<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The percentage of import TEUs arriving in Los Angeles and Long Beach and departing as domestic transloads should rise significantly in the third quarter, analyst Larry Gross says.</div>

The percentage of import TEUs arriving in Los Angeles and Long Beach and departing as domestic transloads should rise significantly in the third quarter, analyst Larry Gross says.

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<div>There are a lot of crosscurrents in the North American intermodal situation at the moment, and one place where many are converging is Southern California.<div><img></div>Activity is up: Import TEUs arriving in California increased 7.4% from the first quarter to the second quarter and came in 11.3% higher than in Q2 2023. East-to-west diversion takes some of the credit. Los Angeles/Long Beach’s share of inbound North American TEUs was 33.9% in June&nbsp;— 2.5% higher than in June of 2023. &nbsp;What is happening to this cargo once it lands in California? What are the implications for inland point intermodal (IPI) and transloading?&nbsp;In...

There are a lot of crosscurrents in the North American intermodal situation at the moment, and one place where many are converging is Southern California. Activity is up: Import TEUs arriving in California increased 7.4% from the first quarter to the second quarter and came in 11.3% higher than in Q2 2023. East-to-west diversion takes some of the credit. Los Angeles/Long Beach’s share of inbound North American TEUs was 33.9% in June — 2.5% higher than in June of 2023.   What is happening to this cargo once it lands in California? What are the implications for inland point intermodal (IPI) and transloading?  In the second quarter, 66.7% of import TEUs landing in California headed inland on rail, down from 68.1% in Q1. This is not to say that intermodal volumes themselves were down — they weren’t — but simply that the intermodal numbers did not rise quite as quickly as import TEUs did.  Peeling back the onion, about 833,000 intermodal revenue moves emerged from the Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA’s) Southwest region (mainly California) heading for inland points in Q2. This excludes volume heading north up the coast to the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. Sequentially, that was a 5.8% gain from Q1 (again, slightly lower than the improvement in import TEUs). Independent system operator container moves were up 5.2% from Q1, while domestic was up 6.3%.   However, when looked at from a year-over-year perspective, the picture looks very different. Overall intermodal moves coming out of the Southwest were up 13.6% from the prior year. The strength was almost entirely in IPI — ISO container moves were up 27.6% versus the prior year while domestic equipment moves were up only 3.8%.  Those results are summarized in the chart, which looks at the international (ISO container) share of intermodal revenue movements coming out of the Southwest region on rail versus domestic. International share in Q2 was about 39%. The majority of the loads emerging were domestic (mostly transloads). The situation was largely unchanged from Q1.   East Coast option ‘unattractive’   It was from Q1 2021 to Q4 2023 that the big change took place — a jump in IPI share. It is typical for IPI share to move up in Q1 as import shipments are typically less urgent and cost savings can be achieved by adopting the slightly slower IPI option. But the move this year was unusually large. It occurred because transload volume dropped from Q4 to Q1 while IPI volume increased. The implication is that much of the volume diverting to the West Coast in Q1 was previously moving intact into the Midwest via other coasts. Many of these importers probably did not have transloading arrangements in place.  However, I don’t think this situation will persist. If history is any guide, with trans-Pacific ocean rates spiking, carriers will likely try to de-emphasize IPI in the hopes of turning more of their boxes on the coast and hustling them back to Asia for another high-revenue load. The last time this happened, during the post-pandemic surge, many importers opted for East Coast routings, using both intermodal and trucks from the coast to reach the destination.   But today, the ongoing diversions away from the Red Sea (and Suez Canal) are forcing longer voyages around southern Africa, (and higher costs). Now add in the possibility of a dock strike when the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) contract expires at the end of September . For these reasons, the East Coast option looks quite unattractive this time around.   While direct highway movement out of the port can serve as a good safety valve off the East Coast, the distances involved coming off the West Coast are much longer, making this alternative very costly and useful only in emergencies.  That leaves transloading as a good alternative. Although we haven’t seen it yet, I expect to see the percentage of import TEUs arriving in California and departing as domestic transloads to rise significantly in the third quarter and for this situation to persist through the balance of the year depending on whether things change in the Red Sea and whether and when a settlement is reached with the ILA and maritime employers.  There should be adequate capacity to handle an increase. In late 2020, eastbound domestic activity out of the Southwest was 11% higher than the 2024 second quarter. Since late 2020, a lot of domestic containers and chassis have been added to the fleet. What’s holding back transloading isn’t capacity; it’s demand. But that is about to change.  Contact Larry Gross at  lgross@intermodalindepth.com .   

North-American rail

Intermodal providers

Surface

Transload demand from Southern California expected to pop in Q3: analyst

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The deal will merge “K” Lines’ traditional logistics activities in ocean and air freight with Kamigumi’s niche business in project cargo logistics.</div>

The deal will merge “K” Lines’ traditional logistics activities in ocean and air freight with Kamigumi’s niche business in project cargo logistics.

