China's big trade surpluses hog all the headlines, but imbalances go both ways.

After the opening round of talks to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, at least this much is known: The U.S. is pushing for comprehensive changes and racing to meet a tight political calendar.

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) has warned that the United States is set to use up 60 to 70 percent of its natural gas reserves by 2050 if all permitted LNG export terminals are built out.

Oil traded at a three-week low after a forecast on U.S. shale growth added to mounting worries that the rebalancing process is stalling.

Challenge: Inconvenienced by manually intensive processes, this global retailer of handbags and accessories recognized the need to transform its internal and external supply chain processes - facilitating the access of information with strategic trading partners, especially raw material suppliers. The company needed to standardize data management processes associated with material management, BOMs, costing collaboration and supplier allocation.

South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co., which roiled global trade and temporarily marooned more than half a million cargo containers when it filed for bankruptcy, says it has raised only a fraction of what it needs to repay creditors, whose claims total about $10.5bn.