<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">SEDGWICK INC.Jack Stone was appointed vice president, business development of Sedgwick Claim</div>

SEDGWICK INC.Jack Stone was appointed vice president, business development of Sedgwick Claim

<div>SEDGWICK INC.Jack Stone was appointed vice president, business development of Sedgwick Claims Management Inc., a unit of the Chicago-based insurance broker. He was previously a senior account executive for Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., a third-party administrator.In a related move, Linda P. Sundram was named president of Aegis Claims Management Services, a joint venture between Sedgwick Claims Mangement and Associated Electric &amp; Gas Insurance Services Ltd.Ms. Sundram was previously assistant vice president, customer services for GAB Robins.Anthony P. DiPietro was named ACMS vice president. He previously managed the risk management department of Philadelphia Gas Works.INSURANCE INFORMATIONINSTITUTEJames W. (Bill) Entringer, chairman, president...

SEDGWICK INC. Jack Stone was appointed vice president, business development of Sedgwick Claims Management Inc., a unit of the Chicago-based insurance broker. He was previously a senior account executive for Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., a third-party administrator.In a related move, Linda P. Sundram was named president of Aegis Claims Management Services, a joint venture between Sedgwick Claims Mangement and Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Services Ltd. Ms. Sundram was previously assistant vice president, customer services for GAB Robins. Anthony P. DiPietro was named ACMS vice president. He previously managed the risk management department of Philadelphia Gas Works. INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE James W. (Bill) Entringer, chairman, president and chief executive of Selective Insurance Group, was elected chairman of the industry organization in New York. He succeeds Kenneth J. Gorman, chairman and chief executive of Atlantic Mutual Cos. ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO. James G. McFarlane was named corporate vice president of the brokerage firm in Itasca, Ill. He joined the company in 1985 and most recently was southwest regional manager.

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025-26 service year.</div>

Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025-26 service year.

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<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carriers on the eastbound trans-Pacific are acknowledging they will be unable to achieve their hoped-for rates in 2025-26 annual service contracts with importers amid fresh concerns about the health of the US economy and a spot market that continues to slide. Mere weeks ago, those same carriers were adamant about nailing down rates for next year at a minimum level of $2,000 per FEU to the West Coast and $3,000 per FEU to the East Coast, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-carriers-reaching-higher-in-early-202526-contract-talks-5952701">saying they were determined not to underprice their services again</a> as they believe they did in the existing 2024-25 contracts. But a plummeting stock market and larger questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations. Four carriers told the Journal of Commerce they are now setting their sights slightly lower than $2,000/FEU for the West Coast and $3,000/FEU to the East Coast. One carrier executive said the new going rate in service contract negotiations with shippers is $1,800 to $1,900 per FEU to the West Coast and about $1,000 higher to the East Coast. But even that may not be a level to satiate some beneficial cargo owners who may prefer to wait to see if the market moves lower. “BCOs are still asking for lower,” the carrier executive said. The rapid decline in spot rates during the Lunar New Year factory closures in Asia is prompting some retailers to look at one or two more rounds of negotiations before they agree to a final contract rate for the 2025-26 service year, a second carrier source said. Most service contracts begin on May 1. <h3>Spot rate plunge influencing contract talks </h3>Spot rates from North Asia to the West Coast were at $1,850 per FEU as of Thursday, down 19% in just one week, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Rates to the East Coast of $2,900 per FEU were down 14% on the week. Plummeting spot rates – which are about 46% lower than this time last year – are having a knock-on effect on service contract levels now under negotiation. “Contract rates have mostly fallen below $2,000/$3,000,” said Rachel Shames, vice president for pricing and procurement at the forwarder CV International. “Carriers are becoming more aggressive with rates.” <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e7a65aab-9aac-4f07-9b74-1793746c01ef"></dynamic-object></div>Kevin Parkerson, an industry consultant and former logistics manager at national retailers, said he’s seeing West Coast/East Coast levels now talked at $1,800/$2,900. “I would not be surprised to see $1,700 [for the West Coast],” he said. Four importers who spoke to the Journal of Commerce said carriers, in a second round of negotiations over 2025-26 contracts, are now quoting rates below $2,000 to the West Coast and $3,000 to the East Coast. “Round two is now south of $2,000 [to the West Coast],” said one importer in the apparel sector. <h3>Confusion, frustration over tariffs </h3>While they negotiate new service contracts with carriers, importers are also trying to plan their sourcing and supply chain requirements while wading through the day-to-day confusion over the Trump administration’s ever-changing policy on tariffs. Frustrated retailers and importers say it has become increasingly difficult to plan ahead. “We are making estimates on [the tariffs’] impact on a per-unit basis and determining how that might impact imports on [vessel] strings where we do not have many options,” said an importer in the automotive sector. “This whole tariff thing is causing chaos and an inability to plan. We hate it.” An importer in the furniture sector said he is almost becoming numb to the bluster and constantly changing announcements from the White House on which nations will be hit with tariffs and how much those tariffs will be. “Whatever answer I get could change in the next 24 hours,” the source said. If and when some clarity is achieved as to how the tariffs will affect sourcing, “[we] will certainly go to our carriers” to lock in vessel space, he added. Meanwhile, importers say they will <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/new-year-heralds-triple-threat-to-us-container-shipping-5908327">continue to engage in frontloading of seasonal merchandise</a> while they wait for clarity on tariffs. One importer said he is already bringing in back-to-school and other fall merchandise, and another said his team is preparing to begin importing year-end holiday merchandise soon depending on the ability of factories in Asia to deliver the products. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a></div>

