<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">JAPAN GIVES NOD TO NONLIFE BONDSTOKYO - The Finance Ministry will allow nonlife insu</div>

JAPAN GIVES NOD TO NONLIFE BONDSTOKYO - The Finance Ministry will allow nonlife insu

<div>JAPAN GIVES NODTO NONLIFE BONDSTOKYO - The Finance Ministry will allow nonlife insurance companies to issue domestic convertible bonds (CBs) for the first time in almost five years in line with deregulation in the financial sector, ministry sources said Thursday.The move will be welcomed by nonlife insurance companies that are gaining interest in procuring funds.A convertible bond is a bond that can be converted into the shares of a company at a fixed price.Koa Fire and Marine Insurance Co. is seen issuing 30 billion yen in CBs as early as July, while Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co., and Mitsui...

JAPAN GIVES NOD TO NONLIFE BONDS TOKYO - The Finance Ministry will allow nonlife insurance companies to issue domestic convertible bonds (CBs) for the first time in almost five years in line with deregulation in the financial sector, ministry sources said Thursday. The move will be welcomed by nonlife insurance companies that are gaining interest in procuring funds. A convertible bond is a bond that can be converted into the shares of a company at a fixed price. Koa Fire and Marine Insurance Co. is seen issuing 30 billion yen in CBs as early as July, while Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co., and Mitsui Marine and Fire Insurance Co. are predicted to follow suit. RETENTION GROUP BACKS KY. PURCHASING POOL WASHINGTON - The National Risk Retention Association has filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. District Court, Eastern Division of Kentucky, in Frankfort in support of an insurance purchasing group that wants to buy its insurance coverage through a surplus lines company in Kentucky. Purchasing groups are federally authorized pools, which permit members of a similar profession to band together to seek insurance. The case involves the Garage Services and Equipment Liability Association of America, a purchasing group that operates in 48 states, that was seeking to buy insurance for members through a surplus lines company in Kentucky. A Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction regulation requires that propane dealers may only obtain insurance from carriers that are admitted in Kentucky, not surplus lines carriers that are nonadmitted but permitted to do business with minimal regulation to provide coverage where no other market exists. ITALIAN PENSION RULING MAY COST $5.6 BILLION MILAN, Italy - The president of Italy's supreme court said Wednesday that the impact on state accounts of its recent pension ruling was around 9 trillion lire ($5.6 billion), the Italian news agency ASCA reported. It quoted Francesco Paolo Casavola as saying at a Rome news conference that state pensions agency INPS gave the figure to the court on April 15. There have been conflicting reports of how much last weekend's ruling will cost the government, with estimates ranging from 6 trillion lire to as much as 30 trillion lire. ROADSIDE SERVICES FIRM PICKS TUCSON FOR CENTER TUCSON, Ariz. - A Massachusetts firm that provides roadside-assistance services for insurance companies and other groups has picked Tucson for a customer-service center that will employ up to 350 within 18 months. Cross Country Group, through its subsidiary Cross Country Motor Club, provides services to such large organizations as Farmers Insurance and Geico Insurance, as well as Chrysler, Oldsmobile, BMW and Infiniti. The Cross Country Group Inc. facility, to open in July, will be the company's first outside of Massachusetts. Within four years, the firm said in a statement, it plans to expand the facility to as many as 800 employees. About 10 million people use Cross Country's services, making it one of the largest in the United States.

INSURANCE BRIEFS

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to return to Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. </div>

The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to return to Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. 

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<div class="phx-topic">Houthi militants have threatened to resume attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea by midweek unless Israel resumes humanitarian aid and electricity supplies to Gaza that were cut earlier this month. Speaking during a televised address on March 8, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi set a four-day deadline for Israel to lift a blockade on aid deliveries into Gaza — which have been halted since March 2 — after which time the Houthis would “resume our naval operations against the Israeli enemy.” The Houthis had paused attacks on international shipping and on Israel on Jan. 19, except for vessels wholly owned by Israeli individuals and/or sailing under the Israeli flag, in line with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that expired on March 1 without being extended or progressing to its proposed second stage. S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence said in a risk assessment Monday that the Houthi threat to resume attacks on Israel “is credible.” “A resumption of Houthi ‘naval operations’ would represent a severe risk to all vessels in transit in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, regardless of affiliation with Israel, due to uncertainties around targeting selection,” S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence said. The high potential for strikes on shipping to resume was highlighted by Jack Kennedy, head of Middle East and North Africa country risk at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, at the Journal of Commerce's TPM25 conference in Long Beach, Calif., last week. S&amp;P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. “We expect the ceasefire process is likely to break down in the next 12 months and military operations will resume in Gaza,” was Kennedy’s bleak assessment. The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to resume Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. Carriers have been diverting vessels around southern Africa since the Houthi attacks on shipping began 15 months ago. “It has to be safe, and right now it is not safe,” Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), told TPM25. “It is all linked to a number of agreements in the Middle East that are still being discussed, so for us there will be no immediate return to the Red Sea,” Toft added. “Could it happen next month, two months, six months? I don’t know. Eventually it will happen.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Houthi militants have threatened to resume attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea by midweek unless Israel resumes humanitarian aid and electricity supplies to Gaza that were cut earlier this month. Speaking during a televised address on March 8, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi set a four-day deadline for Israel to lift a blockade on aid deliveries into Gaza — which have been halted since March 2 — after which time the Houthis would “resume our naval operations against the Israeli enemy.” The Houthis had paused attacks on international shipping and on Israel on Jan. 19, except for vessels wholly owned by Israeli individuals and/or sailing under the Israeli flag, in line with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that expired on March 1 without being extended or progressing to its proposed second stage. S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a risk assessment Monday that the Houthi threat to resume attacks on Israel “is credible.” “A resumption of Houthi ‘naval operations’ would represent a severe risk to all vessels in transit in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, regardless of affiliation with Israel, due to uncertainties around targeting selection,” S&P Global Market Intelligence said. The high potential for strikes on shipping to resume was highlighted by Jack Kennedy, head of Middle East and North Africa country risk at S&P Global Market Intelligence, at the Journal of Commerce's TPM25 conference in Long Beach, Calif., last week. S&P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. “We expect the ceasefire process is likely to break down in the next 12 months and military operations will resume in Gaza,” was Kennedy’s bleak assessment. The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to resume Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. Carriers have been diverting vessels around southern Africa since the Houthi attacks on shipping began 15 months ago. “It has to be safe, and right now it is not safe,” Soren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), told TPM25. “It is all linked to a number of agreements in the Middle East that are still being discussed, so for us there will be no immediate return to the Red Sea,” Toft added. “Could it happen next month, two months, six months? I don’t know. Eventually it will happen.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Container Shipping News

Maritime

Container lines

Asia-Europe

Houthi militants threaten to restart attacks on Red Sea shipping

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships and improved schedule reliability.</div>

Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships and improved schedule reliability.

<div class="phx-topic">Hapag-Lloyd subsidiary Hanseatic Global Terminals has acquired a majority stake in terminal operator CNMP at the French port of Le Havre from Seafrigo Group as the carrier expands its reach into the reefer business. Hanseatic on Monday said it acquired 60% of the shares in CNMP, while 40% will remain with Seafrigo, a temperature-controlled food logistics company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hanseatic CEO Dheeraj Bhatia said in a statement the deal allows the company to “strengthen our position in one of our core European markets.”“At the same time, we are continuing to expand our global terminal portfolio while paving the way for targeted investments to enhance efficiency,” he added. “The transaction will therefore directly contribute to the vigorous realization of our ‘Strategy 2030.’” CNMP operates the Atlantique container terminal at Le Havre, France’s largest port, as an independent company. Le Havre has an annual container throughput of 3 million TEUs with strong hinterland connections, and the CNMP terminal plans to tap into that growth in the coming years, including in the attractive reefer container business. Hanseatic plans to expand its global terminal portfolio to more than 30 terminals by 2030 in support of its carrier parent. Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships, improved on-time performance and greater integration with transshipment and inland connections in an increasingly congested world. It is the bedrock around which the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tpm25-gemini-hitting-90-reliability-target-as-new-network-rolls-out-habben-jansen-5955794">90% schedule reliability promise of Gemini Cooperation</a> members Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk is built, and it is behind the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/hutchison-inks-228-billion-deal-to-sell-majority-of-port-holdings-to-blackrock-til-5955819">blockbuster $22.8 billion Hutchison port takeover</a> by BlackRock Group and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s terminal arm.Similarly, CMA CGM plans to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-to-invest-20-billion-in-us-shipping-ports-and-logistics-5957748">invest $20 billion over the next four years</a> to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including the expansion of capacity at key US ports. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Hapag-Lloyd subsidiary Hanseatic Global Terminals has acquired a majority stake in terminal operator CNMP at the French port of Le Havre from Seafrigo Group as the carrier expands its reach into the reefer business. Hanseatic on Monday said it acquired 60% of the shares in CNMP, while 40% will remain with Seafrigo, a temperature-controlled food logistics company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hanseatic CEO Dheeraj Bhatia said in a statement the deal allows the company to “strengthen our position in one of our core European markets.” “At the same time, we are continuing to expand our global terminal portfolio while paving the way for targeted investments to enhance efficiency,” he added. “The transaction will therefore directly contribute to the vigorous realization of our ‘Strategy 2030.’” CNMP operates the Atlantique container terminal at Le Havre, France’s largest port, as an independent company. Le Havre has an annual container throughput of 3 million TEUs with strong hinterland connections, and the CNMP terminal plans to tap into that growth in the coming years, including in the attractive reefer container business. Hanseatic plans to expand its global terminal portfolio to more than 30 terminals by 2030 in support of its carrier parent. Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships, improved on-time performance and greater integration with transshipment and inland connections in an increasingly congested world. It is the bedrock around which the 90% schedule reliability promise of Gemini Cooperation members Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk is built, and it is behind the blockbuster $22.8 billion Hutchison port takeover by BlackRock Group and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s terminal arm. Similarly, CMA CGM plans to invest $20 billion over the next four years to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including the expansion of capacity at key US ports. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Hapag-Lloyd’s ports arm buys majority stake in Le Havre terminal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.</div>