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<div class="phx-topic">Japanese carrier “K” Line will expand its international and domestic logistics business with the launch this week of a joint venture with Japanese forwarding company Kamigumi that is expected to target contract and project cargo logistics. That came after “K” Line transferred ownership of its “K” Line Logistics into a new holding company, KLKG Logistics Holdings. “K” Line subsequently transferred 47% of its shares in KLKG Logistics to Kamigumi. "Through this capital alliance, we aim to achieve further growth in domestic and overseas markets by (strengthening) contract logistics and providing high-quality and more diverse logistics services to customers," “K” Line said in a statement announcing the venture. Keiji Kubo, “K” Line managing executive officer for the product logistics division, said the entry into new project cargo-related logistics businesses, such as offshore wind power, will also offer opportunities. The deal will merge “K” Lines’ traditional logistics activities in ocean and air freight with Kamigumi’s niche business in project cargo logistics, which includes handling spent nuclear fuel and transporting industrial equipment such as power transformers and wind power components. “K” Line Logistics had revenues of around $300 million last year while Kamigumi is expected to post revenues of around $1.9 billion when it reports full-year earnings in May. “K” Line Logistics is mainly focused on Asia and Australia with warehousing and cold storage in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and the United Arab Emirates, with freight forwarding across the region. It also operates cross-board trucking between Thailand and four neighboring countries including Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos. Operations in the Americas and Europe, which include offices in the US, Mexico, France, Germany and the Netherlands, mainly provide freight forwarding and customs brokerage. Kamigumi mainly operates in Southeast Asia, China and Mexico. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com.</a></div>

Japanese carrier “K” Line will expand its international and domestic logistics business with the launch this week of a joint venture with Japanese forwarding company Kamigumi that is expected to target contract and project cargo logistics. That came after “K” Line transferred ownership of its “K” Line Logistics into a new holding company, KLKG Logistics Holdings. “K” Line subsequently transferred 47% of its shares in KLKG Logistics to Kamigumi. "Through this capital alliance, we aim to achieve further growth in domestic and overseas markets by (strengthening) contract logistics and providing high-quality and more diverse logistics services to customers," “K” Line said in a statement announcing the venture. Keiji Kubo, “K” Line managing executive officer for the product logistics division, said the entry into new project cargo-related logistics businesses, such as offshore wind power, will also offer opportunities. The deal will merge “K” Lines’ traditional logistics activities in ocean and air freight with Kamigumi’s niche business in project cargo logistics, which includes handling spent nuclear fuel and transporting industrial equipment such as power transformers and wind power components. “K” Line Logistics had revenues of around $300 million last year while Kamigumi is expected to post revenues of around $1.9 billion when it reports full-year earnings in May. “K” Line Logistics is mainly focused on Asia and Australia with warehousing and cold storage in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and the United Arab Emirates, with freight forwarding across the region. It also operates cross-board trucking between Thailand and four neighboring countries including Malaysia, Myanmar and Laos. Operations in the Americas and Europe, which include offices in the US, Mexico, France, Germany and the Netherlands, mainly provide freight forwarding and customs brokerage. Kamigumi mainly operates in Southeast Asia, China and Mexico. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com.

Container lines

Forwarding

Supply chain

‘K’ Line to expand logistics operations in joint venture with Kamigumi

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">For Singapore-based PSA, the investment cements a beachhead in a West India market primed to benefit from Asian trade diversification and burgeoning consumer demand.</div>

For Singapore-based PSA, the investment cements a beachhead in a West India market primed to benefit from Asian trade diversification and burgeoning consumer demand.

<div class="phx-topic">PSA International has kicked off operations at its 2.4-million-TEU Phase II terminal at India’s Nhava Sheva Port (JNPA), albeit at a limited scale ahead of an official full-fledged launch scheduled for April 15. The expansion doubles the size of PSA Mumbai, also known as Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT), which opened its Phase I terminal of the same size in early 2018. Each stage of the overall project, on a 30-year concession involving a total $1 billion investment, has been designed with three berths with a quay of 1,000 meters able to accommodate 16,000- to 18,000-TEU vessels. The original terminal is already operating at 90% utilization, having seen fiscal year 2024-25 volumes spike 12% year over year to 2.3 million TEUs on 1,077 container ship visits, up from 863 calls a year earlier, data shows. As ocean services in and out of West India steadily expand, more volume consolidation toward the PSA facility is imminent as other terminals in the port complex, especially APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India (GTI), have little spare capacity. With a combined 4.8 million TEUs in annual capacity, BMCT is poised to emerge as India’s largest standalone terminal. It currently hosts about 30 weekly sailings, which include ship calls up to 15,000 TEUs, largely from Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC). For Singapore-based PSA, the Nhava Sheva investment gives it a “beachhead” to cement itself in a market primed to benefit from Asian trade diversification and burgeoning consumer demand. Its Indian operations include a 1.4 million-TEU facility at Chennai Port, but that faces serious regional growth challenges. At the same time, with vessels often arriving out-of-window due to the Red Sea-linked diversions and carriers increasingly deploying “ultra-large” tonnage that typically involves significantly higher container exchanges per call, Nhava Sheva has been wrestling with severe pressure inland, a concern that could exacerbate as volumes build. To ease landside bottlenecks in the harbor, a second highway extension project has just been approved by the government at a cost of some $525 million, but a definite timeline is yet unknown for its completion. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="bencyvmathew@gmail.com.">bencyvmathew@gmail.com.</a></div>

PSA International has kicked off operations at its 2.4-million-TEU Phase II terminal at India’s Nhava Sheva Port (JNPA), albeit at a limited scale ahead of an official full-fledged launch scheduled for April 15. The expansion doubles the size of PSA Mumbai, also known as Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals (BMCT), which opened its Phase I terminal of the same size in early 2018. Each stage of the overall project, on a 30-year concession involving a total $1 billion investment, has been designed with three berths with a quay of 1,000 meters able to accommodate 16,000- to 18,000-TEU vessels. The original terminal is already operating at 90% utilization, having seen fiscal year 2024-25 volumes spike 12% year over year to 2.3 million TEUs on 1,077 container ship visits, up from 863 calls a year earlier, data shows. As ocean services in and out of West India steadily expand, more volume consolidation toward the PSA facility is imminent as other terminals in the port complex, especially APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India (GTI), have little spare capacity. With a combined 4.8 million TEUs in annual capacity, BMCT is poised to emerge as India’s largest standalone terminal. It currently hosts about 30 weekly sailings, which include ship calls up to 15,000 TEUs, largely from Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC). For Singapore-based PSA, the Nhava Sheva investment gives it a “beachhead” to cement itself in a market primed to benefit from Asian trade diversification and burgeoning consumer demand. Its Indian operations include a 1.4 million-TEU facility at Chennai Port, but that faces serious regional growth challenges. At the same time, with vessels often arriving out-of-window due to the Red Sea-linked diversions and carriers increasingly deploying “ultra-large” tonnage that typically involves significantly higher container exchanges per call, Nhava Sheva has been wrestling with severe pressure inland, a concern that could exacerbate as volumes build. To ease landside bottlenecks in the harbor, a second highway extension project has just been approved by the government at a cost of some $525 million, but a definite timeline is yet unknown for its completion. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com.

Container Shipping News

Port News

International ports

Maritime

PSA expansion project doubles capacity at India’s Nhava Sheva terminal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The expedited service will require terminals within the Northwest Seaport Alliance to load rail-bound trains within 48 hours of vessel arrival, significantly faster than the average dwell times of eight to 15 days experienced last year during a surge in container volumes.</div>

The expedited service will require terminals within the Northwest Seaport Alliance to load rail-bound trains within 48 hours of vessel arrival, significantly faster than the average dwell times of eight to 15 days experienced last year during a surge in container volumes.

<div class="phx-topic">BNSF Railway will launch a faster international intermodal service linking the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to Chicago and points east with Norfolk Southern (NS), the two railroads announced along with the Northwest Seaport Alliance. Transit times from dock to Chicago will be reduced to six days from nine and include a streamlined handoff to a Norfolk Southern crew at Chicago for service on the same train to inland markets in the Midwest and Northeast. “This service product collaboration was an outcome of listening to our joint customers, who emphasized the desire to use more rail but would need to also reduce inventory carrying and total landed transportation costs out of their networks in 2025,” Jon Gabriel, BNSF’s group vice president of consumer products, said in a statement Wednesday. The faster service will require terminals within the Northwest Seaport Alliance to load rail-bound trains within 48 hours of vessel arrival, significantly faster than the average dwell times <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tacoma-marine-terminals-grappling-with-heavy-import-rail-congestion-5706377">of eight to 15 days experienced last year</a> during a surge in container volumes. Between June and August 2024, the average rail dwell time at Tacoma’s Washington United and Husky terminals climbed to between eight and 10 days, according to data from Opentrac. When cargo was diverted to Seattle, average dwell times between the two ports stretched as long as 15 days in August and September. That backlog came during a spike in international intermodal volumes. About 100,000 import loads moved by rail from Seattle-Tacoma to Chicago on BNSF or Union Pacific trains in 2024, up from approximately 60,000 the previous year, according to Journal of Commerce estimates. It was the highest annual throughput since the pandemic-related freight surge in 2021. <h3>Hoping to cut inland delays </h3>The new service is also meant to reduce delays in Chicago. Rather than delivering trains to a BNSF terminal and relying on the Belt Railway of Chicago (BRC) to transfer containers to Norfolk Southern, as is typical for all Chicago interchanges, all traffic will be routed directly to Norfolk Southern’s Ashland Yard on the city’s south side. From there, the only step will be a change to an NS crew before continuing east with the same train. There will be no stop in a BNSF terminal, no haul between railroads by the BRC, and no building of a separate train inside an NS terminal. The process of western railroads separating blocks of containers, employing the BRC to haul them between terminals, and eastern railroads building new trains adds 24 to 48 hours to transit times. “By collaborating with BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance, we’re offering a faster, more reliable rail option that helps shippers reduce transit time, cut costs, and streamline supply chains...,” Shawn Tureman, NS’ vice president of intermodal and automotive marketing, said in the statement. Nearly 50,000 imports to Seattle and Tacoma interchange between western and eastern US railroads annually, the majority bound for destinations such as Cleveland, Columbus and Detroit, according to Journal of Commerce estimates. Reducing transit times to those markets could help West Coast ports regain ground lost to East Coast gateways such as the Port of New York and New Jersey and the Port of Virginia, which together move an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 ocean containers annually to inland hubs in the Midwest. The collaboration comes as pressure builds to retain West Coast market share following the resolution of labor tensions on the East Coast that had resulted in some discretionary cargo being diverted to the West Coast. Shippers will now weigh the service improvements against their past experiences when deciding how to route freight inland in the months ahead. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

