uShip.com said it closed an $18 million round of financing with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to extend the development, marketing and sales of uShip’s commercial freight platform, mobile platform and global presence. The funding will also enable uShip to further develop its new “PRO” platform (currently in private beta), which allows business shippers and freight brokers to build their own carrier networks, as well as efficiently manage and automate their shipping operations.

FedEx Corp. said operating income for the quarter ended Nov. 30 improved at FedEx Freight and FedEx Ground due to increased volumes and higher yields, but persistent weakness in the global economy and increased demand for lower-yielding international services limited profits at FedEx Express. Chairman Frederick Smith said "earnings also were negatively impacted by disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy, [but] we are hard at work on another record-setting holiday shipping season." FedEx Corp. reported revenue of $11.1 billion, up 5% from the previous year, operating income of $718 million, down 8%, and net income of $438 million, down 12%.

Providing almost no details, Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft container lines confirmed that they're looking at a merger. They said Dec. 18 only that their executive boards, "in agreement with their shareholders, are investigating if, and under what conditions, a merger of both companies would be of interest."

Cheniere Energy Partners said it signed a liquefied natural gas sale and purchase agreement with Total Gas & Power North America in which Total agreed to buy 91,250,000 MMBTU of LNG annually plus 13,500,000 MMBTU of seasonal LNG volumes.

U.S. import volume in November, measured in TEUs (twenty-foot-containers), was down 12.8% from October and another 15.2% from November of last year, Zepol Corp. said. The total number of TEUs imported for the month was 1,245,889, the lowest amount for a November since 2003. Hurricane Sandy on the east coast and labor strikes on the west certainly played a large factor in the import slump, it said. Imports from Asia dropped significantly in November. China was 18.2% lower than October, and South Korea was down 21.1%. Europe actually increased in vessel exports to the U.S. by 4.5% from October. The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach both had major decreases in TEUs from October, partly due to labor strikes, Zepol said. The port of Newark and New York was up from October by 1.9%, the only port in the top 10 to see a notable increase for the month, it said. Each of the top 20 ocean carriers had large decreases, Zepol said.

DHL Global Forwarding said it's expanding its multi-modal product combining ocean freight and air freight services to eight new destinations in Africa. It expanded "DHL SEAIR" to Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Dakar (Senegal), Luanda (Angola), Douala (Cameroon), Malabo (Equatorial Guinea), and Pointe Noire (Republic of the Congo). African shipments will be forwarded primarily through Dubai and then transferred into pre-booked air cargo space to be flown into Africa, stabilizing the supply chains and making DHL SEAIR a viable alternative during peak season congestion, DHL said. DHL SEAIR also uses a single combined transport document.

The global air cargo security and screening systems market will reach $486.5 million in 2013, as airports and air freight companies acquire new screening systems and update existing security systems in order to meet the requirements set by relevant government authorities, said a new report by Visiongain. It said the growth is due in large part due to improvements in screening technologies which allow for improved efficiency, the adoption of comprehensive regulations for air cargo security and rising demand by businesses for cargo to be transported by air.

Third-party logistics provider Transportation Insight said it acquired CPA International, a Connecticut-based logistics company. CPA will operate as a new division of Transportation Insight, and CPA head executive Bill Titone will be president of the division. Terms weren't disclosed.

APL Logistics bought customs brokerage and trade compliance firm Carmichael International Service for an undisclosed amount, the companies said Nov. 20. Los Angeles-based Carmichael employs about 200 people in 10 U.S. metropolitan markets. The transaction allows APL Logistics to bring the customs services in-house, the companies said. APL Logistics "has the processes and systems in place to help customers comply with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's programs at origins,” said Tony Zasimovich, APL Logistics’ Vice President of International Logistics Services. “Add to that Carmichael’s Customs brokerage and trade consulting capabilities in the U.S., and we will be well-positioned to coordinate the flow of goods and information from the factory floor at an international origin to the store-door in the U.S.” Carmichael offers traditional customs brokerage, trade compliance, consulting, and transportation services. It operates in the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Chicago, San Francisco/Oakland, Seattle/Tacoma, Miami, Boston, Atlanta, Savannah and Memphis.

The Border Trade Alliance (BTA) would like to see a Senate-approved commissioner of CBP now that the Presidential and Congressional elections have been decided, said BTA President Nelson Balido in a blog post. The blog post, titled "A Post-Election To-Do List for the Administration and Congress on the Border," also pointed to sequestration as an area of concern for BTA.