Business

SMC3, a knowledge hub for LTL transportation pricing data and technology, has added a tool to its platform.

U.S. e-commerce companies including Amazon.com and shippers such as FedEx Corp. and UPS Inc. stand to gain from the Trump administration’s move Oct. 17 to withdraw from an international postal agreement.

Lightweight aluminum has chipped away at steel’s use in vehicles as fuel efficiency standards have risen. Now steelmakers are fighting back. Their newest alloy could make its way to carmakers by 2021, with some available as early as next year, said Eric Petersen, vice president for research and innovation at AK Steel Holding Corp.

ATLANTA — UPS Inc. is looking to the future with its new Southeast Metro Automated Routing Terminal. About the size of 19 football fields, the automated facility can be expanded to increase the 1,700 packages a minute it is able to process now.

FedEx Corp. has operated one 180,000-square-foot shipping station in Oklahoma City since 2006, and on Oct. 16 it celebrated the grand opening of a 270,000-square-foot shipping facility in north Oklahoma City to more than double its warehouse space in the area.

Marten Transport Ltd. reported its best quarterly operating results ever, among the first of what is expected to be a string of bullish financial reports from trucking companies in the third quarter.

Heartland Express Inc. is getting back to its old self. The North Liberty, Iowa-based truckload carrier has been battling to restore its historically rich profit margins after the acquisition of Interstate Distributor Co. in July 2017.

Interest in freight-related startups and technology continues to grow, as evidenced by several recent investment deals as well as a first-of-its-kind Founders Camp whereby representatives from 20 startup firms met with trucking executives and shippers in Chattanooga, Tenn., to exchange ideas for new products and services.

BEIJING — Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement Oct. 17 to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions.

FreightRover, a company launched a year ago by a former top executive at Celadon Group to provide technology to automate vendor payments, has secured a financing facility of up to $500 million from Crayhill Capital Management and other investors to support a new business that will offer trade finance and freight factoring services.