BNSF Railway will launch a faster international intermodal service linking the ports of Seattle and Tacoma to Chicago and points east with Norfolk Southern (NS), the two railroads announced along with the Northwest Seaport Alliance. Transit times from dock to Chicago will be reduced to six days from nine and include a streamlined handoff to a Norfolk Southern crew at Chicago for service on the same train to inland markets in the Midwest and Northeast. “This service product collaboration was an outcome of listening to our joint customers, who emphasized the desire to use more rail but would need to also reduce inventory carrying and total landed transportation costs out of their networks in 2025,” Jon Gabriel, BNSF’s group vice president of consumer products, said in a statement Wednesday. The faster service will require terminals within the Northwest Seaport Alliance to load rail-bound trains within 48 hours of vessel arrival, significantly faster than the average dwell times of eight to 15 days experienced last year during a surge in container volumes. Between June and August 2024, the average rail dwell time at Tacoma’s Washington United and Husky terminals climbed to between eight and 10 days, according to data from Opentrac. When cargo was diverted to Seattle, average dwell times between the two ports stretched as long as 15 days in August and September. That backlog came during a spike in international intermodal volumes. About 100,000 import loads moved by rail from Seattle-Tacoma to Chicago on BNSF or Union Pacific trains in 2024, up from approximately 60,000 the previous year, according to Journal of Commerce estimates. It was the highest annual throughput since the pandemic-related freight surge in 2021. Hoping to cut inland delays The new service is also meant to reduce delays in Chicago. Rather than delivering trains to a BNSF terminal and relying on the Belt Railway of Chicago (BRC) to transfer containers to Norfolk Southern, as is typical for all Chicago interchanges, all traffic will be routed directly to Norfolk Southern’s Ashland Yard on the city’s south side. From there, the only step will be a change to an NS crew before continuing east with the same train. There will be no stop in a BNSF terminal, no haul between railroads by the BRC, and no building of a separate train inside an NS terminal. The process of western railroads separating blocks of containers, employing the BRC to haul them between terminals, and eastern railroads building new trains adds 24 to 48 hours to transit times. “By collaborating with BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance, we’re offering a faster, more reliable rail option that helps shippers reduce transit time, cut costs, and streamline supply chains...,” Shawn Tureman, NS’ vice president of intermodal and automotive marketing, said in the statement. Nearly 50,000 imports to Seattle and Tacoma interchange between western and eastern US railroads annually, the majority bound for destinations such as Cleveland, Columbus and Detroit, according to Journal of Commerce estimates. Reducing transit times to those markets could help West Coast ports regain ground lost to East Coast gateways such as the Port of New York and New Jersey and the Port of Virginia, which together move an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 ocean containers annually to inland hubs in the Midwest. The collaboration comes as pressure builds to retain West Coast market share following the resolution of labor tensions on the East Coast that had resulted in some discretionary cargo being diverted to the West Coast. Shippers will now weigh the service improvements against their past experiences when deciding how to route freight inland in the months ahead. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Rail News

BNSF-Norfolk Southern unveil faster inland service from Pacific Northwest

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">While the Gemini Cooperation is hitting its schedule reliability goals, Hapag-Lloyd’s chief executive said fully unwinding its former carrier alliance and dealing with terminal congestion in some locations are providing challenges. </div>

While the Gemini Cooperation is hitting its schedule reliability goals, Hapag-Lloyd’s chief executive said fully unwinding its former carrier alliance and dealing with terminal congestion in some locations are providing challenges.