While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.

<div class="phx-topic">Air freight rates from China to the US have fallen sharply since Lunar New Year as the traditional post-holiday slump combined with mounting uncertainty over the impact of a US clampdown on low-value products under the “de minimis” threshold. While the steep decline in spot prices has moderated into March, average rates from Shanghai to the US were down 29% in February compared with the previous month in response to the regulatory and political messages emanating from the White House, according to Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. “From the conversations we are hearing, some shippers are clearly looking for ways to minimize the impact of US tariffs, while others will be anticipating lower air freight rates if e-commerce volumes show a sustained dip,” van de Wouw noted in Xeneta’s latest market update. Strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, but recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market. De minimis regulations in the US allow one shipment of less than $800 in value to move between a single shipper and single consignee per day, duty free. China accounted for two-thirds of the 1.36 billion de minimis imports last year. When the Trump administration removed low-value products from de minimis exemptions in February, the system immediately backed up, forcing the exemption of low-value imports to be restored until an appropriate inspection and duty collection system can be devised. Alan Beacham, managing director of global forwarder Toll Group, said the market experienced huge disruption when low-value shipments were excluded from the de minimis rules last month. “I don't think any of us were ready to experience what happened in those three or four days where a million and a half parcels were on the ground in Chicago and five to seven million parcels across the US,” Beacham told an air cargo panel last week at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach. “That was within three days. Imagine if it continued for a month and all that cargo would have to be cleared through US customs,” he said. “E-commerce will continue to grow, and the complexity around the intersection with tariffs and the intersection with customs is creating uncertainty as to how that will play out.” <h3>Shifting from air to ocean </h3>Kathy Liu, vice president of global sales and marketing at Taiwan-based Dimerco Express Group, said the air cargo market slowed significantly after Jan. 20 following the de minimis policy announcements from the Trump administration. "This led to e-commerce platforms canceling charters, disrupting the supply and demand balance,” she wrote in a March update. Liu said although e-commerce “will not disappear,” it is shifting from a business-to-consumer (B2C) model to a more traditional fulfilment model that will reduce air freight demand as more shipments move to ocean freight. Xeneta forecasts air freight growth of 4% to 6% in 2025 following the strong performance in 2024 when volume grew 12%. But the growing trade tensions have placed “a big question mark” over the outlook, van de Wouw noted in his market update. “This is a situation completely outside of the control of the air cargo market, and there’s a great deal of noise, which is adding to stakeholders’ anxiety,” he said. “The issue is no one knows what the end game is and what’s going to happen from a regulatory perspective and how this will impact consumer confidence.” While any dip in demand from a regulatory clampdown on low-value imports into the US may temporarily ease capacity pressures, long-term structural challenges — such as aging fleets, slow production and regulatory hurdles — will keep the market tight, according to air cargo consultancy Cargo Facts. “The near-term future of air cargo remains uncertain, with shifting trade policies and supply chain challenges shaping the industry,” Cargo Facts wrote this week in the latest Baltic Air Index market outlook. “On one side, rising trade tensions and new tariffs are slowing demand in key areas like trans-Pacific e-commerce,” the consultancy wrote. “On the other hand, delays in aircraft production and freighter conversions mean supply growth may not keep up, creating potential capacity shortages in the coming years.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Air freight rates from China to the US have fallen sharply since Lunar New Year as the traditional post-holiday slump combined with mounting uncertainty over the impact of a US clampdown on low-value products under the “de minimis” threshold. While the steep decline in spot prices has moderated into March, average rates from Shanghai to the US were down 29% in February compared with the previous month in response to the regulatory and political messages emanating from the White House, according to Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta. “From the conversations we are hearing, some shippers are clearly looking for ways to minimize the impact of US tariffs, while others will be anticipating lower air freight rates if e-commerce volumes show a sustained dip,” van de Wouw noted in Xeneta’s latest market update. Strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, but recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market. De minimis regulations in the US allow one shipment of less than $800 in value to move between a single shipper and single consignee per day, duty free. China accounted for two-thirds of the 1.36 billion de minimis imports last year. When the Trump administration removed low-value products from de minimis exemptions in February, the system immediately backed up, forcing the exemption of low-value imports to be restored until an appropriate inspection and duty collection system can be devised. Alan Beacham, managing director of global forwarder Toll Group, said the market experienced huge disruption when low-value shipments were excluded from the de minimis rules last month. “I don't think any of us were ready to experience what happened in those three or four days where a million and a half parcels were on the ground in Chicago and five to seven million parcels across the US,” Beacham told an air cargo panel last week at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach. “That was within three days. Imagine if it continued for a month and all that cargo would have to be cleared through US customs,” he said. “E-commerce will continue to grow, and the complexity around the intersection with tariffs and the intersection with customs is creating uncertainty as to how that will play out.” Shifting from air to ocean Kathy Liu, vice president of global sales and marketing at Taiwan-based Dimerco Express Group, said the air cargo market slowed significantly after Jan. 20 following the de minimis policy announcements from the Trump administration. "This led to e-commerce platforms canceling charters, disrupting the supply and demand balance,” she wrote in a March update. Liu said although e-commerce “will not disappear,” it is shifting from a business-to-consumer (B2C) model to a more traditional fulfilment model that will reduce air freight demand as more shipments move to ocean freight. Xeneta forecasts air freight growth of 4% to 6% in 2025 following the strong performance in 2024 when volume grew 12%. But the growing trade tensions have placed “a big question mark” over the outlook, van de Wouw noted in his market update. “This is a situation completely outside of the control of the air cargo market, and there’s a great deal of noise, which is adding to stakeholders’ anxiety,” he said. “The issue is no one knows what the end game is and what’s going to happen from a regulatory perspective and how this will impact consumer confidence.” While any dip in demand from a regulatory clampdown on low-value imports into the US may temporarily ease capacity pressures, long-term structural challenges — such as aging fleets, slow production and regulatory hurdles — will keep the market tight, according to air cargo consultancy Cargo Facts. “The near-term future of air cargo remains uncertain, with shifting trade policies and supply chain challenges shaping the industry,” Cargo Facts wrote this week in the latest Baltic Air Index market outlook. “On one side, rising trade tensions and new tariffs are slowing demand in key areas like trans-Pacific e-commerce,” the consultancy wrote. “On the other hand, delays in aircraft production and freighter conversions mean supply growth may not keep up, creating potential capacity shortages in the coming years.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Air Cargo Forwarder News

Air Cargo Carriers News

Air Cargo

Air cargo rates tumble as market adjusts to looming ‘de minimis’ changes

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market has risen over the past two quarters, although that resiliency is going to be tested in the months to come, writes analyst Larry Gross. </div>

Domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market has risen over the past two quarters, although that resiliency is going to be tested in the months to come, writes analyst Larry Gross.