Ocean carriers on the eastbound trans-Pacific are acknowledging they will be unable to achieve their hoped-for rates in 2025-26 annual service contracts with importers amid fresh concerns about the health of the US economy and a spot market that continues to slide. Mere weeks ago, those same carriers were adamant about nailing down rates for next year at a minimum level of $2,000 per FEU to the West Coast and $3,000 per FEU to the East Coast, saying they were determined not to underprice their services again as they believe they did in the existing 2024-25 contracts. But a plummeting stock market and larger questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations. Four carriers told the Journal of Commerce they are now setting their sights slightly lower than $2,000/FEU for the West Coast and $3,000/FEU to the East Coast. One carrier executive said the new going rate in service contract negotiations with shippers is $1,800 to $1,900 per FEU to the West Coast and about $1,000 higher to the East Coast. But even that may not be a level to satiate some beneficial cargo owners who may prefer to wait to see if the market moves lower. “BCOs are still asking for lower,” the carrier executive said. The rapid decline in spot rates during the Lunar New Year factory closures in Asia is prompting some retailers to look at one or two more rounds of negotiations before they agree to a final contract rate for the 2025-26 service year, a second carrier source said. Most service contracts begin on May 1. Spot rate plunge influencing contract talks Spot rates from North Asia to the West Coast were at $1,850 per FEU as of Thursday, down 19% in just one week, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Rates to the East Coast of $2,900 per FEU were down 14% on the week. Plummeting spot rates – which are about 46% lower than this time last year – are having a knock-on effect on service contract levels now under negotiation. “Contract rates have mostly fallen below $2,000/$3,000,” said Rachel Shames, vice president for pricing and procurement at the forwarder CV International. “Carriers are becoming more aggressive with rates.” Kevin Parkerson, an industry consultant and former logistics manager at national retailers, said he’s seeing West Coast/East Coast levels now talked at $1,800/$2,900. “I would not be surprised to see $1,700 [for the West Coast],” he said. Four importers who spoke to the Journal of Commerce said carriers, in a second round of negotiations over 2025-26 contracts, are now quoting rates below $2,000 to the West Coast and $3,000 to the East Coast. “Round two is now south of $2,000 [to the West Coast],” said one importer in the apparel sector. Confusion, frustration over tariffs While they negotiate new service contracts with carriers, importers are also trying to plan their sourcing and supply chain requirements while wading through the day-to-day confusion over the Trump administration’s ever-changing policy on tariffs. Frustrated retailers and importers say it has become increasingly difficult to plan ahead. “We are making estimates on [the tariffs’] impact on a per-unit basis and determining how that might impact imports on [vessel] strings where we do not have many options,” said an importer in the automotive sector. “This whole tariff thing is causing chaos and an inability to plan. We hate it.” An importer in the furniture sector said he is almost becoming numb to the bluster and constantly changing announcements from the White House on which nations will be hit with tariffs and how much those tariffs will be. “Whatever answer I get could change in the next 24 hours,” the source said. If and when some clarity is achieved as to how the tariffs will affect sourcing, “[we] will certainly go to our carriers” to lock in vessel space, he added. Meanwhile, importers say they will continue to engage in frontloading of seasonal merchandise while they wait for clarity on tariffs. One importer said he is already bringing in back-to-school and other fall merchandise, and another said his team is preparing to begin importing year-end holiday merchandise soon depending on the ability of factories in Asia to deliver the products. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com

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Tariffs, falling spot market weaken contract resolve of trans-Pac carriers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper"> The dizzying pace of the Trump administration’s moves against longtime US trading partners is putting shippers at risk of facing hefty new costs as a result of tariff “stacking.” </div>

The dizzying pace of the Trump administration’s moves against longtime US trading partners is putting shippers at risk of facing hefty new costs as a result of tariff “stacking.”