<div class="phx-topic">The Gemini Cooperation alliance is looking to deploy more vessels in the coming weeks to reduce instances where US exporters have faced delays and cargo has been misdirected, Hapag-Lloyd Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen said Thursday. While the start of the new alliance has been mostly smooth, Gemini is also grappling with terminal congestion in Europe and the US, according to the CEO. During an online presentation Thursday, Habben Jansen said the entirety of Gemini’s hub-and-spoke services is now fully operational and the new alliance with Maersk has made 1,500 port calls since its February launch. Even so, Gemini has only been able to deploy 285 of the planned 340 vessels in its network. Once the additional vessels are deployed in the coming weeks, Habben Jansen said Gemini’s network should be able to provide consistent weekly capacity. During Gemini’s early stage, US exporters have faced instances of cargo being rolled to later voyages. Habben Jansen said the delays stem from having to fully phase out Hapag-Lloyd ships from its former THE Alliance services. “The US unfortunately has been harder hit than otherwise,” Habben Jansen said. “I do expect that to improve within the next few weeks.” In addition to the delays, the transition from THE Alliance to Gemini has seen some cargo being unloaded where it was not originally planned and now “we need to forward that to its final destination,” Habben Jansen said. “The issues around rollings and delays should get considerably less because of a lot of that was related to the phase-out and making sure that the ships coming out of the old cooperations still ended up back in the locations where they had to start in the new Gemini Cooperation,” he said. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="bc8c7bab-e415-4fea-861b-3926a4691794"></dynamic-object></div>Despite the issues with the rollout, Habben Jansen said Gemini has hit its reliability goals, with both Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis and eeSea showing the alliance is hitting its schedules about 90% of the time. The schedule reliability of other carriers and alliances is well below that level, and Habben Jansen does expect competitors to close the gap as they also work out kinks in their new networks. “We’ve definitely been off to a pretty good start,” he said. “I would say, as with any network transition of this scale, there are a number of operational challenges, and we’re trying to address those as swiftly as possible.” <h3>No Suez return in the offering </h3>The resumption of regular Suez Canal transits for container ships would boost capacity, but Habben Jansen said that return remains unclear due to the recent breakdown in the Gaza war ceasefire. The continued diversions around southern Africa mean voyage distances are up 18%, offsetting much of the 10% growth in the global fleet and creating a tightly balanced market. “Many of us expected, including me, that with the ceasefire that we saw in Gaza, that there might be a good chance that we are able to get back through Suez in the foreseeable future,” Habben Jansen said. “If we look at the events of the last four to six weeks, then that, unfortunately, looks increasingly unlikely. We'll have to continue sailing around the Cape for, most likely another couple of months, or until the end of the year.” Other than more ships, Gemini is also facing some terminal congestion at major hubs. Marine terminals at the Port of Antwerp are <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/new-alliance-vessel-plans-add-to-ongoing-port-congestion-in-europe-5963964">facing congestion due to the phase-in of new vessel alliances</a>, while one of Rotterdam’s main terminals is <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/solidarity-strike-call-by-dutch-port-union-gets-industry-attention-5948375">also clearing a backlog of inland cargo following labor action there</a>. In the US, the Port of New York and New Jersey has been dealing with <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/stakeholders-say-choked-ny-nj-marine-terminals-creating-delays-at-port-5942356">a backlog of empty containers</a> that have stymied truck transactions. But Habben Jansen said the inventory of Hapag-Lloyd empties has been “normalized and we will continue to keep an eye on that.” “We have a number of operational disruptions in selected terminals in North Europe, the East Coast of North America, and one or two terminals in Asia as well,” he said. As for other risks on the horizon, Habben Jansen said the impact of <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ustrs-china-tonnage-tax-would-squeeze-smaller-trades-stakeholders-5967638">proposed port fees on Chinese ships</a> entering the US remains unclear as no official levy is in place yet. He hopes the Trump administration implements something less draconian, but he warned the proposed fees “would result in considerable additional cost that will need to be recovered.” As for <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/new-us-tariffs-forcing-shippers-to-recalculate-supply-chains-on-the-fly-5976471">the newly announced US import tariffs</a>, he said the tariffs implemented during the first Trump administration “did not have a material impact on cargo flows, even if sourcing locations changed.” “I think we are going to see something similar this time, but it’s too early to really conclude that,” Habben Jansen said. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The Gemini Cooperation alliance is looking to deploy more vessels in the coming weeks to reduce instances where US exporters have faced delays and cargo has been misdirected, Hapag-Lloyd Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen said Thursday. While the start of the new alliance has been mostly smooth, Gemini is also grappling with terminal congestion in Europe and the US, according to the CEO. During an online presentation Thursday, Habben Jansen said the entirety of Gemini’s hub-and-spoke services is now fully operational and the new alliance with Maersk has made 1,500 port calls since its February launch. Even so, Gemini has only been able to deploy 285 of the planned 340 vessels in its network. Once the additional vessels are deployed in the coming weeks, Habben Jansen said Gemini’s network should be able to provide consistent weekly capacity. During Gemini’s early stage, US exporters have faced instances of cargo being rolled to later voyages. Habben Jansen said the delays stem from having to fully phase out Hapag-Lloyd ships from its former THE Alliance services. “The US unfortunately has been harder hit than otherwise,” Habben Jansen said. “I do expect that to improve within the next few weeks.” In addition to the delays, the transition from THE Alliance to Gemini has seen some cargo being unloaded where it was not originally planned and now “we need to forward that to its final destination,” Habben Jansen said. “The issues around rollings and delays should get considerably less because of a lot of that was related to the phase-out and making sure that the ships coming out of the old cooperations still ended up back in the locations where they had to start in the new Gemini Cooperation,” he said. Despite the issues with the rollout, Habben Jansen said Gemini has hit its reliability goals, with both Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis and eeSea showing the alliance is hitting its schedules about 90% of the time. The schedule reliability of other carriers and alliances is well below that level, and Habben Jansen does expect competitors to close the gap as they also work out kinks in their new networks. “We’ve definitely been off to a pretty good start,” he said. “I would say, as with any network transition of this scale, there are a number of operational challenges, and we’re trying to address those as swiftly as possible.” No Suez return in the offering The resumption of regular Suez Canal transits for container ships would boost capacity, but Habben Jansen said that return remains unclear due to the recent breakdown in the Gaza war ceasefire. The continued diversions around southern Africa mean voyage distances are up 18%, offsetting much of the 10% growth in the global fleet and creating a tightly balanced market. “Many of us expected, including me, that with the ceasefire that we saw in Gaza, that there might be a good chance that we are able to get back through Suez in the foreseeable future,” Habben Jansen said. “If we look at the events of the last four to six weeks, then that, unfortunately, looks increasingly unlikely. We'll have to continue sailing around the Cape for, most likely another couple of months, or until the end of the year.” Other than more ships, Gemini is also facing some terminal congestion at major hubs. Marine terminals at the Port of Antwerp are facing congestion due to the phase-in of new vessel alliances , while one of Rotterdam’s main terminals is also clearing a backlog of inland cargo following labor action there . In the US, the Port of New York and New Jersey has been dealing with a backlog of empty containers that have stymied truck transactions. But Habben Jansen said the inventory of Hapag-Lloyd empties has been “normalized and we will continue to keep an eye on that.” “We have a number of operational disruptions in selected terminals in North Europe, the East Coast of North America, and one or two terminals in Asia as well,” he said. As for other risks on the horizon, Habben Jansen said the impact of proposed port fees on Chinese ships entering the US remains unclear as no official levy is in place yet. He hopes the Trump administration implements something less draconian, but he warned the proposed fees “would result in considerable additional cost that will need to be recovered.” As for the newly announced US import tariffs , he said the tariffs implemented during the first Trump administration “did not have a material impact on cargo flows, even if sourcing locations changed.” “I think we are going to see something similar this time, but it’s too early to really conclude that,” Habben Jansen said. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

