The logistics group of Crowley Maritime Corp. has expanded its service to include less-than-containerload (LCL) ocean and air-cargo lifts, as well as customs brokerage services, to Cartagena, Colombia from key points within the U.S. and Latin America.

Carriers shipping cargo through Canadian and Mexican ports do not violate any U.S. law, treaty, agreement or Federal Maritime Commission regulation, according to an FMC study prompted by members of Congress.

Famous Pacific Shipping (FPS) Lanka Ltd. has launched a weekly ocean consolidation service from Sri Lanka to points throughout the Maldive Islands.

CMA CGM has launched a direct service between Asia and the Red Sea. Dubbed REX 2, it replaces the REX 1 service, which had been operated under a vessel-sharing agreement (VSA) with APL until its cessation at the end of June.

time:matters, a provider of expedited logistics by air, rail and road, has expanded its service network through cooperation with Germanwings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

Zepol Corporation, a trade intelligence company, reports that U.S. import shipment volume for June, measured in TEUs, was down 3.7 percent from May, but is up 4.4 percent from June 2011. Similarly, Q2 of 2012 has topped last year at this time by 4.7 percent. Although there was a drop from last month, June had the second-highest TEU imports so far this year, outdoing January by a slight 1 percent. Last year saw a comparable trend in the summer months with a moderate dip in June, but spikes in July and August.

Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 1.6 percent in July compared with the same month last year, and modest year-over-year increases are expected through the holiday season shipping cycle, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

In a letter sent today, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) urged the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance Ltd. to reach a contract agreement well in advance of the September 30 deadline in order to prevent a disruption to the flow of goods and the lasting economic affects that would result.

Projects FPS, the new project-forwarding and third-party logistics arm of Famous Pacific Shipping Lanka, has created a dedicated logistics center at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka.