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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">This past holiday season, Chicago Customs and Border Protection officers at the O’Hare International Mail Facility seized more than 50 counterfeit electric and acoustic guitars, in addition to other types of fake merchandise.</div>

This past holiday season, Chicago Customs and Border Protection officers at the O’Hare International Mail Facility seized more than 50 counterfeit electric and acoustic guitars, in addition to other types of fake merchandise.

<div>This past holiday season, Chicago Customs and Border Protection officers at the O’Hare International Mail Facility <a>seized more than 50 counterfeit electric and acoustic guitars</a>, in addition to other types of fake merchandise.The instruments were single shipments coming to the U.S. from China and valued from $300 to $700 per guitar. They bore counterfeit trademarks and trade names such as Fender, Gibson, Martin and Taylor. Officers, with the help of trade systems and trademark holders, found the guitars had a different feel, look and sound in addition to being of substandard quality.“These fake rip-off products hurt the economy, consumer health...

This past holiday season, Chicago Customs and Border Protection officers at the O’Hare International Mail Facility seized more than 50 counterfeit electric and acoustic guitars , in addition to other types of fake merchandise. The instruments were single shipments coming to the U.S. from China and valued from $300 to $700 per guitar. They bore counterfeit trademarks and trade names such as Fender, Gibson, Martin and Taylor. Officers, with the help of trade systems and trademark holders, found the guitars had a different feel, look and sound in addition to being of substandard quality. “These fake rip-off products hurt the economy, consumer health and safety and even threaten national security,” said William A. Ferrara, Customs’ acting director of field operations in Chicago, in a written statement. He recommended that consumers only buy merchandise from reputable companies.

US Customs Seizes More Than 50 Fake Guitars at O’Hare

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Technology providers are rolling out artificial intelligence tools to help augment transportation teams and service providers with limited resources. </div>

Technology providers are rolling out artificial intelligence tools to help augment transportation teams and service providers with limited resources.

