Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping company, will stop plying through the Panama Canal to move goods from Asia to the U.S. east coast as bigger ships help the company move it profitably through Suez Canal.

A.P. Moller-Maersk relied on higher freight rates and cost reduction schemes to lift fourth-quarter profit, but modest growth expectations and concerns about pricing has the Danish shipping conglomerate relying increasingly less on mature shipping markets and turning the focus to emerging markets and its oil business.

An industry united on environmental issues will have greater impact than individual companies defining their own goals, says Daniel Côté, environmental advisor for Canadian shipping company Transport Desgagnés. It's not just big talk for Côté.

The UK government will defer a decision on whether to include international aviation and shipping emissions in carbon budgets until the setting of the fifth carbon budget in 2016, by which point there should be more clarity on how aviation emissions will be tackled at an EU and global level.

The Panama Canal is due for at least one additional expansion, according to Alberto Aleman Zubieta, immediate past commissioner of the Panama Canal Authority.

A potential labor strike by longshoremen along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts at the end of the year could have devastating economic consequences as inventory depletion, rerouting, hoarding, and price speculation ripple through supply chains of global companies, according to a report from the Marsh research firm.