Consolidation set the tone today. Descartes closed another software deal, an offshore-services merger completed, and two of the biggest carriers rewired how they run. Rates and fuel pushed higher, while China quietly crossed an energy milestone that will ripple well past its own borders.
Operations & 3PL
DHL Group has finished its corporate reorganization. The listed parent now trades as DHL AG and takes on strategic management, governance and cross-divisional functions for the global group. Germany’s mail and parcel arm stays a separate legal entity under the familiar Deutsche Post AG name, now a DHL AG subsidiary. A cleaner structure for a business that had outgrown its old shell. Source: DC Velocity
UPS switched on a new global operating model on September 1, alongside a round of executive appointments. The Atlanta carrier wrapped its Amazon volume glide-down and network reconfiguration back in June, and says the priority now is profitable growth rather than raw volume. The idea is to shift from an international company to a genuinely global one that leans harder on its worldwide network. Source: Logistics Management
APM Terminals broke ground on its Laldia terminal in Chattogram, Bangladesh, moving a US$550 million project from signature to construction. It ranks among the country’s largest public-private partnerships, built on a government-to-government deal between Bangladesh and Denmark. APM Terminals will design, finance, build and operate the facility with the Chittagong Port Authority and local partner QNS Container Services. Source: Container News
Private equity is quietly assembling a challenger to the big parcel carriers. Trident Management’s Priority Courier Experts, based around Minneapolis-St. Paul, has folded in three firms: Priority Dispatch, Diamond Expedited and Atlanta’s Inpax Shipping Solutions. The bet is regional density, same-day and box-truck freight aimed at healthcare and e-commerce shippers who want an alternative to legacy networks. Source: American Shipper
Technology & Automation
Descartes Systems Group is still buying. The Canadian software firm paid $120 million for California-based Extensiv, a warehouse management and fulfillment platform built for 3PLs and the brands they serve. Extensiv handles inventory, orders, B2B and B2C fulfillment and billing across a connected web of sales channels, marketplaces and carriers, deepening Descartes’ reach into the 3PL and e-commerce fulfillment market. Source: DC Velocity
Pharmaceutical supply chain leaders put AI and machine learning at the top of their investment list, with advanced analytics close behind, according to a LogiPharma survey. The favoured use cases are demand planning and forecasting, inventory optimization and logistics orchestration. The obstacle is not appetite. Regulatory uncertainty and compliance ranked as the single biggest barrier to wider adoption. Source: SCQ
Warehouses have never been more automated, yet many still run on stale data. That is the argument from Dexory’s Oana Jinga: autonomous robots, ASRS and AI-driven WMS lift productivity, but pallets move, locations fill and empty, and congestion builds faster than the records catch up. Real-time visibility, she writes, is the missing layer beneath all that hardware. Source: Logistics Business
Evergreen Line widened its electronic bill of lading partnership with Bolero, part of WiseTech Global, making its eBLs available on Bolero’s Galileo platform. The move puts paperless documentation in front of more trade participants and chips away at one of shipping’s more stubborn paper trails. Source: Hellenic Shipping
Sustainability & Energy
Onboard carbon capture and storage could do real work in cutting shipping’s CO2 while alternative fuel supply chains keep maturing, according to a new Lloyd’s Register report. “Applying Onboard Carbon Capture & Storage to Existing Ships” lands as owners face growing pressure to decarbonise the fleet already on the water, not just the ships still on order. Source: Hellenic Shipping
Solar has overtaken coal as China’s largest source of installed generating capacity, a first for the world’s biggest energy market. By the end of July, installed photovoltaic capacity reached 1,286 gigawatts, or 31.5 percent of the total, the National Energy Administration reported. Beijing called it a signature achievement for its low-carbon push. Source: SCMP Business
Diesel futures punched to a new post-war record even as the weekly benchmark behind most fuel surcharges eased. Ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME settled Tuesday at $4.6773 a gallon, up 18.36 cents, or 4.09 percent, topping the prior March high of $4.6084. Fuel costs are heading the wrong way for carriers. Source: American Shipper
International Markets
Geodis promoted Veronique Dameme to chief commercial officer of its global freight forwarding business. She brings more than 30 years in logistics, 17 of them in the US, spanning business development, customer strategy and global supply chains, with a strong record in healthcare and life sciences. She joined Geodis in October 2025. Source: The Loadstar
Hornbeck Offshore Services and Helix Energy Solutions closed their all-stock merger, creating a bigger offshore player across marine transportation, subsea services, well intervention and robotics. Consolidation in offshore services rolls on. Source: gCaptain
Hapag-Lloyd is lifting ocean tariffs from the Mediterranean, southern France included, to Canada, the US and Mexico, effective for sailings tariffed from 1 October 2026. The increase runs across dry, reefer and special boxes. A 20-foot dry container to the US East and Gulf coasts climbs $300, from $2,300 to $2,600. Source: Container News
US factory activity kept supporting freight demand for an eighth straight month, though momentum cooled. The ISM Manufacturing PMI read 54.6 in August, a point below July and short of the 55.2 economists expected. Some of the softness in new orders may reflect companies pulling inventory forward ahead of tariffs earlier in the summer. Source: American Shipper
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