<div class="phx-topic">The Trump administration’s flurry of threats against trading partners puts shippers at risk of tariff “stacking” as import duties compound on top of other charges, customs experts say. That flurry is adding to the increasing compliance burden on shippers who face what one expert called a “massive historic shift” in the cost of US import duties. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s executive order ending tariff exemptions on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union and South Korea went into effect. The move essentially reinstates a 25% tariff from Trump’s first administration, but from which those countries had successfully negotiated exemptions. Cameron Roberts, partner at trade and customs law specialist Roberts &amp; Kehagiaras, said at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach, California, last week that complying with the steel and aluminum tariffs “is going to be a major headache for everybody when you are importing goods into the United States” as it will require calculating the non-US metal content of goods for their customs entry. “That will be an important one to watch,” Roberts said. “There has been a recent discussion and information from the US Customs messaging system about derivatives and figuring out how much of the steel in a product is made from non-US steel and paying the countervailing duty on those amounts.” Tariffs on cooper imports could also rise under a pending US trade investigation. Those tariffs would come on top of the current 25% tariff rates on all goods from Canada and Mexico, along with the 20% tariffs on imports from China. The cornerstone of Trump’s “America First” trade policy, Roberts said, is removing the trade deficit between the US and its three largest trading partners. “The answer from the administration is we are going to make it extremely expensive to import into the United States of America,” Roberts said. “So, these [tariffs] are stacking. “Over the last two decades, tariff rates have averaged 2% to 3%,” he added. “We are seeing now, what, a [multiple of 10] change? This is a massive historic shift.” Also speaking at TPM25, Pete Mento, director of customs at forwarder DSV, said Trump’s threat of an across-the-board 10% tariff on all imports is also hanging over the heads of importers. “That would run roughshod on inflation,” Mento said. <h3>Tariff wildcards coming </h3>Trump implemented the country-specific tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives US presidents executive authority over parts of the economy due to a national emergency. Typically used to impose financial penalties on criminal and terrorist groups, IEEPA has only been used once before for tariffs, by President Richard Nixon in 1971. Roberts said the IEEPA tariffs, which are being justified to stem flows of illegal drugs and migrants into the US, offer the most latitude for new carveouts and exemptions because they are over negotiable issues. However, steel and aluminum tariffs, which were imposed under national security provisions of US trade law, are more likely to last due to Trump’s policy of building up US manufacturing and national defense capacity. Another tariff wildcard will come in April when the Trump administration is scheduled to release a wide-ranging report on what it sees as unfair practices of US trading partners. The report is expected to address how the US could enact “reciprocal” tariffs against countries based on the tariffs they charge US exports. That would upend the practice of most import duties being assessed based on the type of goods, not the country of origin. DSV’s Mento said the additional line items for country-specific goods will balloon the number of possible import classifications in the US tariff schedule. The retaliatory measures that China, Canada and the European Union enacted in response to Trump’s trade measures further risk spiraling reciprocal tariffs upward. “Trump said he’s going to put a 25% tariff on Japanese and European cars, but that’s far beyond reciprocal,” Mento said. “So now I’m worried that reciprocal tariffs will be far higher than imagined and more punitive.” The tariff escalations put further risk on importers who use a customs bond to release cargo prior to paying actual import duties, Roberts said. The increasing size of tariffs means importers will have to post additional bonds, raising their financial costs and increasing their credit risk. “This increase in duty will diminish your profit margin if you are an importer,” Roberts said. “If your financials don’t look as good, you will have a harder time qualifying for credit.” On top of the tariffs, Roberts said shippers need to know the makeup of the fleet carrying their imports due to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-port-tax-would-scramble-ocean-services-raise-shipper-costs-drewry-5952046">Trump’s plan for a port tax on Chinese ocean carriers and ships</a>. The proposed order calls for fees of about $1 million per port call based on a mix of factors including the ship’s country of ownership, the number of newbuilds the carrier has at Chinese shipyards and the cargo capacity of the ships. “If you have a vessel, you could be responsible to pay the fee for bringing in the ship, plus being a Chinese firm, for having a majority of Chinese-built ships, plus a majority of Chinese-built ships in the order process,” Roberts said. “You could be looking at a $4 million to $5 million hit just for coming into the US.” Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The Trump administration’s flurry of threats against trading partners puts shippers at risk of tariff “stacking” as import duties compound on top of other charges, customs experts say. That flurry is adding to the increasing compliance burden on shippers who face what one expert called a “massive historic shift” in the cost of US import duties. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s executive order ending tariff exemptions on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union and South Korea went into effect. The move essentially reinstates a 25% tariff from Trump’s first administration, but from which those countries had successfully negotiated exemptions. Cameron Roberts, partner at trade and customs law specialist Roberts & Kehagiaras, said at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach, California, last week that complying with the steel and aluminum tariffs “is going to be a major headache for everybody when you are importing goods into the United States” as it will require calculating the non-US metal content of goods for their customs entry. “That will be an important one to watch,” Roberts said. “There has been a recent discussion and information from the US Customs messaging system about derivatives and figuring out how much of the steel in a product is made from non-US steel and paying the countervailing duty on those amounts.” Tariffs on cooper imports could also rise under a pending US trade investigation. Those tariffs would come on top of the current 25% tariff rates on all goods from Canada and Mexico, along with the 20% tariffs on imports from China. The cornerstone of Trump’s “America First” trade policy, Roberts said, is removing the trade deficit between the US and its three largest trading partners. “The answer from the administration is we are going to make it extremely expensive to import into the United States of America,” Roberts said. “So, these [tariffs] are stacking. “Over the last two decades, tariff rates have averaged 2% to 3%,” he added. “We are seeing now, what, a [multiple of 10] change? This is a massive historic shift.” Also speaking at TPM25, Pete Mento, director of customs at forwarder DSV, said Trump’s threat of an across-the-board 10% tariff on all imports is also hanging over the heads of importers. “That would run roughshod on inflation,” Mento said. Tariff wildcards coming Trump implemented the country-specific tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives US presidents executive authority over parts of the economy due to a national emergency. Typically used to impose financial penalties on criminal and terrorist groups, IEEPA has only been used once before for tariffs, by President Richard Nixon in 1971. Roberts said the IEEPA tariffs, which are being justified to stem flows of illegal drugs and migrants into the US, offer the most latitude for new carveouts and exemptions because they are over negotiable issues. However, steel and aluminum tariffs, which were imposed under national security provisions of US trade law, are more likely to last due to Trump’s policy of building up US manufacturing and national defense capacity. Another tariff wildcard will come in April when the Trump administration is scheduled to release a wide-ranging report on what it sees as unfair practices of US trading partners. The report is expected to address how the US could enact “reciprocal” tariffs against countries based on the tariffs they charge US exports. That would upend the practice of most import duties being assessed based on the type of goods, not the country of origin. DSV’s Mento said the additional line items for country-specific goods will balloon the number of possible import classifications in the US tariff schedule. The retaliatory measures that China, Canada and the European Union enacted in response to Trump’s trade measures further risk spiraling reciprocal tariffs upward. “Trump said he’s going to put a 25% tariff on Japanese and European cars, but that’s far beyond reciprocal,” Mento said. “So now I’m worried that reciprocal tariffs will be far higher than imagined and more punitive.” The tariff escalations put further risk on importers who use a customs bond to release cargo prior to paying actual import duties, Roberts said. The increasing size of tariffs means importers will have to post additional bonds, raising their financial costs and increasing their credit risk. “This increase in duty will diminish your profit margin if you are an importer,” Roberts said. “If your financials don’t look as good, you will have a harder time qualifying for credit.” On top of the tariffs, Roberts said shippers need to know the makeup of the fleet carrying their imports due to Trump’s plan for a port tax on Chinese ocean carriers and ships . The proposed order calls for fees of about $1 million per port call based on a mix of factors including the ship’s country of ownership, the number of newbuilds the carrier has at Chinese shipyards and the cargo capacity of the ships. “If you have a vessel, you could be responsible to pay the fee for bringing in the ship, plus being a Chinese firm, for having a majority of Chinese-built ships, plus a majority of Chinese-built ships in the order process,” Roberts said. “You could be looking at a $4 million to $5 million hit just for coming into the US.” Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Escalating tariff costs are ‘massive’ financial shift for US importers: experts

