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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">By reworking two trans-Atlantic connections, Zim will offer new port coverage in Italy and Turkey while also offering more ways to connect with South America. </div>

By reworking two trans-Atlantic connections, Zim will offer new port coverage in Italy and Turkey while also offering more ways to connect with South America.

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<div>Zim Integrated Shipping Services is reworking two trans-Atlantic services to offer new port options from the Mediterranean to the US East Coast, while also adding transshipment options to the East Coast of South America and the Caribbean. The ocean carrier said in a statement Monday the restructuring of the Zim Container Service Atlantic (ZCA) and Zim Container Turkey (ZCT) will offer access to “additional key export ports in Turkey and Italy while expanding scope to the West Coast of South America and the Caribbean.” Containerized US imports from Turkey have staged a strong rebound during the first nine months of...

Zim Integrated Shipping Services is reworking two trans-Atlantic services to offer new port options from the Mediterranean to the US East Coast, while also adding transshipment options to the East Coast of South America and the Caribbean. The ocean carrier said in a statement Monday the restructuring of the Zim Container Service Atlantic (ZCA) and Zim Container Turkey (ZCT) will offer access to “additional key export ports in Turkey and Italy while expanding scope to the West Coast of South America and the Caribbean.” Containerized US imports from Turkey have staged a strong rebound during the first nine months of 2024, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. East and Gulf Coast ports have handled 235,790 TEUs of imports from Turkey through September, a 20.4% year-over-year jump. Zim will add calls to Livorno, Italy, to both the ZCA and ZCT for cargo to be transshipped between the two loops. The ZCA will drop a call to Turkey’s port of Izmir but add another call at Kingston, Jamaica, to connect with Zim’s feeder network. The ZCT service also will drop its call at Izmir, as well as a westbound stop in Lisbon, while adding a call to Turkey’s Port of Aliaga. The service changes will be in effect as of February 2025. They are also subject to a new cooperative agreement with Hapag-Lloyd, which has had a decade-long slot exchange agreement with Zim on its ZCA service. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com

Zim’s restructured Med-US services add transshipment options

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">With this latest deal, the combined methanol offtake agreements Maersk now has in place will meet half the demand from its fast-growing dual-fuel fleet in 2027.</div>

With this latest deal, the combined methanol offtake agreements Maersk now has in place will meet half the demand from its fast-growing dual-fuel fleet in 2027.

