation has extended the window to apply for the […]

Logistics officials say shippers are likely to increase inventory levels early to avert potential U.S. East Coast port disruptions in the event of a strike by ILA workers or a lockout by employers…

   Westbound Asia-Europe container volume fell 3.3 percent in April, according to the most recent figures from Container Trade Statistics (CTS).    Volume fell to just more than 1.1 million TEUs in the month, after the trade saw virtually zero growth in the first quarter, at 3.3 million TEUs.    Eastbound Europe-to-Asia volume fell 4.8 […]

   Projects FPS, the forwarding and third-party logistics (3PL) arm of Famous Pacific Shipping Lanka, has launched a dedicated logistics center that will incorporate new functions at a prior storage and document archiving facility in Colombo, Sri Lanka.    Located in the commercial area of the Port of Colombo, the new Projects FPS facility will […]

Descartes acquires software-as-a-service provider IES in a $35 million deal to expand reach in Asia and product portfolio for intermediaries in the latest significant acquisition for the logistics software developer

Mediterranean Shipping Co. pulls a call at Cristobal on its U.S. East Coast/Panama feeder after shortening the service’s rotation in February, with the round trip voyages cut from 21 to 14 days.

   The logistics company SDV, a subsidiary of the Bolloré Group, said it will open a new “green” warehouse in western Singapore.    The 452,084 square-foot multi-story warehouse is slated for completion by Aug. 1 and represents an investment of 55 million Singapore dollars ($43 million).    The warehouse will support customers’ growth in the […]

   Box Ships said it has agreed to acquire two 5,344-TEU ships from OOCL for $31,155,000 each.    The ships, the 1995-built OOCL Hong Kong and the 1996-built OOCL China, will then be chartered back to OOCL for three years at a net daily rate of $26,465.    To finance this acquisition, the company issued $40 […]

Hapag-Lloyd brings in new chairman Jürgen Weber in a planned move as former chairman Michael Frenzel, chairman of tourism giant TUI, steps away in TUI’s continued divestment from the German container line

   The liner carrier MOL (America) said this week it is adding another new metric to the list of regional key performance indicators on which it will report regularly.    The new metric is intermodal transit on-time performance, with MOL establishing a 90 percent on-time goal. The line will report on its performance quarterly from […]

   DHL Express has contracted for a ninth Boeing 747-400 beginning in July from Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings.    Subsidiary Polar Air Cargo operates a fleet of jumbo jets between Asia and the United States on behalf of the express delivery company.    DHL owns 49 percent of Polar and is the scheduled airline’s anchor […]

   Maersk Line said it has decided to suspend a previously announced “fog congestion” surcharge for the port of Qingdao, China.    “The fog season has been lighter than expected, so the surcharge was suspended,” said Timothy Simpson, a spokesman for the company.    Last month the carrier said it was going to impose a […]

   AFS Technologies, a provider of trade management and compliance solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with CHD North America, LLC, a company that specializes in collecting, managing and analyzing data for the away-from-home global food service market.    The new partnership will allow AFS to expand its services into the food service channels in […]

   APM Terminals said it will use 10 ship-to-shore cranes built by Cargotec for its Maasvlakte II terminal in Rotterdam.    Cargotec will supply eight Kalmar super quay cranes and two Kalmar barge quay cranes to the APM Terminals Maasvlakte II expansion project between December 2013 and December 2014.    Cargotec’s Kalmar Monobox-type, Super Post […]

   MOL said it will scrap or put into cold lay-up 10 to 20 capesize dry bulk ships because of worsening market trends.    The company scrapped four vessels and temporarily laid up 10 others last year.    Until now, the company said it had scrapped capesize ships that were 23 years or older, but […]

   The Virginia Port Authority on Tuesday reported a 12.6 percent gain in container volume and a 59 percent increase in breakbulk tonnage in May compared to the prior year.      The Port of Virginia handled 178,584 TEUs in May, while year-to-date throughput has increased 4.3 percent, to 826,297 TEUs.    Breakbulk tonnage was […]

   The ocean carrier “K” Line and dry bulk charter company Noble Chartering Inc. (NCI) have entered into a joint venture agreement to operate several Cape-size bulk carriers beginning in July.    The venture, to be called K Noble Hong Kong Ltd., is an extension of an existing partnership between the companies in which they’ve […]

   Trimble, a provider of advanced positioning solutions, has acquired privately-held GEOTrac Systems, a provider of wireless fleet management and safety services for the oil and gas industry.    GEOTrac will be added to Trimble’s PeopleNet offering, extending its reach into the oil and gas sector. PeopleNet builds cloud and integrated computing and mobile communications and fleet […]

Maersk-Rickmers U.S. Flag Project Carrier said its heavylift ship Maersk Illinois was the first U.S.-flag ship to load cargo for an overseas destination in Milwaukee in more than 30 years. The cargo of rope shovels is destined to Siberia.