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.</div>

But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.

<div class="phx-topic">Evergreen Marine, the largest of Taiwan’s Big Three carriers, said in a filing Thursday to the country’s stock exchange that its net profit last year jumped to $4.2 billion, an almost four-fold increase over 2023. Revenue rose about 60% to $14 billion amid higher freight rates and strong demand.Evergreen’s filing said it would spend $187 million this year to buy 66,500 containers from Dong Fang International Container (Hong Kong) and Singamas Container. The carrier, meanwhile, has also increased its stake in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company after paying $13 million to acquire an additional 5% interest from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shibaya Marine, it said in a separate filing Thursday. Evergreen’s results came a day after fellow Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming reported a big jump in 2024 net profits to $2 billion from $153 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 56% to $7 billion. The carrier, in a results announcement, said its plans for the year include “strengthening its core business, enhancing existing alliances and exploring new collaborative opportunities … [while] accelerating its regional route strategy and penetrating emerging markets to refine its global service network.” Yang Ming said it will also accelerate the deployment of up to 13 new ships following an internal review of environmental regulations and the development of alternative energy technologies. The carrier announced plans to order the ships, comprised of six 8,000-TEU dual-fuel vessels and seven 15,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel ships, last December; it now says the ships will enter service sooner than planned. “This deployment is expected to strengthen Yang Ming’s core business, mitigating energy risks across the fleet, and maintain flexibility in future vessel types and fuel options,” the carrier said. Still, Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook. “Key risk factors include US tariff developments, which may lead to potential inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs and impact economic growth and trade activities,” it said. Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday net profit of $1.4 billion for 2024, up from a $184 million net loss the year prior. The recovery is mainly due to the carrier deriving an increased share of revenue from longer-haul North and South America trades and Middle East and India services. Revenue increased 53% to $4.9 billion last year, Wan Hai said. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>.</div>