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<div class="phx-topic">The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in applications touching multiple trucking modes continued this week, with fleet software vendor Optimal Dynamics landing a $40 million funding round and drayage software vendor PortPro releasing a set of AI agents. Optimal Dynamics, which helps carriers and private fleets improve a range of functions including network design, dispatching and driver utilization, landed the new funding round on the back of what it called significant growth in revenue and its customer base over the last 12 months. The $40 million investment is the company’s first since a $33 million round in 2022 and brings total investment to $93 million since its founding in 2017. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a venture arm within Koch Industries. Optimal Dynamics, which lists CRST, D.M. Bowman, Halvor Lines, KBX Logistics, Leonard’s Express and Uber Freight as customers, is an archetypal example of the way AI has gradually permeated the truckload world. The company at first had some difficulty selling its vision for using AI to automate strategic and tactical fleet management decisions. But its recent progress has come as the logistics world has more broadly accepted AI’s role in tasks as rote as responding to customer service inquiries and as sophisticated as making decisions on which loads to accept and which trucks to allocate loads to. Optimal Dynamics said use of its tools has led to an average increase of 17% to 24% in weekly revenue per truck. ”We’ve demonstrated real impact in trucking — solving critical, high-scale planning challenges — and are now building the foundational decision layer for logistics at large,” CFO Scott Kenerly said in a statement Monday. Optimal Dynamics said the infusion of capital will help accelerate the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities, while scaling its product, support, and sales teams “to meet surging demand for decision automation in logistics.” <h3>Native agents </h3>A more recent trend in AI adoption has come via the form of so-called agents, commonly called agentic AI, where purpose-built agents perform tasks within a system. On Tuesday, PortPro, a transportation management software vendor for drayage operators, said its system now has native AI agents that “allow users to ask operational questions, pull real-time insights, and automate common tasks like updating spreadsheets, checking documents, or sending load updates.” The agents are available via a chat interface within the TMS, where PortPro has already developed a number of pre-built agents, or users can customize agents based on how their team already works. “This isn’t about adding new layers of tech — it’s about removing friction,” PortPro CEO Michael Mecca said in a statement Tuesday. It’s not just transportation providers that are investing in AI. Domestic shippers are also using tools with embedded AI process automation or decision-making agents. Those tools aren’t necessarily transformative, but rather augment transportation teams with limited resources. For example, EVO, an outdoor goods retailer, over the past two years has been using an AI agent from its transportation management software vendor Shipwell to tackle the transportation order creation process. “Anything I can automate or take off our plate is money saved for us,” Vanessa McClain, EVO’s transportation and vendor relations manager, told the Journal of Commerce. “I don’t need it to think for me; I need it to do a task.” The order creation agent within Shipwell, which the software vendor calls Swifty, saves McClain and her team five to 10 minutes per order across the 600 to 700 shipments it moves per year. It also increases the accuracy of those orders since it eliminates the re-keying of data from email into Shipwell. “We have vendors fill out a routing request form when they have a shipment ready,” McClain said. “With Swifty, we forward that email [to Shipwell] and it creates the order and then we select the carrier as opposed to getting the email from the vendor and hand-keying it into Shipwell.” <h3>Limited resources </h3>Shipwell President Jason Traff noted that transportation departments “aren’t flush with resources.” “If we can replace tasks that are boring...you can increase the frequency to do other tasks, like checking in with carriers and partners,” he said. Shipwell began developing AI workflow agents to help its customers get more out of the system it provides, with those agents focused on five areas: order creation, documentation classification, shipment updates, appointment scheduling and dynamic quotes. More than a quarter of Shipwell’s customers now use at least one of those agents, Traff said. And the number is growing. “Where established platforms have the advantage is you take this [learning] model and plug it into the system of record,” he said. “You need the ability to hook AI into other things.” The use of Shipwell’s AI agents comes as a flood of standalone agentic AI tools have emerged for shippers, brokers and fleets to use to bolster the bandwidth of their teams. But Traff’s contention is that those agents work better within an existing system as opposed to being deployed on top of an existing system. “A TMS is a store of information that has to be displayed in a certain way to help make good decisions,” he said. “That’s the power of using these agents inside a TMS.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in applications touching multiple trucking modes continued this week, with fleet software vendor Optimal Dynamics landing a $40 million funding round and drayage software vendor PortPro releasing a set of AI agents. Optimal Dynamics, which helps carriers and private fleets improve a range of functions including network design, dispatching and driver utilization, landed the new funding round on the back of what it called significant growth in revenue and its customer base over the last 12 months. The $40 million investment is the company’s first since a $33 million round in 2022 and brings total investment to $93 million since its founding in 2017. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a venture arm within Koch Industries. Optimal Dynamics, which lists CRST, D.M. Bowman, Halvor Lines, KBX Logistics, Leonard’s Express and Uber Freight as customers, is an archetypal example of the way AI has gradually permeated the truckload world. The company at first had some difficulty selling its vision for using AI to automate strategic and tactical fleet management decisions. But its recent progress has come as the logistics world has more broadly accepted AI’s role in tasks as rote as responding to customer service inquiries and as sophisticated as making decisions on which loads to accept and which trucks to allocate loads to. Optimal Dynamics said use of its tools has led to an average increase of 17% to 24% in weekly revenue per truck. ”We’ve demonstrated real impact in trucking — solving critical, high-scale planning challenges — and are now building the foundational decision layer for logistics at large,” CFO Scott Kenerly said in a statement Monday. Optimal Dynamics said the infusion of capital will help accelerate the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities, while scaling its product, support, and sales teams “to meet surging demand for decision automation in logistics.” Native agents A more recent trend in AI adoption has come via the form of so-called agents, commonly called agentic AI, where purpose-built agents perform tasks within a system. On Tuesday, PortPro, a transportation management software vendor for drayage operators, said its system now has native AI agents that “allow users to ask operational questions, pull real-time insights, and automate common tasks like updating spreadsheets, checking documents, or sending load updates.” The agents are available via a chat interface within the TMS, where PortPro has already developed a number of pre-built agents, or users can customize agents based on how their team already works. “This isn’t about adding new layers of tech — it’s about removing friction,” PortPro CEO Michael Mecca said in a statement Tuesday. It’s not just transportation providers that are investing in AI. Domestic shippers are also using tools with embedded AI process automation or decision-making agents. Those tools aren’t necessarily transformative, but rather augment transportation teams with limited resources. For example, EVO, an outdoor goods retailer, over the past two years has been using an AI agent from its transportation management software vendor Shipwell to tackle the transportation order creation process. “Anything I can automate or take off our plate is money saved for us,” Vanessa McClain, EVO’s transportation and vendor relations manager, told the Journal of Commerce. “I don’t need it to think for me; I need it to do a task.” The order creation agent within Shipwell, which the software vendor calls Swifty, saves McClain and her team five to 10 minutes per order across the 600 to 700 shipments it moves per year. It also increases the accuracy of those orders since it eliminates the re-keying of data from email into Shipwell. “We have vendors fill out a routing request form when they have a shipment ready,” McClain said. “With Swifty, we forward that email [to Shipwell] and it creates the order and then we select the carrier as opposed to getting the email from the vendor and hand-keying it into Shipwell.” Limited resources Shipwell President Jason Traff noted that transportation departments “aren’t flush with resources.” “If we can replace tasks that are boring...you can increase the frequency to do other tasks, like checking in with carriers and partners,” he said. Shipwell began developing AI workflow agents to help its customers get more out of the system it provides, with those agents focused on five areas: order creation, documentation classification, shipment updates, appointment scheduling and dynamic quotes. More than a quarter of Shipwell’s customers now use at least one of those agents, Traff said. And the number is growing. “Where established platforms have the advantage is you take this [learning] model and plug it into the system of record,” he said. “You need the ability to hook AI into other things.” The use of Shipwell’s AI agents comes as a flood of standalone agentic AI tools have emerged for shippers, brokers and fleets to use to bolster the bandwidth of their teams. But Traff’s contention is that those agents work better within an existing system as opposed to being deployed on top of an existing system. “A TMS is a store of information that has to be displayed in a certain way to help make good decisions,” he said. “That’s the power of using these agents inside a TMS.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

