I'd like to propose a symbol for those huge new vessel-sharing alliances that will dominate the global container trades this year and beyond: a great big question mark.

Following nearly 2,000 incident updates in 16 months, Portoverview.com's Africa's editor, Victor Shieh told attendees at the recent Cool Logistics Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, that shipping on the continent is likely to get worse before it begins to see improvements.

Tri Global Energy is poised to build a wind empire in West Texas and will partner with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Logistics to build a shipping and receiving hub for the turbines.

Analyst Insight: Facility location planning is a six-dimensional balancing act encompassing long-term facility commitments with need for agility, predictable demand patterns with seasonal and spiky demand surprises, material handling investments with facility flexibility, return on investment with immediate operations effectiveness, cutting-edge technology with common sense, and operational efficiency and cost reduction with technology investment. Consequently, the best FLP results are those that design in the most needed capabilities, leaving space to accommodate the flexibility that drives location success. - Robert Sabath, Principal Essentialist SCM, TRISSENTIAL

The Highway Trust Fund is broke. And the nation's transportation system is broken.

Dal-Tile's Collaborative Transportation Program, which won the 2012 Supply Chain Innovation Award, has continued to grow and mature. Sonney Jones, supply chain director at Dal-Tile, provides an update.

Every month, XportReporter produces a report on new and opportunities in China's transport and aerospace sectors.

Cementing its role in the North American supply chain, the value of intermodal transport speaks for itself with another year of solid growth. Building on the industry's positive 2012 performance, total shipments improved 4.6 percent in 2013, according to the Intermodal Association of North America's (IANA) fourth quarter and year-end Intermodal Market Trends & Statistics. Domestic container volume "” which doubled over the past 10 years "” outperformed other markets in 2013, capping the year with a 9.4 percent bump, which was consistent with Q4 growth of this segment at 9.0 percent.