<div class="phx-topic">Roughly 60% of all North American intermodal activity is directly linked to the continent’s trade with other nations. This international business includes both intact movement of ISO containers and cargo transloaded from ISO boxes to domestic equipment. The recent actions of the Trump administration have once again brought home the fact that intermodal has little control over its fortunes in the international sector. Clearly, the world is changing under intermodal’s feet. But there’s not much use in making predictions when reality seems to be changing by the hour. This is not the time to take risks or make big decisions. Rather, it appears appropriate to keep one’s powder dry and wait for the dust to begin to settle, and for the new reality, whatever it is, to begin to come into focus. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/5957623_0.1.jpg"></img></div>But beyond the international situation lies the other 40%, domestic intermodal, and the news regarding that sector is looking better. Of course, domestic intermodal is still subject to the vagaries of the long-haul truck market. Its destiny is tightly coupled with the demand for long-haul truck transport — a factor over which it has no control. But that doesn’t mean that domestic intermodal can’t grow. The key is market share, and here the news is good. The chart displays Gross Transportation Consulting’s estimates for domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market. The market is defined as dry-van and reefer truckloads moving within the US for distances of 500 miles or more. For this, we are using data produced by Noel Perry and his firm, Transport Futures. The intermodal numbers are from the Intermodal Association of North America’s ETSO database and include only those revenue moves of domestic containers and trailers that both originate and terminate within the US. Determining the total number of truck moves within the US is a tall order, given the fragmented nature of the truckload sector. Perry derives his numbers from economic data. While we can’t be absolutely sure how close the calculated absolute level of loads is to reality, the more important aspect is the trend. This will determine whether intermodal share is rising or falling. As can be clearly seen from the chart, domestic intermodal share declined significantly in recent years. From the peak in 2018 during the electronic logging device (ELD)-related truck capacity shortage, share has stair-stepped down several times, initially due to precision scheduled railroading (PSR) network pruning in 2019 and then service and capacity issues during the post-pandemic surge. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="93961411-dbef-4433-9131-380888051d3c"></dynamic-object></div>Domestic intermodal originations were only 1% higher in the fourth quarter of 2022 than they were in the second quarter of 2018. But over the same time frame, GDP increased over 10% and long-haul truck moves grew 11%. As a result, domestic intermodal share tumbled from nearly 7.2% in the second quarter of 2018 down to 6% in the fourth quarter of 2022. It remained roughly at that level for the next year and a half. Lost shippers, it appeared, were reluctant to come back to intermodal, especially given that good service and low rates were available over-the-road, thanks to an abundance of truckload capacity. But now that calculus appears to be changing. In the second half of last year, domestic intermodal market share improved for two consecutive quarters, breaking well above the 6% threshold. While a 0.2% or 0.3% gain may not seem very impressive, if one goes back to domestic intermodal’s golden era of growth, from 2008 to 2015, share also grew by about 0.1% per calendar quarter. Supply chains don’t turn on a dime. It was the ability of the sector to put together many consecutive quarters of slow improvement that did the trick. Why is market share growing? Certainly, a very slowly improving truck market gets some of the credit. So too, intermodal service has improved from the dark days of the post-pandemic surge, and the system has displayed admirable resilience against the many recent disruptions. Further, some of the excesses of the PSR-related network simplifications have been reversed and new terminals and routes are being established. This resiliency is certainly going to be tested in the months to come. A good chunk of domestic intermodal is transloaded international cargo, and where that market goes is anybody’s guess right now. Plus, the cross-border markets are also operating under a cloud of uncertainty. The risk of stagflation (inflation plus slow and/or no growth) is rising with each new tariff threat and the departures of blue-collar immigrant members of the workforce. But the domestic market is one of the only places where intermodal has an ability to control its destiny. Continued good service and sharp pricing will be key to maintaining the recovery in market share. Contact Larry Gross at <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/lgross@intermodalindepth.com">lgross@intermodalindepth.com.</a></div>