<div class="phx-topic">Maersk has signed a long-term bio-methanol supply agreement with China’s LONGi Green Energy Technology Co. as the carrier works toward securing enough green fuel to power its fast-growing dual-fuel fleet. The carrier has taken delivery of seven dual-fuel, methanol-capable 16,592-TEU ships from an 18-vessel order. With this latest supply deal, the combined methanol offtake agreements Maersk has in place so far will meet half the demand from its fleet in 2027. “While we believe that the future of global logistics will see several pathways to net-zero, this agreement underscores the continued momentum for methanol projects that are pursued by ambitious developers across markets,” Emma Mazhari, head of energy markets at A.P. Moller-Maersk, said in a statement Wednesday. The need for ocean carriers to secure supply agreements for green fuels — particularly methanol and LNG — is becoming more urgent, with almost 80% of the total 1.7 million TEUs of ship orders made so far this year being for vessels capable of sailing on methanol or LNG, according to Sea-web, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. The ordered vessels are steadily coming online, and although they can sail on conventional bunker fuel in the meantime, meeting both internal and regulatory emissions targets will largely depend on operating on green fuels. <h3>Deep dive into methanol </h3>The agreement with Henan-based LONGi continues Maersk’s deep dive into methanol. But growing uncertainty over the future supply of low- or zero-carbon fuels has seen the carrier expanding its alternative fuels portfolio into areas once regarded as out of bounds, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The need to keep fuel options open and avoid being locked into one pathway was illustrated in a <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/maersks-lng-order-hedges-bet-on-green-fuel-technology-ceo-5703200">recent Maersk order for dual-fuel vessels totaling 800,000 TEUs</a> capable of sailing on methanol as well as LNG. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="1a054077-7728-4ffd-abb8-b7aff17c3235"></dynamic-object></div>In an interview with the Journal of Commerce earlier this month, Morten Bo Christiansen, Maersk’s head of decarbonization, said including LNG-capability in the carrier’s dual-fuel fleet is designed to bring in a wider mix of fuels. “When we look at our road map to decarbonize and meet our science-based targets, it is methanol that plays the big role,” Christiansen said. “We expect to get some biomethane [a cleaner version of LNG], but we are still relying mostly on methanol because we have a reasonable certainty that we can get those green fuels at a reasonable cost. “We already have <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-inks-new-methanol-sourcing-deal-with-chinese-supplier-5234419">one deal of half a million [metric tons] secured</a>, and we have a rather promising pipeline of green methanol,” he added. Ammonia is increasingly being included in container shipping decarbonization conversations, with classification society DNV on Wednesday approving in principle a 15,000-TEU ammonia-fueled vessel design by Hyundai Heavy Industries. <h3>China in a ‘pioneering role’ </h3>Maersk did not disclose the volume that will be produced by LONGi’s central China plant, but the supply will begin in 2026 with full production by the end of the decade. The bio-methanol will be produced from agricultural residues such as straw and fruit tree cuttings. “China continues to play a pioneering role, and it is encouraging to also see strong market developments in other geographies as well,” Mazhari noted, adding that the carrier was involved in “several promising projects.” While Maersk moves to lock in supply of methanol, the fuel remains three to four times more expensive per ton than low sulfur fuel oil, a price differential that must be lowered, Rabab Raafat Boulos, COO at A.P. Moller-Maersk, said in Wednesday’s statement. “Global shipping’s main net-zero challenge is the price gap between fossil fuels and the alternatives with lower greenhouse gas emissions,” he noted. Even with current regulatory tools in place such as the European Union’s <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/european-parliament-approves-shipping-ets-but-stakeholders-wary-5202492">Emissions Trading System (ETS)</a> and <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/container-carriers-to-shoulder-bulk-of-europe-fuel-intensity-rule-5192246">FuelEU Maritime fuel intensity rules</a> that will be applied from Jan. 1, Maersk noted that only by the mid-2030s would it be more expensive to use fossil fuels on ships rather than green fuels. “We continue to strongly urge the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) member states to level the playing field by adopting a global green fuel standard and an ambitious pricing mechanism which the industry urgently needs,” Boulos said. Member states of the IMO are working on reaching an agreement on the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/midterm-emissions-plan-to-take-center-stage-at-upcoming-imo-meeting-5731399">proposed midterm measures</a> before they are approved at the MEPC 83 meeting in April 2025, with adoption of the measures in October next year. If the IMO is not able to roll out the midterm measures in autumn next year, there are fears the maritime industry will not be able to meet its interim targets. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Maersk has signed a long-term bio-methanol supply agreement with China’s LONGi Green Energy Technology Co. as the carrier works toward securing enough green fuel to power its fast-growing dual-fuel fleet. The carrier has taken delivery of seven dual-fuel, methanol-capable 16,592-TEU ships from an 18-vessel order. With this latest supply deal, the combined methanol offtake agreements Maersk has in place so far will meet half the demand from its fleet in 2027. “While we believe that the future of global logistics will see several pathways to net-zero, this agreement underscores the continued momentum for methanol projects that are pursued by ambitious developers across markets,” Emma Mazhari, head of energy markets at A.P. Moller-Maersk, said in a statement Wednesday. The need for ocean carriers to secure supply agreements for green fuels — particularly methanol and LNG — is becoming more urgent, with almost 80% of the total 1.7 million TEUs of ship orders made so far this year being for vessels capable of sailing on methanol or LNG, according to Sea-web, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. The ordered vessels are steadily coming online, and although they can sail on conventional bunker fuel in the meantime, meeting both internal and regulatory emissions targets will largely depend on operating on green fuels. Deep dive into methanol The agreement with Henan-based LONGi continues Maersk’s deep dive into methanol. But growing uncertainty over the future supply of low- or zero-carbon fuels has seen the carrier expanding its alternative fuels portfolio into areas once regarded as out of bounds, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG). The need to keep fuel options open and avoid being locked into one pathway was illustrated in a recent Maersk order for dual-fuel vessels totaling 800,000 TEUs capable of sailing on methanol as well as LNG. In an interview with the Journal of Commerce earlier this month, Morten Bo Christiansen, Maersk’s head of decarbonization, said including LNG-capability in the carrier’s dual-fuel fleet is designed to bring in a wider mix of fuels. “When we look at our road map to decarbonize and meet our science-based targets, it is methanol that plays the big role,” Christiansen said. “We expect to get some biomethane [a cleaner version of LNG], but we are still relying mostly on methanol because we have a reasonable certainty that we can get those green fuels at a reasonable cost. “We already have one deal of half a million [metric tons] secured , and we have a rather promising pipeline of green methanol,” he added. Ammonia is increasingly being included in container shipping decarbonization conversations, with classification society DNV on Wednesday approving in principle a 15,000-TEU ammonia-fueled vessel design by Hyundai Heavy Industries. China in a ‘pioneering role’ Maersk did not disclose the volume that will be produced by LONGi’s central China plant, but the supply will begin in 2026 with full production by the end of the decade. The bio-methanol will be produced from agricultural residues such as straw and fruit tree cuttings. “China continues to play a pioneering role, and it is encouraging to also see strong market developments in other geographies as well,” Mazhari noted, adding that the carrier was involved in “several promising projects.” While Maersk moves to lock in supply of methanol, the fuel remains three to four times more expensive per ton than low sulfur fuel oil, a price differential that must be lowered, Rabab Raafat Boulos, COO at A.P. Moller-Maersk, said in Wednesday’s statement. “Global shipping’s main net-zero challenge is the price gap between fossil fuels and the alternatives with lower greenhouse gas emissions,” he noted. Even with current regulatory tools in place such as the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) and FuelEU Maritime fuel intensity rules that will be applied from Jan. 1, Maersk noted that only by the mid-2030s would it be more expensive to use fossil fuels on ships rather than green fuels. “We continue to strongly urge the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) member states to level the playing field by adopting a global green fuel standard and an ambitious pricing mechanism which the industry urgently needs,” Boulos said. Member states of the IMO are working on reaching an agreement on the proposed midterm measures before they are approved at the MEPC 83 meeting in April 2025, with adoption of the measures in October next year. If the IMO is not able to roll out the midterm measures in autumn next year, there are fears the maritime industry will not be able to meet its interim targets. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Maersk secures long-term methanol supply in China production deal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The port will see almost half of its container capacity go offline beginning Thursday as the local longshore union declares an unlimited strike against two of Montreal’s largest marine terminals.</div>

