Danish oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk said it has entered into an agreement to explore biofuel as an alternative energy source for its ship fleet.

It takes the giant Emma Maersk, which carries the equivalent of nearly 15,000 twenty-foot containers (TEUs), about three and a half miles to come to a dead stop. But there's no stopping the Triple-E, Maersk Line's even larger class of containership, from entering the liner trades over the next three years.

Analyst Insight: There has been an explosive and exciting level of growth and innovation in the development of new automation solutions for distribution operations, particularly in the areas of full-case and less-than-case automation. It is inevitable that companies in North America and other developing nations will increasingly adopt these solutions as labor markets contract due to the aging population in the decades ahead. - Marc Wulfraat, president, MWPVL International Inc.

U.S. manufacturers are targeting an aggressive 1.5-percent reduction in cost of goods sold for 2013 in an effort to drive margin growth, according to a new study from The Hackett Group. With GDP growth stabilizing in major regions of the world, manufacturers are expecting reduced sales forecast uncertainty, enabling them to plan supply requirements and manufacturing capacity with far greater confidence, the study found.

Analyst Insight: Lately, activity in horizontal collaboration has increased. Although this is still not a scalable practice, the number of studies and pilot projects are growing. While many variations of collaboration exist, all significantly impact transportation management. - Bill Loftis, Senior Principal, Tompkins International

Judging from their actions, ocean carriers would love to toss out those irritating economics textbooks, with their tedious lessons about supply and demand. Too much capacity? No pricing discipline? Sluggish volume growth? Forget about it. Why should any of that prevent them from raising freight rates?

Small and mid-sized manufacturers are optimistic about revenues as spring approaches, and plan to retain or even grow their labor forces, according to buying consortium Prime Advantage's 11th semi-annual Group Outlook Survey.