North American ports

Gemini will roll out more ships to stop cargo from rolling: Habben Jansen

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Some US-based shippers are racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness.</div>

Some US-based shippers are racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness.

<div class="phx-topic">The broad and varied tariffs <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trump-announces-10-across-the-board-tariffs-on-all-us-imports-5975639">announced this week by the Trump administration</a> that affect US imports from virtually every country around the globe have sent shippers scrambling, forcing a rethink of supply chain strategy within a market so cloaked in uncertainty that one stakeholder likened it to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some US-based shippers are, incredibly enough, racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by US President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness. April 9 is the date country-specific tariffs take effect. Baseline 10% tariffs on countries that avoided the specific, so-called “reciprocal” rates are due to go into effect April 5. “It looks to me like we are witnessing a sudden global slowdown akin to COVID,” a forwarder who did not want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “It’s starting to look like the collective response will be to stop, kind of like what we saw when COVID started. The question is, for how long?” The source said some major customers are “deciding to store product in Asia and essentially cutting off the flow.” “They are looking at using air or other modes but in more of a ‘batch’ sequencing versus the normal flow models,” the forwarder said. Another forwarder who also did not want to be identified said shippers are using a range of tools ahead of the tariff increases. “Customers are shifting volume from [full containerload] to [less-than-containerload] to get goods here before April 9,” the source said. “Some are booking air to get ahead of the tariffs. Some are pulling back orders. Some vendors are pulling back on DDP [delivery duty paid] shipments to renegotiate on price. Some want to change the Incoterms to change the responsible party for duties.” DDP occurs when the seller is responsible for paying duties. The forwarder added that some customers that were eyeing an exit from China to other sourcing locations in Asia are now rethinking those plans. That’s because those alternative sourcing locations have been nailed with new tariffs, too, most notably Vietnam at 46%. Robert Khachatryan, CEO of Los Angeles-based forwarder FreightRight, said he isn’t seeing a rush to expedite bookings that would not have ordinarily moved this week. “Clients that have bookings in place are pushing to make sure they depart as planned,” Khachatryan said. “However, there are no new orders rushing in.” <h3>‘Structural change’ to supply chains </h3>The Trump tariff plan, which was far more extensive than observers expected, is forcing a wholesale reconsideration of individual supply chains. “With the new tariffs and the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/air-cargo-braces-for-impact-as-us-restores-duties-on-chinese-e-commerce-5976399">end of the de minimis exemption</a>, many importers are being forced to rethink how they manage cost, visibility, and compliance across their supply chains,” said Jim McCullen, chief technology officer at Century Supply Chain Solutions. “What we’re seeing is that this moment isn’t just about logistics, it’s about risk management, planning, and structural change.” In some ways, the race for vessel capacity has been on since before Trump took office for the second time. Aggregate import volumes into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in January and February exceeded even the peak COVID-19 years of 2021 and 2022, and were even 24% higher than pre-pandemic January–February volumes in 2019 when frontloading occurred to beat Trump’s initial tranche of 25% tariffs on Chinese imports. The new tariffs are designed to reinvigorate the US manufacturing sector, Trump said during a White House event Wednesday. But they come amid a slowing manufacturing sector in North America that showed weakness in part because of the long-threatened tariffs. US factory output fell in March, according to Purchasing Managers’ Index survey data compiled by S&amp;P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Respondents attributed the slowdown to falling demand and the waning impact from the cargo frontloading that occurred earlier in the year as importers moved to beat the imposition of tariffs “Manufacturing output fell across North America in March at one of the steepest rates seen over the past two years ... with broad-based production loses in the US, Canada and Mexico,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, wrote in a research note Thursday. “Prices paid for inputs also rose sharply. US factory input cost inflation, in fact, exceeded that seen in all 33 economies surveyed by S&amp;P Global for the first time since 2008.” <h3>Consumer goods in crosshairs </h3>Early research into which commodity categories might be most impacted by the tariffs highlights the effect on finished consumer goods from high-tariff nations. “Notable examples include toys and video games [average duty rate increase of 30.4%], computer parts [29.6%], clothing [28.3%, with some as high as 36.9%] and smartphones [27%],” Chris Rogers, head of supply chain research at S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence, wrote in an analysis Thursday. “Many of the products that are excluded from these new duties will face their own tariff reviews and may end up with duties of around 25%, including copper, lumber, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, after the reviews are completed in a few months.” The hit would be $458 billion to US importers’ costs in a full year, based on 2024 import levels, Rogers added. “The full impact on supply chains will also be a function of how other governments react — for example, the EU and mainland China have been more hawkish — and how firms choose to incorporate the new tariffs into their pricing and sourcing strategies,” he wrote. “Given the wide-ranging nature of the duties and focus on consumer goods, price increases may be a main strategy followed.” UBS, meanwhile, said it expects the tariffs announced Wednesday, in addition to previously announced 25% tariffs on all imported automobiles, to drive pressure on international trade volumes and weaken domestic freight activity. In a research note Thursday, the bank said it estimates that 33% of rail and 25% of truck ton miles in the US are directly tied to international trade. Whether US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the capacity and sufficient technology infrastructure in place to enforce the new tariffs is another open question. Some forwarders said the agency can handle the changes, while others were doubtful given disruptions caused by previous tariff implementations. “Customs is almost guaranteed not to be ready,” Khachatryan said. “Even with the previous, less sweeping tariffs, CBP was woefully unprepared. Aluminum tariffs alone took over a week to work properly in different [automated brokerage interface] systems, with many shipments stuck in storage at airline terminals. Guidance for customs brokers is even slower to come. Something of this magnitude will almost certainly be a lot more disruptive, not least because of all the overlapping tariffs and confusing exclusions.” More broadly, the tariffs could well lead to choppier decision-making for logistics operations personnel, with decisions on whether to import goods or hold them back determined by Trump’s seemingly day-to-day policy changes. “This will be a good example of honing skills to strategically manage based on daily information versus quarterly cycles, and I doubt many will be able to do this,” a forwarder said. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The broad and varied tariffs announced this week by the Trump administration that affect US imports from virtually every country around the globe have sent shippers scrambling, forcing a rethink of supply chain strategy within a market so cloaked in uncertainty that one stakeholder likened it to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some US-based shippers are, incredibly enough, racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by US President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness. April 9 is the date country-specific tariffs take effect. Baseline 10% tariffs on countries that avoided the specific, so-called “reciprocal” rates are due to go into effect April 5. “It looks to me like we are witnessing a sudden global slowdown akin to COVID,” a forwarder who did not want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “It’s starting to look like the collective response will be to stop, kind of like what we saw when COVID started. The question is, for how long?” The source said some major customers are “deciding to store product in Asia and essentially cutting off the flow.” “They are looking at using air or other modes but in more of a ‘batch’ sequencing versus the normal flow models,” the forwarder said. Another forwarder who also did not want to be identified said shippers are using a range of tools ahead of the tariff increases. “Customers are shifting volume from [full containerload] to [less-than-containerload] to get goods here before April 9,” the source said. “Some are booking air to get ahead of the tariffs. Some are pulling back orders. Some vendors are pulling back on DDP [delivery duty paid] shipments to renegotiate on price. Some want to change the Incoterms to change the responsible party for duties.” DDP occurs when the seller is responsible for paying duties. The forwarder added that some customers that were eyeing an exit from China to other sourcing locations in Asia are now rethinking those plans. That’s because those alternative sourcing locations have been nailed with new tariffs, too, most notably Vietnam at 46%. Robert Khachatryan, CEO of Los Angeles-based forwarder FreightRight, said he isn’t seeing a rush to expedite bookings that would not have ordinarily moved this week. “Clients that have bookings in place are pushing to make sure they depart as planned,” Khachatryan said. “However, there are no new orders rushing in.” ‘Structural change’ to supply chains The Trump tariff plan, which was far more extensive than observers expected, is forcing a wholesale reconsideration of individual supply chains. “With the new tariffs and the end of the de minimis exemption , many importers are being forced to rethink how they manage cost, visibility, and compliance across their supply chains,” said Jim McCullen, chief technology officer at Century Supply Chain Solutions. “What we’re seeing is that this moment isn’t just about logistics, it’s about risk management, planning, and structural change.” In some ways, the race for vessel capacity has been on since before Trump took office for the second time. Aggregate import volumes into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in January and February exceeded even the peak COVID-19 years of 2021 and 2022, and were even 24% higher than pre-pandemic January–February volumes in 2019 when frontloading occurred to beat Trump’s initial tranche of 25% tariffs on Chinese imports. The new tariffs are designed to reinvigorate the US manufacturing sector, Trump said during a White House event Wednesday. But they come amid a slowing manufacturing sector in North America that showed weakness in part because of the long-threatened tariffs. US factory output fell in March, according to Purchasing Managers’ Index survey data compiled by S&P Global, parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Respondents attributed the slowdown to falling demand and the waning impact from the cargo frontloading that occurred earlier in the year as importers moved to beat the imposition of tariffs “Manufacturing output fell across North America in March at one of the steepest rates seen over the past two years ... with broad-based production loses in the US, Canada and Mexico,” Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, wrote in a research note Thursday. “Prices paid for inputs also rose sharply. US factory input cost inflation, in fact, exceeded that seen in all 33 economies surveyed by S&P Global for the first time since 2008.” Consumer goods in crosshairs Early research into which commodity categories might be most impacted by the tariffs highlights the effect on finished consumer goods from high-tariff nations. “Notable examples include toys and video games [average duty rate increase of 30.4%], computer parts [29.6%], clothing [28.3%, with some as high as 36.9%] and smartphones [27%],” Chris Rogers, head of supply chain research at S&P Global Market Intelligence, wrote in an analysis Thursday. “Many of the products that are excluded from these new duties will face their own tariff reviews and may end up with duties of around 25%, including copper, lumber, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, after the reviews are completed in a few months.” The hit would be $458 billion to US importers’ costs in a full year, based on 2024 import levels, Rogers added. “The full impact on supply chains will also be a function of how other governments react — for example, the EU and mainland China have been more hawkish — and how firms choose to incorporate the new tariffs into their pricing and sourcing strategies,” he wrote. “Given the wide-ranging nature of the duties and focus on consumer goods, price increases may be a main strategy followed.” UBS, meanwhile, said it expects the tariffs announced Wednesday, in addition to previously announced 25% tariffs on all imported automobiles, to drive pressure on international trade volumes and weaken domestic freight activity. In a research note Thursday, the bank said it estimates that 33% of rail and 25% of truck ton miles in the US are directly tied to international trade. Whether US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the capacity and sufficient technology infrastructure in place to enforce the new tariffs is another open question. Some forwarders said the agency can handle the changes, while others were doubtful given disruptions caused by previous tariff implementations. “Customs is almost guaranteed not to be ready,” Khachatryan said. “Even with the previous, less sweeping tariffs, CBP was woefully unprepared. Aluminum tariffs alone took over a week to work properly in different [automated brokerage interface] systems, with many shipments stuck in storage at airline terminals. Guidance for customs brokers is even slower to come. Something of this magnitude will almost certainly be a lot more disruptive, not least because of all the overlapping tariffs and confusing exclusions.” More broadly, the tariffs could well lead to choppier decision-making for logistics operations personnel, with decisions on whether to import goods or hold them back determined by Trump’s seemingly day-to-day policy changes. “This will be a good example of honing skills to strategically manage based on daily information versus quarterly cycles, and I doubt many will be able to do this,” a forwarder said. 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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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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