Railcar products and service provider Trinity Industries Inc. has spent $70 million to acquire RSI Logistics Inc., a Michigan-based company offering rail logistics and fleet management services, bulk terminals, and bulk intermodal.
According to RSI, the combined firms will offer stronger solutions for shippers by merging RSI’s rail technology, logistics services, and bulk terminal network with Trinity’s railcar manufacturing and leasing, technology, and maintenance service.
RSI calls itself a software, transloading, and third party logistics (3PL) service company with over 25 locations across more than 15 states and some 100 employees. The firm operates facilities including dozens of truck-to-rail transload terminals; four warehouses in New York, Kentucky, and South Carolina; a marine terminal at Georgetown, South Carolina; and a half dozen lumber reload terminals.
In comparison, Dallas-based Trinity is a much larger company, with more than 6,000 employees and 2022 revenues of $2.0 billion. The company received orders for 3,015 railcars and delivered 4,400 railcars in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone, and plans to deliver 40,000 to 45,000 railcars throughout 2023.
“We are excited about the acquisition of RSI Logistics. It is another step as we seek to expand our service offerings with complementary solutions that make rail a more compelling mode of transportation,” Jean Savage, Trinity’s President and CEO, said in a release. “Specifically, RSI expands the breadth and quality of Trinity’s platform, adding logistics services, terminal operations, and intermodal transportation. Also, coupling RSI’s expertise and reputation with the transformational technology of Trinsight will deliver a unique tool to rail shippers to gain more control of their supply chains.”
The New Hampshire-based cargo terminal orchestration technology vendor Lynxis LLC today said it has acquired Tedivo LLC, a provider of software to visualize and streamline vessel operations at marine terminals.
According to Lynxis, the deal strengthens its digitalization offerings for the global maritime industry, empowering shipping lines and terminal operators to drastically reduce vessel departure delays, mis-stowed containers and unsafe stowage conditions aboard cargo ships.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
More specifically, the move will enable key stakeholders to simplify stowage planning, improve data visualization, and optimize vessel operations to reduce costly delays, Lynxis CEO Larry Cuddy Jr. said in a release.
German third party logistics provider (3PL) Arvato has agreed to acquire ATC Computer Transport & Logistics, an Irish company that provides specialized transport, logistics, and technical services for hyperscale data center operators, high-tech freight forwarders, and original equipment manufacturers, the company said today.
The acquisition aims to unlock new opportunities in the rapidly expanding data center services market by combining the complementary strengths of both companies.
According to Arvato, the merger will create a comprehensive portfolio of solutions for the entire data center lifecycle. ATC Computer Transport & Logistics brings a robust European network covering the major data center hubs, while Arvato expands this through its extensive global footprint.
The new funding brings Amazon's total investment in Anthropic to $8 billion, while maintaining the e-commerce giant’s position as a minority investor, according to Anthropic. The partnership was launched in 2023, when Amazon invested its first $4 billion round in the firm.
Anthropic’s “Claude” family of AI assistant models is available on AWS’s Amazon Bedrock, which is a cloud-based managed service that lets companies build specialized generative AI applications by choosing from an array of foundation models (FMs) developed by AI providers like AI21 Labs, Anthropic, Cohere, Meta, Mistral AI, Stability AI, and Amazon itself.
According to Amazon, tens of thousands of customers, from startups to enterprises and government institutions, are currently running their generative AI workloads using Anthropic’s models in the AWS cloud. Those GenAI tools are powering tasks such as customer service chatbots, coding assistants, translation applications, drug discovery, engineering design, and complex business processes.
"The response from AWS customers who are developing generative AI applications powered by Anthropic in Amazon Bedrock has been remarkable," Matt Garman, AWS CEO, said in a release. "By continuing to deploy Anthropic models in Amazon Bedrock and collaborating with Anthropic on the development of our custom Trainium chips, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of what customers can achieve with generative AI technologies. We’ve been impressed by Anthropic’s pace of innovation and commitment to responsible development of generative AI, and look forward to deepening our collaboration."
The Dutch ship building company Concordia Damen has worked with four partner firms to build two specialized vessels that will serve the offshore wind industry by transporting large, and ever growing, wind turbine components, the company said today.
The first ship, Rotra Horizon, launched yesterday at Jiangsu Zhenjiang Shipyard, and its sister ship, Rotra Futura, is expected to be delivered to client Amasus in 2025. The project involved a five-way collaboration between Concordia Damen and Amasus, deugro Danmark, Siemens Gamesa, and DEKC Maritime.
The design of the 550-foot Rotra Futura and Rotra Horizon builds on the previous vessels Rotra Mare and Rotra Vente, which were also developed by Concordia Damen, and have been operating since 2016. However, the new vessels are equipped for the latest generation of wind turbine components, which are becoming larger and heavier. They can handle that increased load with a Roll-On/Roll-Off (RO/RO) design, specialized ramps, and three Liebherr cranes, allowing turbine blades to be stowed in three tiers, providing greater flexibility in loading methods and cargo configurations.
“For the Rotra Futura and Rotra Horizon, we, along with our partners, have focused extensively on energy savings and an environmentally friendly design,” Concordia Damen Managing Director Chris Kornet said in a release. “The aerodynamic and hydro-optimized hull design, combined with a special low-resistance coating, contributes to lower fuel consumption. Furthermore, the vessels are equipped with an advanced Wärtsilä main engine, which consumes 15 percent less fuel and has a smaller CO₂ emission footprint than current standards.”
Specifically, loaded import volume rose 11.2% in October 2024, compared to October 2023, as port operators processed 81,498 TEUs (twenty-foot containers), versus 73,281 TEUs in 2023, the port said today.
“Overall, the Port’s loaded import cargo is trending towards its pre-pandemic level,” Port of Oakland Maritime Director Bryan Brandes said in a release. “This steady increase in import volume in 2024 is an encouraging trend. We are also seeing a rise in US agricultural exports through Oakland. Thanks to refrigerated warehousing on Port property near the maritime terminals and convenient truck and rail access, we are well-positioned to continue to grow ag export cargo volume through the Oakland Seaport.”
Looking deeper into its October statistics, loaded exports declined 3.4%, registering 66,649 TEUs in October 2024, compared to 68,974 TEUs in October 2023. Despite that slight decline, the category has grown 6.7% between January and October 2024 compared to the same period last year.
In fact, Oakland’s exports have been declining over the past decade, a long-term trend that is largely due to the reduction in demand for recycled paper exports. However, agricultural exports have made up for some of the export losses from paper, the port said.
For the fourth quarter, empty exports bumped up 30.6%. Port operators processed 29,750 TEUs in October 2024, compared to 22,775 TEUs in October 2023. And empty imports increased 15.3%, with 15,682 TEUs transiting Port facilities in October 2024, in contrast to 13,597 TEUs in October 2023.