AI continues its advance across truckload fleets, drayage

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The carrier was commenting after reporting its first-quarter results along with Taiwan’s other two mainline carriers, Evergreen Marine and Wan Hai Lines. </div>

The carrier was commenting after reporting its first-quarter results along with Taiwan’s other two mainline carriers, Evergreen Marine and Wan Hai Lines.

<div class="phx-topic">Container trades on the Asia-Europe, Mediterranean, intra-Asia and Middle East routes have remained stable in the second quarter even while US tariffs have caused a decline in cargo volumes from China to the US, Yang Ming Marine Transport said Tuesday. The carrier was commenting after reporting its first-quarter results along with Taiwan’s other two mainline carriers, Evergreen Marine and Wan Hai Lines. Yang Ming was cautious about prospects for the trans-Pacific following last weekend’s <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/capacity-crunch-beckons-on-eastbound-trans-pacific-after-us-china-deal-6002956">preliminary trade deal between the US and China</a> to reduce tariffs on each other’s imports for 90 days. In a commentary announcing the results, the carrier only said the agreement “may support an improvement in US-China cargo demand.” Analysts were more bullish. Peter Sand, chief analyst at online benchmarking platform Xeneta, said freight rates faced upward pressure because shippers will use the 90-day window of opportunity to ship as many goods as possible into the US. “Carriers responded to falling volumes from China to the US by slashing container shipping capacity and redeploying it onto other trades, such as the Far East to Europe,” Sand said in a commentary on Monday. “It takes time to shift capacity back again, so a revival in volumes from China to US may mean shippers have to pay a little over the odds in the short term.” Yang Ming said the global economic outlook remains uncertain amid ongoing tariff developments, adding that Drewry and Clarksons have revised their container demand growth forecasts for 2025 to 1% and 0.3% contractions, respectively, while supply growth is estimated at 5.4% and 6.3%, respectively. The carrier said it was also uncertain whether the situation in the Red Sea has “truly stabilized” and said it would continue rerouting ships via the Cape of Good Hope “for the time being” to protect crew and ships. That followed <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/apparent-houthi-ceasefire-raises-container-shipping-overcapacity-risk-5999930">an announcement on May 6</a> that Houthi militants would stop attacking commercial shipping after the US agreed to end military action against Houthi bases in Yemen. <h3>Yang Ming Q1 net down 13% </h3>First-quarter figures released Tuesday show Yang Ming was the only one of Taiwan’s Big 3 carriers to report a year-over-year drop in first-quarter net profit, which fell 13% to $259 million. Revenue was largely unchanged at $1.4 billion. Yang Ming was also the only one of Taiwan’s Big 3 carriers to provide commentary with its results. Evergreen Marine, Taiwan’s largest container carrier, saw a significantly improved first quarter compared with the previous year, according to filings Tuesday to the Taiwan stock exchange. Net profit climbed 50% to $897 million while revenue increased 24% to $3.6 billion. Evergreen also confirmed that its directors have dropped plans to acquire an extra 5% interest in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shilbaya Marine. Evergreen announced on March 13 it would pay $13 million to acquire the stake, but the carrier said it has now canceled the deal due to “adjustments of operational strategy.” Meanwhile, Wan Hai Lines saw its first-quarter net profit surge 90% to $286 million, while revenue rose 37% to $1.2 billion. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