Roughly 60% of all North American intermodal activity is directly linked to the continent’s trade with other nations. This international business includes both intact movement of ISO containers and cargo transloaded from ISO boxes to domestic equipment. The recent actions of the Trump administration have once again brought home the fact that intermodal has little control over its fortunes in the international sector. Clearly, the world is changing under intermodal’s feet. But there’s not much use in making predictions when reality seems to be changing by the hour. This is not the time to take risks or make big decisions. Rather, it appears appropriate to keep one’s powder dry and wait for the dust to begin to settle, and for the new reality, whatever it is, to begin to come into focus. But beyond the international situation lies the other 40%, domestic intermodal, and the news regarding that sector is looking better. Of course, domestic intermodal is still subject to the vagaries of the long-haul truck market. Its destiny is tightly coupled with the demand for long-haul truck transport — a factor over which it has no control. But that doesn’t mean that domestic intermodal can’t grow. The key is market share, and here the news is good. The chart displays Gross Transportation Consulting’s estimates for domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market. The market is defined as dry-van and reefer truckloads moving within the US for distances of 500 miles or more. For this, we are using data produced by Noel Perry and his firm, Transport Futures. The intermodal numbers are from the Intermodal Association of North America’s ETSO database and include only those revenue moves of domestic containers and trailers that both originate and terminate within the US. Determining the total number of truck moves within the US is a tall order, given the fragmented nature of the truckload sector. Perry derives his numbers from economic data. While we can’t be absolutely sure how close the calculated absolute level of loads is to reality, the more important aspect is the trend. This will determine whether intermodal share is rising or falling. As can be clearly seen from the chart, domestic intermodal share declined significantly in recent years. From the peak in 2018 during the electronic logging device (ELD)-related truck capacity shortage, share has stair-stepped down several times, initially due to precision scheduled railroading (PSR) network pruning in 2019 and then service and capacity issues during the post-pandemic surge. Domestic intermodal originations were only 1% higher in the fourth quarter of 2022 than they were in the second quarter of 2018. But over the same time frame, GDP increased over 10% and long-haul truck moves grew 11%. As a result, domestic intermodal share tumbled from nearly 7.2% in the second quarter of 2018 down to 6% in the fourth quarter of 2022. It remained roughly at that level for the next year and a half. Lost shippers, it appeared, were reluctant to come back to intermodal, especially given that good service and low rates were available over-the-road, thanks to an abundance of truckload capacity. But now that calculus appears to be changing. In the second half of last year, domestic intermodal market share improved for two consecutive quarters, breaking well above the 6% threshold. While a 0.2% or 0.3% gain may not seem very impressive, if one goes back to domestic intermodal’s golden era of growth, from 2008 to 2015, share also grew by about 0.1% per calendar quarter. Supply chains don’t turn on a dime. It was the ability of the sector to put together many consecutive quarters of slow improvement that did the trick. Why is market share growing? Certainly, a very slowly improving truck market gets some of the credit. So too, intermodal service has improved from the dark days of the post-pandemic surge, and the system has displayed admirable resilience against the many recent disruptions. Further, some of the excesses of the PSR-related network simplifications have been reversed and new terminals and routes are being established. This resiliency is certainly going to be tested in the months to come. A good chunk of domestic intermodal is transloaded international cargo, and where that market goes is anybody’s guess right now. Plus, the cross-border markets are also operating under a cloud of uncertainty. The risk of stagflation (inflation plus slow and/or no growth) is rising with each new tariff threat and the departures of blue-collar immigrant members of the workforce. But the domestic market is one of the only places where intermodal has an ability to control its destiny. Continued good service and sharp pricing will be key to maintaining the recovery in market share. Contact Larry Gross at  lgross@intermodalindepth.com.

Intermodal providers

Surface

In the midst of chaos, some good news emerges for domestic intermodal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The visibility market has bifurcated into standalone vendors too small to be captured by Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” report and larger vendors whose platforms extend far beyond what the report evaluates.</div>

The visibility market has bifurcated into standalone vendors too small to be captured by Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” report and larger vendors whose platforms extend far beyond what the report evaluates.

