Manufacturing in the U.S. is growing stronger, but maintaining and strengthening America's competitiveness in the global market will require a tremendous measure of planning, effort and focused financial investment.

Kewill Plc, a provider of software for managing global trade and logistics, has launched the Kewill Universal Carrier Module.

Mexican consumers have been hit harder than their U.S. counterparts by the downturn since 2008, but they are more optimistic about their country's prospects than their neighbors to the north are. Their attitudes are of key importance to consumer packaged goods and retail companies.

In 2001, Jim O'Neill kicked off a decade-long investment boom with a catchy acronym for the four largest emerging-market economies - BRIC, for Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Goldman Sachs Asset Management chairman is now promoting a new foursome of fast-track countries: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey. Call them MIST countries.

Increasing labor costs in China's heavily industrialized areas, mostly along the coastline, are driving many companies to move production to the country's inland regions, creating a number of logistics and supply chain challenges, according to Greg Spudic, vice president of North American sales and marketing for Dimerco Express.

Inttra, a global electronic-commerce network for the ocean shipping industry, has formed an alliance with CargoSphere, a cloud-based confidential rate network.

PrimeRevenue, provider of a platform for supply-chain finance delivered under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, has expanded operations in two locations, in addition to releasing version 5.4.3. of its OpenSci SCF platform.

In emerging markets, regulations impacting trade and business differ greatly from country to country and changes constantly occur with little or no notice, says Mark Millar, managing partner at M Power Associates, Hong Kong. Because of this, trade compliance is an increasingly important issue for companies doing business in these economies.

Damco's airfreight sector saw exponential growth in the first half of 2012, with volumes rising 135 percent, year-over-year.