Container trades on the Asia-Europe, Mediterranean, intra-Asia and Middle East routes have remained stable in the second quarter even while US tariffs have caused a decline in cargo volumes from China to the US, Yang Ming Marine Transport said Tuesday. The carrier was commenting after reporting its first-quarter results along with Taiwan’s other two mainline carriers, Evergreen Marine and Wan Hai Lines. Yang Ming was cautious about prospects for the trans-Pacific following last weekend’s preliminary trade deal between the US and China to reduce tariffs on each other’s imports for 90 days. In a commentary announcing the results, the carrier only said the agreement “may support an improvement in US-China cargo demand.” Analysts were more bullish. Peter Sand, chief analyst at online benchmarking platform Xeneta, said freight rates faced upward pressure because shippers will use the 90-day window of opportunity to ship as many goods as possible into the US. “Carriers responded to falling volumes from China to the US by slashing container shipping capacity and redeploying it onto other trades, such as the Far East to Europe,” Sand said in a commentary on Monday. “It takes time to shift capacity back again, so a revival in volumes from China to US may mean shippers have to pay a little over the odds in the short term.” Yang Ming said the global economic outlook remains uncertain amid ongoing tariff developments, adding that Drewry and Clarksons have revised their container demand growth forecasts for 2025 to 1% and 0.3% contractions, respectively, while supply growth is estimated at 5.4% and 6.3%, respectively. The carrier said it was also uncertain whether the situation in the Red Sea has “truly stabilized” and said it would continue rerouting ships via the Cape of Good Hope “for the time being” to protect crew and ships. That followed an announcement on May 6 that Houthi militants would stop attacking commercial shipping after the US agreed to end military action against Houthi bases in Yemen. Yang Ming Q1 net down 13% First-quarter figures released Tuesday show Yang Ming was the only one of Taiwan’s Big 3 carriers to report a year-over-year drop in first-quarter net profit, which fell 13% to $259 million. Revenue was largely unchanged at $1.4 billion. Yang Ming was also the only one of Taiwan’s Big 3 carriers to provide commentary with its results. Evergreen Marine, Taiwan’s largest container carrier, saw a significantly improved first quarter compared with the previous year, according to filings Tuesday to the Taiwan stock exchange. Net profit climbed 50% to $897 million while revenue increased 24% to $3.6 billion. Evergreen also confirmed that its directors have dropped plans to acquire an extra 5% interest in Egypt’s Abu Qir Container Terminal Company from Hutchison Ports North Africa and Shilbaya Marine. Evergreen announced on March 13 it would pay $13 million to acquire the stake, but the carrier said it has now canceled the deal due to “adjustments of operational strategy.” Meanwhile, Wan Hai Lines saw its first-quarter net profit surge 90% to $286 million, while revenue rose 37% to $1.2 billion. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Yang Ming expects stable Q2 on non-US-China trades

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The trans-Pacific air cargo sector is trying to assess the demand implications of the preliminary trade deal between Washington and Beijing, which included a reduction in the tariff on parcels from China. </div>

The trans-Pacific air cargo sector is trying to assess the demand implications of the preliminary trade deal between Washington and Beijing, which included a reduction in the tariff on parcels from China.