<div class="phx-topic">Gnosis Freight has announced a product integration with logistics payment vendor PayCargo and ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd that connects shipper and forwarder payments to the liner with reduced dwell times and faster cargo release. In a vacuum, the announcement this week would be seen as positive step toward using visibility data — of which Gnosis has become a key provider for ocean and intermodal rail — in a way that directly influences actions that matter to shippers, carriers and container terminals. But the announcement came exactly one week after another noteworthy development in the freight visibility space: FourKites saying it was withdrawing from consideration from the so-called real-time transportation visibility provider (RTTVP) “Magic Quadrant” reports published by technology advisory firm Gartner. Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, or MQs, are software comparison reports widely used by enterprise shippers to help narrow down vendor options in several key supply chain software categories, from demand planning and warehouse management to freight-focused areas such as transportation management and visibility. Vendors are eligible for consideration based on the number of customers they have, their range of product and service features, customer interest and geographic footprint. Only six vendors were considered in the 2025 RTTVP edition. FourKites’ request to withdraw from the visibility MQ was due to its own changing business model focused around control tower technology, a model that wouldn’t be represented effectively by Gartner’s RTTVP criteria, FourKites asserted. FourKites was included in the most recent visibility MQ released last week, one of two providers (the other being fierce rival project44) in the “leaders” section of the quadrant. <h3>Public questioning </h3>In the 10 days since FourKites’ decision, much discussion has occurred online around the company’s withdrawal, including whether it was instigated by FourKites’ perennial placement in the quadrant behind project44. But more broadly, the decision has cast light on whether the visibility market as it currently exists is even well-captured by a report that focuses on pure transportation visibility data vendors that tend to cater mostly to large organizations with large software and data spend. The Gnosis-PayCargo announcement, in that context, shows the way the market is trending. “Quadrants and their naming tend to lag behind market evolution,” Eric Fullerton, vice president of product marketing at project44, said in a LinkedIn discussion Thursday. “No player in that MQ positions themselves as just RTTVP.” To be clear, much of the FourKites-Gartner debate is inexorably tinged by a vendor’s reliance on visibility data as a core revenue driver or a value-add component for customers. Those companies for whom visibility data is either the entire product or the core foundation of an application reliant on visibility data believe there is big differentiation in the market, largely based on modal coverage, geographic footprint, use of artificial intelligence and direct connection to decision-making tools. Those companies who view visibility as an ancillary product or perk regard it as undifferentiated and interchangeable. <h3>Shippers need more </h3>The FourKites decision essentially brought that long-simmering background issue into the open. But what does it mean for shippers? Brian Schultz, chief growth officer at control tower provider Paxafe and a veteran of visibility vendor Shippeo, wrote in a blog post Thursday that shippers will require that visibility providers proactively manage shipments across modes and not be “a glorified data aggregator ... and merely repeat carrier-provided data.” “While Gartner’s rankings generate discussion ... they’re increasingly disconnected from actual platform capabilities,” Schultz wrote. “Visibility alone is insufficient — actionability is essential.” The Gnosis-PayCargo payment portal with Hapag-Lloyd, announced during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach, is a sign of how the market is evolving. Gnosis was not in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. It was likely too small, had customers in too few geographical markets and didn’t have complete enough modal coverage to qualify for the MQ, which makes sense because Gnosis isn’t even really an RTTVP vendor, anyway. The company became a provider of ocean and intermodal visibility data almost by accident, a consequence of building execution software that covers those modes and not being satisfied with the data provided by specialists. Gnosis now supplies that data to other software vendors, some of whom occupy lofty positions on the MQ. In a sense, Gnosis is the perfect example of how the market moves ahead of where somewhat static metrics could possibly cover. And it raises questions about the future of pure play visibility providers that have raised huge sums of external capital — mostly via venture funds. <h3>Valuations leading to evolution </h3>The same day FourKites announced it was leaving the visibility MQ, Jonah McIntire, chief platform officer at Transporeon, wrote a blog post arguing that project44, FourKites and Shippeo had collectively raised more than $1.2 billion and would have to collectively exit for at least $5 billion to give their venture backers the return they would have initially sought. McIntire said that return will be impossible because the total addressable market (TAM) analysis of venture capital-backed startups “overestimated the actual market size and willingness to buy.” He said it’s especially true because the market isn’t inclined to spend more to achieve better visibility compared with “good enough” visibility. When considering McIntire’s view of the market, it’s important to note Transporeon falls into the category of vendors for whom visibility is an ancillary feature, not a core revenue driver. The company is more commonly used for transportation procurement and execution. But Fullerton argues the magic quadrants still have merit, if you consider who is using them. “While imperfect, these quadrants drive billions in tech spending annually,” he wrote on LinkedIn Thursday. “The market speaks. Buyers with budgets — not critics — fuel the demand.” “No company feels Gartner’s criteria represents them properly,” Fullerton added. “I don’t feel like RTTVP criteria reflects our platform, but it’s the game we signed up to play when agreeing to participate in the evaluation.” Indeed, both FourKites and project44 have in recent weeks announced AI enhancements to their products and new applications designed to extend the utility of visibility data. One source close to the Gartner process told the Journal of Commerce in early February that the RTTVP Magic Quadrant wasn’t really relevant any more given the way the market has evolved. “Visibility problems need to be increasingly urgent or novel,” McIntire wrote. “Their sales efforts need to make visibility more complicated than it really is. And I don’t think the supply chain management community buys that narrative anymore.