The port will see almost half of its container capacity go offline beginning Thursday as the local longshore union declares an unlimited strike against two of Montreal’s largest marine terminals.

<div class="phx-topic">Two marine terminals handling Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Montreal container services face a work stoppage starting this week after longshore workers there voted to authorize an indefinite strike targeting nearly half of the port’s container capacity. Termont International said Monday that Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) notified it that an “unlimited strike” will occur at Montreal’s Maisonneuve and Viau terminals starting Thursday at 11 AM local time. The terminal operator urged shippers with cargo at both terminals to schedule pickups by Wednesday evening. The strike at the two terminals will idle more than 1 million TEUs of Montreal’s total 2.3 million TEUs in terminal capacity. The port’s two other international container terminals, Racine and Cast, won’t be affected by the work stoppage. Termont, a joint venture between MSC’s Terminal Investment Limited, SSA Marine and Canadian stevedore Logistec, primarily handles MSC’s trans-Atlantic and north-south services into Montreal. The services include the Montreal Express 1 from Italy, the Med Canadian service and the Canada Gulf Bridge service that spans Mexico and US Gulf ports. MSC’s current schedule shows at least four of its ships — Anya, Celine, Nahara and England — scheduled to arrive at the Termont terminals by the end of the week. Another two ships in MSC services — Levina III and OOCL St. Lawrence — are scheduled to arrive at Montreal’s other terminals. Local 375’s latest labor action represents a further escalation of pressure tactics against the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which has yet to agree on a new contract covering the port’s 1,200 longshore workers. Local 375 also started <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/montreal-says-congestion-risk-grows-as-dockworkers-refuse-overtime-5751118">an ongoing boycott of overtime work</a> at the port and held <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/port-of-montreal-to-face-three-day-strike-against-two-terminals-next-week-5737483">a three-day work stoppage at the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals</a> at the start of October. This past Sunday, Local 375 conducted <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/montreal-dockworkers-plan-one-day-port-strike-on-sunday-5773614">a one-day, port-wide strike at Montreal</a>. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com ">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Two marine terminals handling Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Montreal container services face a work stoppage starting this week after longshore workers there voted to authorize an indefinite strike targeting nearly half of the port’s container capacity. Termont International said Monday that Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) notified it that an “unlimited strike” will occur at Montreal’s Maisonneuve and Viau terminals starting Thursday at 11 AM local time. The terminal operator urged shippers with cargo at both terminals to schedule pickups by Wednesday evening. The strike at the two terminals will idle more than 1 million TEUs of Montreal’s total 2.3 million TEUs in terminal capacity. The port’s two other international container terminals, Racine and Cast, won’t be affected by the work stoppage. Termont, a joint venture between MSC’s Terminal Investment Limited, SSA Marine and Canadian stevedore Logistec, primarily handles MSC’s trans-Atlantic and north-south services into Montreal. The services include the Montreal Express 1 from Italy, the Med Canadian service and the Canada Gulf Bridge service that spans Mexico and US Gulf ports. MSC’s current schedule shows at least four of its ships — Anya, Celine, Nahara and England — scheduled to arrive at the Termont terminals by the end of the week. Another two ships in MSC services — Levina III and OOCL St. Lawrence — are scheduled to arrive at Montreal’s other terminals. Local 375’s latest labor action represents a further escalation of pressure tactics against the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which has yet to agree on a new contract covering the port’s 1,200 longshore workers. Local 375 also started an ongoing boycott of overtime work at the port and held a three-day work stoppage at the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals at the start of October. This past Sunday, Local 375 conducted a one-day, port-wide strike at Montreal . Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Montreal dockworkers target MSC’s terminals for strike this week