Evergreen Marine, the largest of Taiwan’s Big Three carriers, said in a filing Thursday to the country’s stock exchange that its net profit last year jumped to $4.2 billion, an almost four-fold increase over 2023. Revenue rose about 60% to $14 billion amid higher freight rates and strong demand. Evergreen’s filing said it would spend $187 million this year to buy 66,500 containers from Dong Fang International Container (Hong Kong) and Singamas Container. The carrier, meanwhile, has also increased its stake in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company after paying $13 million to acquire an additional 5% interest from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shibaya Marine, it said in a separate filing Thursday. Evergreen’s results came a day after fellow Taiwanese carrier Yang Ming reported a big jump in 2024 net profits to $2 billion from $153 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 56% to $7 billion. The carrier, in a results announcement, said its plans for the year include “strengthening its core business, enhancing existing alliances and exploring new collaborative opportunities … [while] accelerating its regional route strategy and penetrating emerging markets to refine its global service network.” Yang Ming said it will also accelerate the deployment of up to 13 new ships following an internal review of environmental regulations and the development of alternative energy technologies. The carrier announced plans to order the ships, comprised of six 8,000-TEU dual-fuel vessels and seven 15,000-TEU LNG dual-fuel ships, last December; it now says the ships will enter service sooner than planned. “This deployment is expected to strengthen Yang Ming’s core business, mitigating energy risks across the fleet, and maintain flexibility in future vessel types and fuel options,” the carrier said. Still, Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook. “Key risk factors include US tariff developments, which may lead to potential inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs and impact economic growth and trade activities,” it said. Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday net profit of $1.4 billion for 2024, up from a $184 million net loss the year prior. The recovery is mainly due to the carrier deriving an increased share of revenue from longer-haul North and South America trades and Middle East and India services. Revenue increased 53% to $4.9 billion last year, Wan Hai said. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Taiwan’s Big Three carriers report robust profit, revenue gains for 2024

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Executives from CSX and Norfolk Southern say that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers.</div>

Executives from CSX and Norfolk Southern say that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers.

