The logistics group of Crowley Maritime Corp. is launching a weekly less-than-containerload (LCL) service from Chicago to the Caribbean and Central America.
In a placid lagoon about a mile inland from the Atlantic coast in southeast Nicaragua, the mast of Cornelius Vanderbilt's dredge boat rises out of the water. The railroad tycoon abandoned it along with his dream of building an inter-oceanic canal in the 1850s. More than 160 years and several failed plans later, Wang Jing, a 40-year-old Chinese telecommunications billionaire, has emerged as the next mogul to give it a go.
The Caribbean logistics group of Crowley Maritime Corp. is now offering regularly scheduled, weekly less-than-containerload (LCL) service between San Juan, Puerto Rico and select countries within Central America.
South and Central America are significant growth markets for retailers with seven countries - Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Panama, Colombia and Mexico - ranked in the 2013 A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index.
As manufacturers consider shifting production from China back to the West, the U.S. could become an economically viable alternative faster than you think.
2013 is likely to be a very difficult year for agribusiness logistics in Brazil, according to a report from Rabobank. Transport costs in the country have risen significantly due to three factors: new legislation impacting the working hours of truck drivers, a sharp increase in diesel prices and rising export volumes for major commodities.