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">It is the second major port investment the Marseilles-based carrier has made recently after paying $1.2 billion last month for a majority stake in Brazil’s largest terminal operator.</div>

It is the second major port investment the Marseilles-based carrier has made recently after paying $1.2 billion last month for a majority stake in Brazil’s largest terminal operator.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM said Tuesday it has signed a joint venture deal with Moroccan port operator Marsa Maroc to equip and operate half the Nador West Med container terminal near the Gibraltar mouth of the Mediterranean. It is the second major port investment the Marseilles-based carrier has made recently after <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-moves-to-take-over-top-brazilian-terminal-operator-5732689">paying $1.2 billion last month for a majority stake</a> in Brazil’s largest terminal operator Santos Brasil. Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, said in a statement Morocco was positioning itself as “a strategic logistics and port hub with strong growth potential.” “The partnership we are entering into with Marsa Maroc marks a key step for the CMA CGM Group, strengthening our presence through the Nador West Med container terminal,” Saadé said. ”Our ambition is to support the country’s development, particularly in the forward-looking sectors of logistics and alternative energies,” he added. The joint venture covers one-half of the Nador West Med container terminal, giving CMA CGM control of 750 meters of quay with a maximum draught of 18 meters, in addition to 35 hectares of an adjacent container yard. Within the framework of a 25-year sub-concession, CMA CGM and Marsa Maroc will jointly invest $280 million into the terminal with the aim of achieving annual output of 1.2 million TEUs. CMA CGM did not provide a timeframe for when that volume target would be reached. CMA CGM has had a long-standing presence in Morocco. Through its subsidiary Terminal Link, the carrier owns 100% of a Casablanca terminal and a 40% stake in the Eurogate Tangiers terminal. “This is a clear strategic path for many of the carriers that need to ensure they have access to terminals they own to avoid supply chain disruption,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday when commenting on the deal. “Interesting to see CMA CGM being more aggressive in this area, but it fits well with a strategy to build up transshipment capacity in Morocco,” Sand added. West Mediterranean terminals have become important transshipment hubs for cargo destined for southern Europe. With the Red Sea mostly unavailable to commercial shipping amid ongoing militant attacks, southern Europe and East Mediterranean cargo is offloaded in terminals at ports such as Tanger Med, Algeciras and Barcelona for onward shipment. Surging volume earlier in the year placed those <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/bottlenecks-flare-in-barcelona-as-port-battles-rise-in-transshipment-volumes-5244343">ports under extreme pressure, especially Barcelona</a>, which is a destination port not suited to large transshipment volume. Nador West Med is also earmarked as a maritime bunkering hub for new synthetic energies in the Mediterranean, including e-methane and e-methanol that will fuel CMA CGM’s growing fleet of dual-fuel LNG and methanol vessels. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM said Tuesday it has signed a joint venture deal with Moroccan port operator Marsa Maroc to equip and operate half the Nador West Med container terminal near the Gibraltar mouth of the Mediterranean. It is the second major port investment the Marseilles-based carrier has made recently after paying $1.2 billion last month for a majority stake in Brazil’s largest terminal operator Santos Brasil. Rodolphe Saadé, chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, said in a statement Morocco was positioning itself as “a strategic logistics and port hub with strong growth potential.” “The partnership we are entering into with Marsa Maroc marks a key step for the CMA CGM Group, strengthening our presence through the Nador West Med container terminal,” Saadé said. ”Our ambition is to support the country’s development, particularly in the forward-looking sectors of logistics and alternative energies,” he added. The joint venture covers one-half of the Nador West Med container terminal, giving CMA CGM control of 750 meters of quay with a maximum draught of 18 meters, in addition to 35 hectares of an adjacent container yard. Within the framework of a 25-year sub-concession, CMA CGM and Marsa Maroc will jointly invest $280 million into the terminal with the aim of achieving annual output of 1.2 million TEUs. CMA CGM did not provide a timeframe for when that volume target would be reached. CMA CGM has had a long-standing presence in Morocco. Through its subsidiary Terminal Link, the carrier owns 100% of a Casablanca terminal and a 40% stake in the Eurogate Tangiers terminal. “This is a clear strategic path for many of the carriers that need to ensure they have access to terminals they own to avoid supply chain disruption,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, told the Journal of Commerce Tuesday when commenting on the deal. “Interesting to see CMA CGM being more aggressive in this area, but it fits well with a strategy to build up transshipment capacity in Morocco,” Sand added. West Mediterranean terminals have become important transshipment hubs for cargo destined for southern Europe. With the Red Sea mostly unavailable to commercial shipping amid ongoing militant attacks, southern Europe and East Mediterranean cargo is offloaded in terminals at ports such as Tanger Med, Algeciras and Barcelona for onward shipment. Surging volume earlier in the year placed those ports under extreme pressure, especially Barcelona , which is a destination port not suited to large transshipment volume. Nador West Med is also earmarked as a maritime bunkering hub for new synthetic energies in the Mediterranean, including e-methane and e-methanol that will fuel CMA CGM’s growing fleet of dual-fuel LNG and methanol vessels. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