<div class="phx-topic">Two Class I railroads acknowledged this week they have been unable to raise rates on shippers as much as they had hoped, citing a persistently weak market in the competing truckload sector. Executives from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, said that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers. “It’s less bad than it’s been in the last couple of years,” CSX CFO Sean Pelkey said. “We’re seeing pricing flat to up a little bit, which is encouraging. We have not seen that for a couple of years now … [but it’s] probably not what many had hoped going into the year.” Intermodal contract rates averaged $1.48 per mile in February, according to the Journal of Commerce Intermodal Savings Index, down from $1.54 per mile a year earlier. But when fuel surcharges were excluded, average contract rates remained flat year over year. Diesel prices in February were 36 cents per gallon lower than in the same month of 2024. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="ea6d4c62-90a1-4a5f-8fb1-9f00b53850b0"></dynamic-object></div>Industry analysts are growing <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-uncertainty-casts-shadow-on-us-trucking-demand-pricing-5962283">less optimistic</a> that the trucking market will strengthen in the second quarter, citing concerns that geopolitical tensions could lead to an economic downturn. Those concerns have also led to US retailers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-uncertainty-prompts-us-retailers-to-downgrade-spring-import-forecast-5961648">downgrading</a> their forecasts for import volume this spring. CSX and Norfolk Southern face challenges in attracting business when trucking rates are depressed because they operate short-haul lanes where the cost difference between truck and rail is much narrower. “[When] you talk about truck pricing, we’re not really expecting a big rebound there anytime soon. That’s not in our base scenario,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said at the J.P. Morgan event. To win business, Zampi said Norfolk Southern must “provide consistent, reliable service that the customer can trust to be more truck-like.” <h3>New wave of annual bids coming </h3>It will soon become clear whether intermodal providers can secure rate increases across the US. After intermodal marketing companies were <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/intermodal-providers-navigate-tough-pricing-environment-at-start-of-year-5922679">disappointed</a> that first wave of contract bids fell short of expectations in January and February, a second group of shippers will negotiate and finalize annual agreements with carriers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/jb-hunt-preparing-customers-for-boost-in-contract-rail-rates-in-2025-5925181">between April and June</a>. So far, intermodal carriers have proposed rate increases but have largely retreated following pushback during the bid process, according to several shippers who attended the Retail Industry Leaders Association conference in February and spoke with the Journal of Commerce at TPM25. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Two Class I railroads acknowledged this week they have been unable to raise rates on shippers as much as they had hoped, citing a persistently weak market in the competing truckload sector. Executives from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), speaking at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference, said that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers. “It’s less bad than it’s been in the last couple of years,” CSX CFO Sean Pelkey said. “We’re seeing pricing flat to up a little bit, which is encouraging. We have not seen that for a couple of years now … [but it’s] probably not what many had hoped going into the year.” Intermodal contract rates averaged $1.48 per mile in February, according to the Journal of Commerce Intermodal Savings Index, down from $1.54 per mile a year earlier. But when fuel surcharges were excluded, average contract rates remained flat year over year. Diesel prices in February were 36 cents per gallon lower than in the same month of 2024. Industry analysts are growing less optimistic that the trucking market will strengthen in the second quarter, citing concerns that geopolitical tensions could lead to an economic downturn. Those concerns have also led to US retailers downgrading their forecasts for import volume this spring. CSX and Norfolk Southern face challenges in attracting business when trucking rates are depressed because they operate short-haul lanes where the cost difference between truck and rail is much narrower. “[When] you talk about truck pricing, we’re not really expecting a big rebound there anytime soon. That’s not in our base scenario,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said at the J.P. Morgan event. To win business, Zampi said Norfolk Southern must “provide consistent, reliable service that the customer can trust to be more truck-like.” New wave of annual bids coming It will soon become clear whether intermodal providers can secure rate increases across the US. After intermodal marketing companies were disappointed that first wave of contract bids fell short of expectations in January and February, a second group of shippers will negotiate and finalize annual agreements with carriers between April and June . So far, intermodal carriers have proposed rate increases but have largely retreated following pushback during the bid process, according to several shippers who attended the Retail Industry Leaders Association conference in February and spoke with the Journal of Commerce at TPM25. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

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Intermodal providers

Railroads acknowledge little movement on intermodal contract rates

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Some analysts see green shoots that could signal higher US freight demand, but those encouraging signs remain fragile in an uncertain economy.</div>

Some analysts see green shoots that could signal higher US freight demand, but those encouraging signs remain fragile in an uncertain economy.

