11 countries - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam - reached agreement on a new Trans-Pacific Partnership deal at a meeting in Tokyo this week. The agreement is expected to be signed in March in Chile.

A team from China Southern Cargo has won this year’s Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) International Forklift and Pallet Building Competition. The contest, now in its eleventh year, attracted entrants from all over the world.

- Maersk Line's investment in NYSHEX further strengthens the container shipping industry's backing of the exchange -

Oleg Belozerov, CEO - Chairman of the Executive Board of Russian Railways and Andreas Matthä, CEO of ÖBB-Holding AG, sent a welcome address to the participants of the Rail Business Forum “1520 Strategic Partnership: Central Europe”, where they mentioned the need to join efforts of heads of national 1520 and 1435 rail companies in order to create a modern and high quality transportation product.

Zenith Carex (Nigeria) and Farasoobar Int’l Forwarder & Shipping Agency (Iran) joined ACEX Alliance in December.

B&H Worldwide, named best-in-class, aerospace logistics company, has won this year's British International Freight Association (BIFA) award for Supply Chain Management Services. In front of an audience of leading players from across the multi-modal logistics industry, the submission from B&H which show-cased its unique service offering was chosen by a panel of industry experts as this year’s winner.

The U.S. Navy's newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Little Rock (LCS 9) is trapped on the shores of Montreal and unable to set sail until spring.

China's first 20,000 TEU container vessel COSCO Shipping Aries is undergoing sea trials at the Port of Nantong after a naming ceremony on Tuesday.

Handling passes seven million ton mark for first time

- Port of Kiel turns round 7,407.376 tons. Best result ever.

- SCA Forest Products Centre accelerates port growth.

- Strong ferry traffic growth to and from Gothenburg.

- Hinterland rail traffic rises 9.5% to over 32,000 consignments.

- Kiel expects 168 cruise ship visits in 2018.

28.8 million tonnes of goods were handled in the port city of Rostock last year. This was 200,000 tonnes or nearly one percent more than in the year 2016. This means the highest handling result achieved in the history of the port of Rostock. 26.9 million tonnes of freight passed the edge of the quay at Rostock overseas port alone. According to the port and shipping authority another 1.9 million tonnes were moved at the cargo and fishing port, the chemical port and other port facilities of the Hanseatic city. The number of ferry passengers carried on the lines to Denmark, Sweden and Finland increased by 200,000 to another top score of 2.5 million travellers.

Helsinki is the number one general port for international freight traffic in Finland.

In this fifth segment dealing with autonomous shipping, we step back from the fully autonomous ship (i.e. one directed solely by electronics and with no human inputs) to those that are directed remotely. I was recently asked whether I believed that this approach would erode the authority of the master of the vessel. While I can only respond with an answer based on my beliefs (I am not a lawyer, nor do I profess to being one), I believe that the answer in this case is “not really.” What has changed, however, involves the complexity of the risks that surround the master, particularly in the question of jurisdiction.

Achieving Differentiation through Digital Innovation
27 & 28 February 2018 - Copenhagen

A very special last challenge was awaiting BLUE FREIGHT SERVICE, a Freight Forwarder and Pangea Member based in Germany, just before the year ended. They were appointed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for an on-board courier (OBC) transportation of a state of the art scientific magnetometer that had to be delivered to the Kyung Hee University in Seoul (KHU).

The Swedish Port of Gävle and its Turkish operator Yilport will invest SEK 700m (approx. EUR 70m) in a new and fully crane-equipped quay, to be completed in Q4 2019.