<div class="phx-topic">While the reduction in “de minimis” tariffs on Chinese exports to the US is unlikely to spark a surge in demand for air cargo on the trans-Pacific, any increase in demand could tighten capacity and push rates higher given the large numbers of freighter aircraft that have been shifted to other trade lanes. Following weekend trade talks in Geneva between the world’s two largest economies, part of the deal <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/modifying-reciprocal-tariff-rates-to-reflect-discussions-with-the-peoples-republic-of-china/">included a reduction of the 120% duty imposed from May 2</a> on any parcel from China, including Hong Kong, to 54%. An additional per-parcel fee of $100 will still go into effect May 14 but will not be increased to $200 in June as planned. The trans-Pacific market saw a mass exodus of freighter capacity as e-commerce bookings dried up ahead of the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/air-cargo-volumes-fall-on-trans-pacific-as-us-de-minimis-changes-loom-5993599">Trump administration’s May 2 elimination of the duty-free exemption for low-value shipments</a>, with many aircraft being switched to Latin American routes. Data from air freight analyst Rotate shows daily average freighter capacity on the China-US corridor has declined 39% since May 2. The tariff impact on demand has been dramatic. Asia-North America air cargo volume is down 20% since the last week of April, at 73,037 tons, while volume on the Asia-Latin America corridor, a much smaller market, grew 23% to 855 tons over the same period, according to Rotate. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="50cf684b-e4f7-4f37-a0d6-346682e60c7f"></dynamic-object></div>Kathy Liu, vice president of global sales and marketing at Taiwan-based forwarder Dimerco Express Group, said the cut in tariffs would be positive for the air cargo business, but warned that finding space could be difficult in the days ahead. “After the last week of April, a lot of orders have been on hold in China for the US market due to the uncertainty,” Liu told the Journal of Commerce. “With this new announcement, a certain percentage of the orders will be released gradually. I believe we will see volume increase for air from China to the US from now on.” <h3>Demand decline pulls down rates </h3>The drop in demand over the past two weeks has dragged down air cargo rates on China-US routes, with the average rate falling 8.8% since late April, according to the Baltic Air Index. Data from rate benchmarking platform Xeneta showed prices have fallen 9% since the May 2 tariffs were imposed. “Approximately 50% of air cargo shipments on the China-US route is low-value e-commerce ... the oxygen was suddenly and dramatically removed from this demand on May 2, and it has shaken the market to its core,” said Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at Xeneta. Rotate’s analysts are expecting “some demand” to return to the China-US air corridor, but it was not clear how strong the demand would be following frontloading ahead of May 2 and the prevailing uncertainty around tariff levels as the US continues negotiations with its trade partners. “Since May 2, some freighters have been parked and some were shifted to other trade lanes,” a Rotate spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday. “If demand is there, we will probably see most freighter capacity return to the trans-Pacific.” Ocean carriers are expecting the preliminary China-US trade deal <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/capacity-crunch-beckons-on-eastbound-trans-pacific-after-us-china-deal-6002956">to unleash pent-up demand</a> that has built over the past month, with imports from China quickly filling all available container shipping capacity. In times of severe space constraints in ocean, there is a spillover to air, but considering cost-conscious US importers paused shipments in the first place because of high tariffs, forwarding sources told the Journal of Commerce it was unlikely they would be willing to pay air freight prices. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

While the reduction in “de minimis” tariffs on Chinese exports to the US is unlikely to spark a surge in demand for air cargo on the trans-Pacific, any increase in demand could tighten capacity and push rates higher given the large numbers of freighter aircraft that have been shifted to other trade lanes. Following weekend trade talks in Geneva between the world’s two largest economies, part of the deal included a reduction of the 120% duty imposed from May 2 on any parcel from China, including Hong Kong, to 54%. An additional per-parcel fee of $100 will still go into effect May 14 but will not be increased to $200 in June as planned. The trans-Pacific market saw a mass exodus of freighter capacity as e-commerce bookings dried up ahead of the Trump administration’s May 2 elimination of the duty-free exemption for low-value shipments , with many aircraft being switched to Latin American routes. Data from air freight analyst Rotate shows daily average freighter capacity on the China-US corridor has declined 39% since May 2. The tariff impact on demand has been dramatic. Asia-North America air cargo volume is down 20% since the last week of April, at 73,037 tons, while volume on the Asia-Latin America corridor, a much smaller market, grew 23% to 855 tons over the same period, according to Rotate. Kathy Liu, vice president of global sales and marketing at Taiwan-based forwarder Dimerco Express Group, said the cut in tariffs would be positive for the air cargo business, but warned that finding space could be difficult in the days ahead. “After the last week of April, a lot of orders have been on hold in China for the US market due to the uncertainty,” Liu told the Journal of Commerce. “With this new announcement, a certain percentage of the orders will be released gradually. I believe we will see volume increase for air from China to the US from now on.” Demand decline pulls down rates The drop in demand over the past two weeks has dragged down air cargo rates on China-US routes, with the average rate falling 8.8% since late April, according to the Baltic Air Index. Data from rate benchmarking platform Xeneta showed prices have fallen 9% since the May 2 tariffs were imposed. “Approximately 50% of air cargo shipments on the China-US route is low-value e-commerce ... the oxygen was suddenly and dramatically removed from this demand on May 2, and it has shaken the market to its core,” said Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at Xeneta. Rotate’s analysts are expecting “some demand” to return to the China-US air corridor, but it was not clear how strong the demand would be following frontloading ahead of May 2 and the prevailing uncertainty around tariff levels as the US continues negotiations with its trade partners. “Since May 2, some freighters have been parked and some were shifted to other trade lanes,” a Rotate spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday. “If demand is there, we will probably see most freighter capacity return to the trans-Pacific.” Ocean carriers are expecting the preliminary China-US trade deal to unleash pent-up demand that has built over the past month, with imports from China quickly filling all available container shipping capacity. In times of severe space constraints in ocean, there is a spillover to air, but considering cost-conscious US importers paused shipments in the first place because of high tariffs, forwarding sources told the Journal of Commerce it was unlikely they would be willing to pay air freight prices. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Freighter exodus leaves trans-Pacific air cargo on edge after China-US trade deal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest car carrier operator, said its vessels make between 300 and 350 voyages a year to the US, potentially generating annual voyage fees of about $300 million.</div>

Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest car carrier operator, said its vessels make between 300 and 350 voyages a year to the US, potentially generating annual voyage fees of about $300 million.

<div class="phx-topic">Car carriers face bills into the hundreds of millions to meet the cost of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) proposal to impose levies on non-US-built ships entering the US beginning Oct. 16, shipping executives said. Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest car carrier operator with 128 ships, said its vessels make between 300 and 350 voyages a year to the US, potentially generating annual voyage fees of about $300 million, it said last week. Rival Norwegian operator Höegh Autoliners estimated its own potential voyage fee exposure at between $60 million and $70 million a year. Other roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) operators facing hefty voyage fee bills include Japan’s three largest carriers — NYK Line, MOL and “K” Line — according to port call data from maritime consultancy Esgian, as well as Glovis, which is affiliated with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, Unlike other sectors, including container shipping and multipurpose vessels, where voyage fees only target China-built or -operated vessels, Lasse Kristoffersen, Wallenius Wilhelmsen CEO, said an anomaly in the USTR proposal meant that all foreign-built ro/ro vessels are liable for voyage fees. He expected the voyage fees to be passed on to the carrier’s customers, similar to the way charges related to the European Union’s emissions trading scheme are paid by shippers. Under current plans, the USTR proposal will levy voyage fees of $150 per car equivalent unit on car carriers from mid-October. Speaking during a first-quarter results presentation on April 25, Höegh Autoliners CEO Andreas Enger estimated it would cost carriers between $1 million and $1.35 million per voyage for each non-US built ro/ro vessel entering US waters. <h3>Addressing ‘unintended’ consequences </h3>Commenting on what he thought was an unintended decision by the USTR, Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen told a first quarter analysts briefing May 8 the company is in contact with “the US government to see how that can be adjusted.” Wallenius has strong links with the US government through its US-flag ro/ro subsidiary American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier (ARC), which handles military and diplomatic-related shipments of equipment, vehicles and household belongings. Total revenues from its government business were $107 million in the first quarter, down 3% quarter over quarter. Enger said Höegh Autoliners would also talk to US authorities about the way voyage fees are charged. He said the carrier also plans to talk to customers over the next six months before voyage fees are implemented to mitigate the impact. If these are unsuccessful, “we can take the full hit if necessary,” Enger said during the results briefing. He and Kristoffersen said while voyage fees and tariffs on vehicle imports to the US could significantly impact the vehicle carrier trade, there have been limited repercussions on the companies so far. Kristoffersen said the 25% tariff imposed on US vehicle imports from April 3 will add thousands of dollars to the $48,500 price of an average car. But he pointed out that of 16.2 million cars sold in the US last year, about 8.8 million were US-built. Consequently, there is “no way the US can replace imported volumes with domestic volumes,” he said. Kristoffersen said S&amp;P Global estimated US vehicle tariffs would reduce imports by 300,000 vehicles this year to 3.4 million, with a further 15% reduction next year to 3.2 million from a pre-tariff forecast of 3.8 million vehicles. S&amp;P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. <h3>Underlying strength in volumes </h3>Despite the threat of US tariffs, Wilhelmsen and Höegh are continuing to see strong cargo volumes, buoyed by forward multi-year cargo transportation contracts, which, for Höegh, accounted for 82% of capacity in the first quarter. While “tariffs have increased market uncertainty” Wilhelmsen “was sold out in shipping” in the first quarter, although there was “weaker activity in logistics,” Kristoffersen said during the results briefing. Höegh CFO Espen Stubberud agreed, saying the carrier “was absolutely sold out from Asia” with more cargo than it could carry in the first quarter, although there were lower volumes on the Atlantic. Stubberud said Höegh chartered two car carriers, one in January and the other in April, for nine to 12 months to meet the short-term need for extra capacity while taking advantage of lower vessel charter rates. Rates fell to about $40,000 to $60,000 per day depending on the size of ship in the first quarter from a peak of $90,000-$115,000 per day in January 2024, data from shipbroker Clarksons showed. But high-and-heavy volumes are continuing to flounder partly due to a lack of spot capacity and lackluster global demand for heavy equipment, including construction and mining equipment. Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen said the carrier’s high-and-heavy volumes were down 36% year over year in the first quarter without giving actual figures. Wilhelmsen and Höegh do not see any pickup in high-and-heavy volumes until the end of this year or next year, they said. Both carriers posted strong results in the first quarter, which Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen expected to continue for the rest of this year. Wilhelmsen saw net profit increase 22% to $246 million in the first quarter, while revenues climbed 3% to $1.3 billion. Höegh reported first-quarter net profit of $155 million, up 35% from the first quarter last year, although the result was buoyed by a $41 million gain from the sale of the ro/ro vessel Höegh New York. Total revenues edged up slightly to $329 million. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