<div class="phx-topic">After a nearly three-year downcycle, the US trucking industry is on a slow road to recovery in terms of rates. But that road is getting harder to see through economic headwinds. The potential impact of US tariffs on businesses and consumers and even renewed concerns about a possible recession are shaking recent freight market optimism. Truckload rates may be rising on a year-over-year basis, but not quickly. And freight demand remains weak for both truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="dedbcf3e-8b82-4428-b33b-3fce22dd27e0"></dynamic-object></div>Some analysts believe demand could rise and rate gains could accelerate as early as the second quarter, while others expect improvements will be delayed until the second half, or even 2026. “We were pretty optimistic going into 2025, but we’ve become less optimistic,” said Lee Klaskow, senior analyst for transportation and logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The sky isn’t falling, but there is hail out there,” Klaskow said during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach last week as the Trump administration began implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. “What’s going on in Washington will have significant effects on consumers because it is going to be inflationary, assuming the tariffs are implemented,” he said. Since last week, the White House has implemented tariffs while postponing import taxes on some commodities and industries. The list of prospective tariffs is still expanding. The tariffs, even when postponed, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tpm25-chaos-erupts-as-us-tariffs-disrupt-cross-border-trucking-with-mexico-canada-5957555">are creating supply chain disruption</a> as US importers try to pull goods, including manufacturing inputs, into the US ahead of tariff deadlines. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence, calls those tariff-related disruptions “distortions” that must be considered when forecasting. “We do expect the market to improve over the next year, but we have to take out all the potential distortions until we can get more data,” Vise said Wednesday. Rapidly increasing spot truckload rates in lanes <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cross-border-spot-truck-rates-rise-as-shippers-ride-tariff-rollercoaster-5959754">between the US and Canada</a> are among those distortions, as are delays in getting imports from Mexico into the US. FTR has forecast that truckload rates will rise 3% in 2025, after falling 2.5% last year, with spot rates rising 6% and contract rates 2%. “It’s not a bad market for carriers, but it’s not improving yet,” Vise said. “I would venture it’s not likely to accelerate unless we see some stronger data than we’re seeing.” Even Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which must compete against truckload rates to capture intermodal business, has acknowledged the stubbornly tepid market for carriers. “The intermodal side is so truck competitive and we don’t have any kind of significant rebound built into our plan,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference. <h3>Searching for demand triggers </h3>The pace and extent of trucking’s recovery is important to shippers trying to plan their transportation budgets for 2025 and beyond in an uncertain market. Shippers tell the Journal of Commerce they approached 2025 expecting an inflection in demand and pricing — one they thought would take place in 2024. Now many shippers are pushing expectations for higher demand and transportation costs to 2026. Logistics provider RXO is confident the truckload market is heading upward, despite any disruptions caused by US tariffs. Spot rates in the fourth quarter were up 11.6% on average year over year, according to the most recent RXO Curve forecast. That double-digit jump followed a 5.8% increase in the third quarter. RXO expects mid-single-digit percentage growth in pricing in 2025, although spot rates could break higher, Corey Klujsza, vice president of pricing and procurement at RXO, said in an interview this week. Year over year, spot pricing was up about 12% in February, he said. Truckload spot rates dropped in seasonal fashion in February, but truckload capacity continues to tighten, with more small carriers leaving the market, he said. That should drive spot rates higher, eventually pulling up contract rates, according to RXO. “It’s still a challenging environment without a doubt, but I believe we’re pretty close to what I would call a supply-demand equilibrium,” Klujsza said. He sees signs that freight demand is set to grow, perhaps spurred by several separate demand triggers rather than just one. “The consumer remains relatively resilient, and we think we’re in the early innings of [inventory] restocking,” Klujsza said. “That can be part of a demand trigger as we go into the second quarter.” Others are more skeptical. “You need some sort of a shock [to spark demand],” Klaskow said at TPM25. Consumer confidence has been shaken. The Conference Board in February reported the largest monthly decline in its consumer confidence index since August 2021. “When I think of past capacity crunches, they’ve been man-made,” Jeff Tucker, president and CEO of logistics provider Tucker Company Worldwide, said at TPM25. He cited changes in truck driver hours-of-service rules in 2004 and the electronic logging device mandate in 2017 as examples of actions that helped tighten capacity. This year, “I don’t see anything from a regulatory or legislative standpoint that would change things in a dramatic fashion,” Tucker said. <h3>PMIs rising</h3>Beyond inventory restocking and consumer spending, Klujsza pointed to rising industrial production and new orders as potential demand triggers. The Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) published by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence both were positive in February, the second straight month of expansion. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="69ef0622-ac2e-40dd-b820-01f070762262"></dynamic-object></div>The PMIs are important as industrial production represents about 58% of total US truck tonnage, according to the Commodity Flow Census from the US Census Bureau. Klaskow called the PMI a leading indicator of LTL demand. “That’s important to us, as 60% of our shipments are industrial freight,” Adam Satterfield, CFO of LTL provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), said in an interview Wednesday. ODFL’s tonnage and shipment count dropped year over year in the first two months of the first quarter, but both measures increased sequentially from January to February. “[The increases were] higher than our 10-year average increase for those months,” Satterfield said. US manufacturing expansion in February was supported by increases in both production and new orders, said S&amp;P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Some of the order activity may have been driven by advanced purchases ahead of likely price increases and supply disruption related to potential US tariffs, S&amp;P Global said. The S&amp;P Global PMI rose to 52.7% in February from 52.1% in January, while the ISM PMI fell slightly from 50.9% to 50.3%. Any PMI reading higher than 50 represents expansion. Manufacturing improvements, however welcome, may only be “skin deep,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement in early March. “Production and purchasing were often buoyed by companies and their customers building inventory to beat price hikes and supply issues caused by tariffs,” said Williamson, adding that higher factory input costs are being passed onto consumers. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.Senior Editor Ari Ashe contributed to this report. </div>