CMA CGM shores up West Med transshipment capacity with Moroccan JV

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The completion of initial clearance improvements allows CSX to operate double-stack rail service on a temporary route from Baltimore along its network in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and into the Midwest. </div>

The completion of initial clearance improvements allows CSX to operate double-stack rail service on a temporary route from Baltimore along its network in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and into the Midwest.

<div class="phx-topic">CSX Transportation has begun double-stacked intermodal service out of the Port of Baltimore after completing the first round of tunnel and track improvements from the port that will ultimately boost Baltimore’s current container handling capacity by one-third. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement Monday the start of double-stacked rail operations from Baltimore comes after the completion of vertical clearance improvements at rail bridges north of the port as part of the Howard Street Tunnel Project. The $466 million Howard Street project, which began in 2022, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/federal-grant-boost-baltimores-dock-rail-capacity_20220601.html">consists of raising tunnels and bridge clearances and lowering tracks along 22 locations on CSX tracks between Baltimore and Philadelphia</a>. The most complex part of the project involves raising the height of the 1.7-mile Howard Street tunnel. Moore’s office said the completion of the first clearance improvements allows CSX to operate double-stack rail service on a temporary route from Baltimore along its network in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and into the Midwest until the work is complete in 2026. Baltimore has the shortest rail track mileage into Chicago from major East Coast ports. “This is a significant milestone for intermodal rail service between Baltimore and Midwest markets and wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing collaboration between our federal, state, and local project partners,”CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said in the statement. Once the Howard Street project is fully complete, the double-stacking capability is expected to increase business at the port by approximately 160,000 containers annually. During the 12-month period ending in September, Baltimore handled 457,566 containers, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. The Seagirt Marine Terminal, which has nominal capacity of 800,000 TEUs annually, is <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/new-msc-backed-baltimore-container-terminal-on-track-for-2028-debut-5220430">undergoing a densification project that will allow it to handle 1.2 million TEUs annually</a>. The Howard Street project will also allow double stacking of containers on intermodal service from Baltimore’s proposed Sparrows Point Container Terminal. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CSX Transportation has begun double-stacked intermodal service out of the Port of Baltimore after completing the first round of tunnel and track improvements from the port that will ultimately boost Baltimore’s current container handling capacity by one-third. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement Monday the start of double-stacked rail operations from Baltimore comes after the completion of vertical clearance improvements at rail bridges north of the port as part of the Howard Street Tunnel Project. The $466 million Howard Street project, which began in 2022, consists of raising tunnels and bridge clearances and lowering tracks along 22 locations on CSX tracks between Baltimore and Philadelphia . The most complex part of the project involves raising the height of the 1.7-mile Howard Street tunnel. Moore’s office said the completion of the first clearance improvements allows CSX to operate double-stack rail service on a temporary route from Baltimore along its network in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and into the Midwest until the work is complete in 2026. Baltimore has the shortest rail track mileage into Chicago from major East Coast ports. “This is a significant milestone for intermodal rail service between Baltimore and Midwest markets and wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing collaboration between our federal, state, and local project partners,”CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said in the statement. Once the Howard Street project is fully complete, the double-stacking capability is expected to increase business at the port by approximately 160,000 containers annually. During the 12-month period ending in September, Baltimore handled 457,566 containers, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. The Seagirt Marine Terminal, which has nominal capacity of 800,000 TEUs annually, is undergoing a densification project that will allow it to handle 1.2 million TEUs annually . The Howard Street project will also allow double stacking of containers on intermodal service from Baltimore’s proposed Sparrows Point Container Terminal. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Intermodal providers