Car carriers face bills into the hundreds of millions to meet the cost of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR’s) proposal to impose levies on non-US-built ships entering the US beginning Oct. 16, shipping executives said. Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the world’s largest car carrier operator with 128 ships, said its vessels make between 300 and 350 voyages a year to the US, potentially generating annual voyage fees of about $300 million, it said last week. Rival Norwegian operator Höegh Autoliners estimated its own potential voyage fee exposure at between $60 million and $70 million a year. Other roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) operators facing hefty voyage fee bills include Japan’s three largest carriers — NYK Line, MOL and “K” Line — according to port call data from maritime consultancy Esgian, as well as Glovis, which is affiliated with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, Unlike other sectors, including container shipping and multipurpose vessels, where voyage fees only target China-built or -operated vessels, Lasse Kristoffersen, Wallenius Wilhelmsen CEO, said an anomaly in the USTR proposal meant that all foreign-built ro/ro vessels are liable for voyage fees. He expected the voyage fees to be passed on to the carrier’s customers, similar to the way charges related to the European Union’s emissions trading scheme are paid by shippers. Under current plans, the USTR proposal will levy voyage fees of $150 per car equivalent unit on car carriers from mid-October. Speaking during a first-quarter results presentation on April 25, Höegh Autoliners CEO Andreas Enger estimated it would cost carriers between $1 million and $1.35 million per voyage for each non-US built ro/ro vessel entering US waters. Addressing ‘unintended’ consequences Commenting on what he thought was an unintended decision by the USTR, Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen told a first quarter analysts briefing May 8 the company is in contact with “the US government to see how that can be adjusted.” Wallenius has strong links with the US government through its US-flag ro/ro subsidiary American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier (ARC), which handles military and diplomatic-related shipments of equipment, vehicles and household belongings. Total revenues from its government business were $107 million in the first quarter, down 3% quarter over quarter. Enger said Höegh Autoliners would also talk to US authorities about the way voyage fees are charged. He said the carrier also plans to talk to customers over the next six months before voyage fees are implemented to mitigate the impact. If these are unsuccessful, “we can take the full hit if necessary,” Enger said during the results briefing. He and Kristoffersen said while voyage fees and tariffs on vehicle imports to the US could significantly impact the vehicle carrier trade, there have been limited repercussions on the companies so far. Kristoffersen said the 25% tariff imposed on US vehicle imports from April 3 will add thousands of dollars to the $48,500 price of an average car. But he pointed out that of 16.2 million cars sold in the US last year, about 8.8 million were US-built. Consequently, there is “no way the US can replace imported volumes with domestic volumes,” he said. Kristoffersen said S&P Global estimated US vehicle tariffs would reduce imports by 300,000 vehicles this year to 3.4 million, with a further 15% reduction next year to 3.2 million from a pre-tariff forecast of 3.8 million vehicles. S&P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Underlying strength in volumes Despite the threat of US tariffs, Wilhelmsen and Höegh are continuing to see strong cargo volumes, buoyed by forward multi-year cargo transportation contracts, which, for Höegh, accounted for 82% of capacity in the first quarter. While “tariffs have increased market uncertainty” Wilhelmsen “was sold out in shipping” in the first quarter, although there was “weaker activity in logistics,” Kristoffersen said during the results briefing. Höegh CFO Espen Stubberud agreed, saying the carrier “was absolutely sold out from Asia” with more cargo than it could carry in the first quarter, although there were lower volumes on the Atlantic. Stubberud said Höegh chartered two car carriers, one in January and the other in April, for nine to 12 months to meet the short-term need for extra capacity while taking advantage of lower vessel charter rates. Rates fell to about $40,000 to $60,000 per day depending on the size of ship in the first quarter from a peak of $90,000-$115,000 per day in January 2024, data from shipbroker Clarksons showed. But high-and-heavy volumes are continuing to flounder partly due to a lack of spot capacity and lackluster global demand for heavy equipment, including construction and mining equipment. Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen said the carrier’s high-and-heavy volumes were down 36% year over year in the first quarter without giving actual figures. Wilhelmsen and Höegh do not see any pickup in high-and-heavy volumes until the end of this year or next year, they said. Both carriers posted strong results in the first quarter, which Wilhelmsen’s Kristoffersen expected to continue for the rest of this year. Wilhelmsen saw net profit increase 22% to $246 million in the first quarter, while revenues climbed 3% to $1.3 billion. Höegh reported first-quarter net profit of $155 million, up 35% from the first quarter last year, although the result was buoyed by a $41 million gain from the sale of the ro/ro vessel Höegh New York. Total revenues edged up slightly to $329 million. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Multimillion-dollar price tag awaits car carriers as US ship fees loom