After a nearly three-year downcycle, the US trucking industry is on a slow road to recovery in terms of rates. But that road is getting harder to see through economic headwinds. The potential impact of US tariffs on businesses and consumers and even renewed concerns about a possible recession are shaking recent freight market optimism. Truckload rates may be rising on a year-over-year basis, but not quickly. And freight demand remains weak for both truckload and less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers. Some analysts believe demand could rise and rate gains could accelerate as early as the second quarter, while others expect improvements will be delayed until the second half, or even 2026. “We were pretty optimistic going into 2025, but we’ve become less optimistic,” said Lee Klaskow, senior analyst for transportation and logistics at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The sky isn’t falling, but there is hail out there,” Klaskow said during the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference in Long Beach last week as the Trump administration began implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. “What’s going on in Washington will have significant effects on consumers because it is going to be inflationary, assuming the tariffs are implemented,” he said. Since last week, the White House has implemented tariffs while postponing import taxes on some commodities and industries. The list of prospective tariffs is still expanding. The tariffs, even when postponed, are creating supply chain disruption as US importers try to pull goods, including manufacturing inputs, into the US ahead of tariff deadlines. Avery Vise, vice president of trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence, calls those tariff-related disruptions “distortions” that must be considered when forecasting. “We do expect the market to improve over the next year, but we have to take out all the potential distortions until we can get more data,” Vise said Wednesday. Rapidly increasing spot truckload rates in lanes between the US and Canada are among those distortions, as are delays in getting imports from Mexico into the US. FTR has forecast that truckload rates will rise 3% in 2025, after falling 2.5% last year, with spot rates rising 6% and contract rates 2%. “It’s not a bad market for carriers, but it’s not improving yet,” Vise said. “I would venture it’s not likely to accelerate unless we see some stronger data than we’re seeing.” Even Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which must compete against truckload rates to capture intermodal business, has acknowledged the stubbornly tepid market for carriers. “The intermodal side is so truck competitive and we don’t have any kind of significant rebound built into our plan,” NS CFO Jason Zampi said Wednesday at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference. Searching for demand triggers The pace and extent of trucking’s recovery is important to shippers trying to plan their transportation budgets for 2025 and beyond in an uncertain market. Shippers tell the Journal of Commerce they approached 2025 expecting an inflection in demand and pricing — one they thought would take place in 2024. Now many shippers are pushing expectations for higher demand and transportation costs to 2026. Logistics provider RXO is confident the truckload market is heading upward, despite any disruptions caused by US tariffs. Spot rates in the fourth quarter were up 11.6% on average year over year, according to the most recent RXO Curve forecast. That double-digit jump followed a 5.8% increase in the third quarter. RXO expects mid-single-digit percentage growth in pricing in 2025, although spot rates could break higher, Corey Klujsza, vice president of pricing and procurement at RXO, said in an interview this week. Year over year, spot pricing was up about 12% in February, he said. Truckload spot rates dropped in seasonal fashion in February, but truckload capacity continues to tighten, with more small carriers leaving the market, he said. That should drive spot rates higher, eventually pulling up contract rates, according to RXO. “It’s still a challenging environment without a doubt, but I believe we’re pretty close to what I would call a supply-demand equilibrium,” Klujsza said. He sees signs that freight demand is set to grow, perhaps spurred by several separate demand triggers rather than just one. “The consumer remains relatively resilient, and we think we’re in the early innings of [inventory] restocking,” Klujsza said. “That can be part of a demand trigger as we go into the second quarter.” Others are more skeptical. “You need some sort of a shock [to spark demand],” Klaskow said at TPM25. Consumer confidence has been shaken. The Conference Board in February reported the largest monthly decline in its consumer confidence index since August 2021. “When I think of past capacity crunches, they’ve been man-made,” Jeff Tucker, president and CEO of logistics provider Tucker Company Worldwide, said at TPM25. He cited changes in truck driver hours-of-service rules in 2004 and the electronic logging device mandate in 2017 as examples of actions that helped tighten capacity. This year, “I don’t see anything from a regulatory or legislative standpoint that would change things in a dramatic fashion,” Tucker said. PMIs rising Beyond inventory restocking and consumer spending, Klujsza pointed to rising industrial production and new orders as potential demand triggers. The Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) published by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and S&P Global Market Intelligence both were positive in February, the second straight month of expansion. The PMIs are important as industrial production represents about 58% of total US truck tonnage, according to the Commodity Flow Census from the US Census Bureau. Klaskow called the PMI a leading indicator of LTL demand. “That’s important to us, as 60% of our shipments are industrial freight,” Adam Satterfield, CFO of LTL provider Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), said in an interview Wednesday. ODFL’s tonnage and shipment count dropped year over year in the first two months of the first quarter, but both measures increased sequentially from January to February. “[The increases were] higher than our 10-year average increase for those months,” Satterfield said. US manufacturing expansion in February was supported by increases in both production and new orders, said S&P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Some of the order activity may have been driven by advanced purchases ahead of likely price increases and supply disruption related to potential US tariffs, S&P Global said. The S&P Global PMI rose to 52.7% in February from 52.1% in January, while the ISM PMI fell slightly from 50.9% to 50.3%. Any PMI reading higher than 50 represents expansion. Manufacturing improvements, however welcome, may only be “skin deep,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement in early March. “Production and purchasing were often buoyed by companies and their customers building inventory to beat price hikes and supply issues caused by tariffs,” said Williamson, adding that higher factory input costs are being passed onto consumers. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .Senior Editor Ari Ashe contributed to this report.

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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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