In the EU, the recent commitment to opening up both the shipping and road haulage industries to cleaner power sources, has been reinforced by one of the world's premier container and general shipping ports with the announcement that the Port of Rotterdam is stepping up its sustainable shipping policy by rewarding the operators of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers with a discount on port charges.

Three of South Africa's biggest supermarket chains have moved to reassure the public that their meats are safe after news that top local researchers had found "fraudulent meat products" across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced £213m of joint Government and industry investment to strengthen UK advanced manufacturing supply chains "” creating over 11,000 new jobs and safeguarding another 5,000.

Trans-O-Flex has opened a new logistics centre near Frankfurt Airport in central Germany to provide cross-border distribution for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

Representatives from the Belarusian and Italian Commission on International Road Transport met in Rome where an agreement was reached to increase bilateral quotas on road haulage in 2013 and 2014. The parties also discussed the subject of intermodal transport and the prospect of increased use of bilateral communication, and increasing the flow of freight between Europe and Asia.

There are several overarching themes driving the push for more automation inside the four walls. Some relate to changing demographics in the labor force, others to how consumers are shopping today, and let's not overlook the constant striving for more efficiency, productivity and cost reduction.

The total capacity of Iranian ports has increased by 80 million tons during the past eight years, reaching 184 million tons, IRNA quoted Iranian roads and urban development Minister Ali Nikzad as saying.

The latest communication from the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG), a body which packs in all the heavy hitters involved in the supply chain, from forwarding agents to airlines, makes very plain the views of the air cargo industry regarding the recently stalled Doha Round of trade negotiations held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and specifically designed to lower trade barriers and simplify processes, particularly to allow two way market access to developing countries.

According to a new survey of 600 executives from Deloitte "” "The Ripple Effect: How Manufacturing and Retail Executives View the Growing Challenge of Supply Chain Risk" "” global executives are increasingly concerned about the growing risks to their supply chains and costly negative impacts such as margin erosion and inability to keep up with demand.

Most high-performing companies will manage their business processes using real-time predictive analytics or "extreme collaboration" by 2016.