First track improvements allow CSX to double-stack containers from Baltimore

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A stronger manufacturing recovery is needed to increase demand in both the truckload and LTL sectors, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast. </div>

A stronger manufacturing recovery is needed to increase demand in both the truckload and LTL sectors, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast.

<div class="phx-topic">US trucking demand in the fourth quarter — whether truckload or less-than-truckload (LTL) — is essentially weak, and that isn’t likely to change until US manufacturing output strengthens substantially, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast Thursday. “We’re just not seeing significant signs of a true, meaningful uptick in demand, even if we do have more seasonality,” Jason Miller, Eli Broad professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University said during the peak season trucking outlook webcast. The monthly for-hire trucking ton-mile index Miller produces was down 0.6% year over year in August, the latest month for which data is available. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="6d467649-a5c0-4834-9bf8-3dec9f76e301"></dynamic-object></div>Even after seasonal adjustment to trucking ton-miles data, “we’re coming up flat,” said Miller, who is also a Journal of Commerce analyst. Despite higher US imports in 2024, “we’re not seeing any signs yet of a significant breakout from a demand standpoint.” Similar comments have been made by large publicly owned trucking companies, which over the past week have reported soft demand in their quarterly earnings reports. That makes a strong increase in either truckload or LTL rates unlikely in early 2025. “I don’t expect there to be a real sharp inflection” in truck pricing in the first quarters of 2025, Knight-Swift Transportation Holding CEO Adam Miller said during an Oct. 23 earnings call. “I think it’s somewhat of a grind upwards,” at least for truckload pricing. “Our customers have simply had fewer shipments,” Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) CEO Marty Freeman told investment analysts during his company’s Oct. 23 earnings call. ODFL’s daily LTL shipment count dropped 1% year over year in the third quarter. “Looking at all the data, there’s good reason to expect freight volumes today have reverted back to 2019 levels overall,” Miller told the Journal of Commerce. Truck capacity is higher than in 2019 but trucking employment is heading toward pre-pandemic levels, he said. “You combine those two things and you get a market that’s generally soft,” he said. “It’s a shipper’s market, but you still have seasonality.” That seasonality may tighten the truckload spot market in the last two months of 2024, but not by much, Miller forecast. <h3>LTL capacity shrinks </h3>After <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-ltl-sector-growth-efficiencies-still-fueled-by-loss-of-yellow-5715785">the collapse of Yellow in 2023</a>, LTL capacity is lower than it was in 2019, according to Miller. The failure of the then third-largest LTL provider took 323 terminals and about 19,000 doors of LTL capacity out of the market, and that capacity hasn’t been replaced. “Half of that [Yellow] capacity has not even been sold yet,” Scooter Sayers, founder of Sayers Logistics and a sales executive for Cubiscan, a maker of dimensioning systems, said during the webcast. Yellow recently put <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/yellow-puts-remaining-112-ltl-terminals-on-the-block-5737425">112 terminals up for auction</a>. “I think the LTL carriers are looking at where they want to be five or 10 years down the road but they’re also looking at where the market is right now,” meaning they may not be too eager to bring terminals they’re buying from Yellow online quickly, Sayers said. While companies such as Estes, Saia, XPO and Knight-Swift have reopened former Yellow terminals, others are going to wait “until the time looks better,” Sayer said. “I think LTL capacity is going to double as the market lifts,” when it eventually does rebound. That could happen in the first half of 2025 if the US Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates, Miller said. That could drive greater investment in manufacturing and factory output. “Freight volumes are so muted because of the industrial economy,” he said. He cited ongoing weakness in industries such as machine production, fabricated metals, wood products and paper manufacturing. “Paper manufacturing saw a big drop-off starting in the second quarter of 2022, and production is still down almost 10%,” he said. Paper manufacturers are the fourth-largest contributor to US truckload volumes, Miller said. “Paper manufacturing alone generates about seven million truckload shipments a year, as much if not more than all containerized imports,” he said. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