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The investment will increase the Port of Caucedo’s capacity by 24% while expanding an adjacent Free Trade Zone, the terminal operator said. </div>

The investment will increase the Port of Caucedo’s capacity by 24% while expanding an adjacent Free Trade Zone, the terminal operator said.

<div class="phx-topic">Marine terminal operator DP World is investing $760 million to increase cargo capacity at the Port of Caucedo in the Dominican Republic by 24% and significantly expand the port’s adjacent Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Under a memorandum of understanding announced Friday, DP World will invest $380 million for new port equipment, cranes, surveillance systems and other infrastructure upgrades. The other half of the funds will go toward FTZ infrastructure such as buildings, roads and utilities, the terminal operator said in a statement. The investment will increase Caucedo’s capacity to 3.1 million TEUs from 2.5 million TEUs. “By boosting capacity and enabling nearshoring opportunities, we will transform Caucedo into the most advanced logistics hub in the Caribbean, not only strengthening supply chain resilience across the Americas but also creating a powerful engine for economic growth and job creation in the Dominican Republic,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World’s chairman and group CEO. The multi-phase expansion will unlock 225 hectares of development-ready land for the port’s FTZ and is expected to attract $3.9 billion in foreign investment, DP World said, adding the investment will position the Dominican Republic as a rising nearshoring and trade hub for the Americas. Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:Laura.Robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Marine terminal operator DP World is investing $760 million to increase cargo capacity at the Port of Caucedo in the Dominican Republic by 24% and significantly expand the port’s adjacent Free Trade Zone (FTZ). Under a memorandum of understanding announced Friday, DP World will invest $380 million for new port equipment, cranes, surveillance systems and other infrastructure upgrades. The other half of the funds will go toward FTZ infrastructure such as buildings, roads and utilities, the terminal operator said in a statement. The investment will increase Caucedo’s capacity to 3.1 million TEUs from 2.5 million TEUs. “By boosting capacity and enabling nearshoring opportunities, we will transform Caucedo into the most advanced logistics hub in the Caribbean, not only strengthening supply chain resilience across the Americas but also creating a powerful engine for economic growth and job creation in the Dominican Republic,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World’s chairman and group CEO. The multi-phase expansion will unlock 225 hectares of development-ready land for the port’s FTZ and is expected to attract $3.9 billion in foreign investment, DP World said, adding the investment will position the Dominican Republic as a rising nearshoring and trade hub for the Americas. Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com . 

DP World plans $760 million investment in the Dominican Republic

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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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