Paul Vanderspek, clinical professor at Colorado State University, offers some valuable strategies for alleviating risk association with potential supply disruptions.

U.S. domestic intermodal growth slackened slightly as the economy slowed in the second quarter, but the transport of international containers on the rails has its healthiest showing in the period since 2008, according to the Intermodal Association of North America.

The world's container equipment fleet grew by 8.5 percent during 2011, taking the global fleet to 31.25 million TEUs, compared to a 7-percent growth in 2010, according to Container Census 2012 - Survey and Forecast of Global Container Units, analysis from Drewry Maritime Research.

The U.S. Department of Commerce says it will impose tariffs on some imported appliances from South Korea and Mexico after it determined that some products are being dumped on the U.S. market.

DHL Global Forwarding has opened an Automotive Competence Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

FirstCarbon Solutions, a provider of software and consulting services to enhance the environmental sustainability of business, has expanded its partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). FirstCarbon will score companies' submissions on their greenhouse gas emissions and carbon-management strategies to CDP Supply Chain. The latter works with global companies to measure and understand the impact of climate change across supply chains. An independent, non-profit organization, CDP helps companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share information on environmental risk and opportunity.

Carriers shipping cargo through Canadian and Mexican ports do not violate any U.S. law, treaty, agreement or Federal Maritime Commission regulation, according to an FMC study prompted by members of Congress.

Roy Becker, president of Roy Becker Seminars, talks about some of the major issues that companies are facing today, in obtaining financing for their importing and exporting activities.

SciQuest Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of Upside Software Inc., a vendor of contract lifecycle management (CLM) software.

POOL4TOOL Corp., a consultancy and applications vendor specializing in electronic sourcing, has formed a partnership with D+B Germany, a provider of business-information services with an emphasis on supplier risk.