US trucking demand in the fourth quarter — whether truckload or less-than-truckload (LTL) — is essentially weak, and that isn’t likely to change until US manufacturing output strengthens substantially, speakers said during a Journal of Commerce webcast Thursday. “We’re just not seeing significant signs of a true, meaningful uptick in demand, even if we do have more seasonality,” Jason Miller, Eli Broad professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University said during the peak season trucking outlook webcast. The monthly for-hire trucking ton-mile index Miller produces was down 0.6% year over year in August, the latest month for which data is available. Even after seasonal adjustment to trucking ton-miles data, “we’re coming up flat,” said Miller, who is also a Journal of Commerce analyst. Despite higher US imports in 2024, “we’re not seeing any signs yet of a significant breakout from a demand standpoint.” Similar comments have been made by large publicly owned trucking companies, which over the past week have reported soft demand in their quarterly earnings reports. That makes a strong increase in either truckload or LTL rates unlikely in early 2025. “I don’t expect there to be a real sharp inflection” in truck pricing in the first quarters of 2025, Knight-Swift Transportation Holding CEO Adam Miller said during an Oct. 23 earnings call. “I think it’s somewhat of a grind upwards,” at least for truckload pricing. “Our customers have simply had fewer shipments,” Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) CEO Marty Freeman told investment analysts during his company’s Oct. 23 earnings call. ODFL’s daily LTL shipment count dropped 1% year over year in the third quarter. “Looking at all the data, there’s good reason to expect freight volumes today have reverted back to 2019 levels overall,” Miller told the Journal of Commerce. Truck capacity is higher than in 2019 but trucking employment is heading toward pre-pandemic levels, he said. “You combine those two things and you get a market that’s generally soft,” he said. “It’s a shipper’s market, but you still have seasonality.” That seasonality may tighten the truckload spot market in the last two months of 2024, but not by much, Miller forecast. LTL capacity shrinks After the collapse of Yellow in 2023 , LTL capacity is lower than it was in 2019, according to Miller. The failure of the then third-largest LTL provider took 323 terminals and about 19,000 doors of LTL capacity out of the market, and that capacity hasn’t been replaced. “Half of that [Yellow] capacity has not even been sold yet,” Scooter Sayers, founder of Sayers Logistics and a sales executive for Cubiscan, a maker of dimensioning systems, said during the webcast. Yellow recently put 112 terminals up for auction . “I think the LTL carriers are looking at where they want to be five or 10 years down the road but they’re also looking at where the market is right now,” meaning they may not be too eager to bring terminals they’re buying from Yellow online quickly, Sayers said. While companies such as Estes, Saia, XPO and Knight-Swift have reopened former Yellow terminals, others are going to wait “until the time looks better,” Sayer said. “I think LTL capacity is going to double as the market lifts,” when it eventually does rebound. That could happen in the first half of 2025 if the US Federal Reserve continues to cut interest rates, Miller said. That could drive greater investment in manufacturing and factory output. “Freight volumes are so muted because of the industrial economy,” he said. He cited ongoing weakness in industries such as machine production, fabricated metals, wood products and paper manufacturing. “Paper manufacturing saw a big drop-off starting in the second quarter of 2022, and production is still down almost 10%,” he said. Paper manufacturers are the fourth-largest contributor to US truckload volumes, Miller said. “Paper manufacturing alone generates about seven million truckload shipments a year, as much if not more than all containerized imports,” he said. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

US trucking demand at 2019 levels, constraining rate hikes: analysts

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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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