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Gnosis Freight has announced a product integration with logistics payment vendor PayCargo and ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd that connects shipper and forwarder payments to the liner with reduced dwell times and faster cargo release. In a vacuum, the announcement this week would be seen as positive step toward using visibility data — of which Gnosis has become a key provider for ocean and intermodal rail — in a way that directly influences actions that matter to shippers, carriers and container terminals. But the announcement came exactly one week after another noteworthy development in the freight visibility space: FourKites saying it was withdrawing from consideration from the so-called real-time transportation visibility provider (RTTVP) “Magic Quadrant” reports published by technology advisory firm Gartner. Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, or MQs, are software comparison reports widely used by enterprise shippers to help narrow down vendor options in several key supply chain software categories, from demand planning and warehouse management to freight-focused areas such as transportation management and visibility. Vendors are eligible for consideration based on the number of customers they have, their range of product and service features, customer interest and geographic footprint. Only six vendors were considered in the 2025 RTTVP edition. FourKites’ request to withdraw from the visibility MQ was due to its own changing business model focused around control tower technology, a model that wouldn’t be represented effectively by Gartner’s RTTVP criteria, FourKites asserted. FourKites was included in the most recent visibility MQ released last week, one of two providers (the other being fierce rival project44) in the “leaders” section of the quadrant. Public questioning In the 10 days since FourKites’ decision, much discussion has occurred online around the company’s withdrawal, including whether it was instigated by FourKites’ perennial placement in the quadrant behind project44. But more broadly, the decision has cast light on whether the visibility market as it currently exists is even well-captured by a report that focuses on pure transportation visibility data vendors that tend to cater mostly to large organizations with large software and data spend. The Gnosis-PayCargo announcement, in that context, shows the way the market is trending. “Quadrants and their naming tend to lag behind market evolution,” Eric Fullerton, vice president of product marketing at project44, said in a LinkedIn discussion Thursday. “No player in that MQ positions themselves as just RTTVP.” To be clear, much of the FourKites-Gartner debate is inexorably tinged by a vendor’s reliance on visibility data as a core revenue driver or a value-add component for customers. Those companies for whom visibility data is either the entire product or the core foundation of an application reliant on visibility data believe there is big differentiation in the market, largely based on modal coverage, geographic footprint, use of artificial intelligence and direct connection to decision-making tools. Those companies who view visibility as an ancillary product or perk regard it as undifferentiated and interchangeable. Shippers need more The FourKites decision essentially brought that long-simmering background issue into the open. But what does it mean for shippers? Brian Schultz, chief growth officer at control tower provider Paxafe and a veteran of visibility vendor Shippeo, wrote in a blog post Thursday that shippers will require that visibility providers proactively manage shipments across modes and not be “a glorified data aggregator ... and merely repeat carrier-provided data.” “While Gartner’s rankings generate discussion ... they’re increasingly disconnected from actual platform capabilities,” Schultz wrote. “Visibility alone is insufficient — actionability is essential.” The Gnosis-PayCargo payment portal with Hapag-Lloyd, announced during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach, is a sign of how the market is evolving. Gnosis was not in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. It was likely too small, had customers in too few geographical markets and didn’t have complete enough modal coverage to qualify for the MQ, which makes sense because Gnosis isn’t even really an RTTVP vendor, anyway. The company became a provider of ocean and intermodal visibility data almost by accident, a consequence of building execution software that covers those modes and not being satisfied with the data provided by specialists. Gnosis now supplies that data to other software vendors, some of whom occupy lofty positions on the MQ. In a sense, Gnosis is the perfect example of how the market moves ahead of where somewhat static metrics could possibly cover. And it raises questions about the future of pure play visibility providers that have raised huge sums of external capital — mostly via venture funds. Valuations leading to evolution The same day FourKites announced it was leaving the visibility MQ, Jonah McIntire, chief platform officer at Transporeon, wrote a blog post arguing that project44, FourKites and Shippeo had collectively raised more than $1.2 billion and would have to collectively exit for at least $5 billion to give their venture backers the return they would have initially sought. McIntire said that return will be impossible because the total addressable market (TAM) analysis of venture capital-backed startups “overestimated the actual market size and willingness to buy.” He said it’s especially true because the market isn’t inclined to spend more to achieve better visibility compared with “good enough” visibility. When considering McIntire’s view of the market, it’s important to note Transporeon falls into the category of vendors for whom visibility is an ancillary feature, not a core revenue driver. The company is more commonly used for transportation procurement and execution. But Fullerton argues the magic quadrants still have merit, if you consider who is using them. “While imperfect, these quadrants drive billions in tech spending annually,” he wrote on LinkedIn Thursday. “The market speaks. Buyers with budgets — not critics — fuel the demand.” “No company feels Gartner’s criteria represents them properly,” Fullerton added. “I don’t feel like RTTVP criteria reflects our platform, but it’s the game we signed up to play when agreeing to participate in the evaluation.” Indeed, both FourKites and project44 have in recent weeks announced AI enhancements to their products and new applications designed to extend the utility of visibility data. One source close to the Gartner process told the Journal of Commerce in early February that the RTTVP Magic Quadrant wasn’t really relevant any more given the way the market has evolved. “Visibility problems need to be increasingly urgent or novel,” McIntire wrote. “Their sales efforts need to make visibility more complicated than it really is. And I don’t think the supply chain management community buys that narrative anymore.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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