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The current tight capacity in the container shipping market is helping to shine a light on the mistake some shippers make when playing hardball in contract negotiations with carriers, writes an industry veteran and consultant.

Sources are reporting a “sold-out window” for spot bookings on most services connecting the two trade lanes through a large part of July.

The capacity cuts come as ocean bookings in the eastbound trans-Pacific are climbing sharply because US-based importers who had planned to ship their merchandise during the traditional August-through-October peak season are scrambling to book space early.

The carrier executive said the disruption to shipping schedules caused by vessel diversions around southern Africa has created a “chaotic situation” due to blank sailings, port congestion and skipped vessel calls, especially in Southeast Asia.

The state-owned rail operator believes it can leverage soaring demand for China-Europe rail freight to develop a multimodal service offering underpinned by a strong air cargo network.

The $1.025 billion acquisition gives RXO growth not otherwise available in a weakened brokerage market and narrows UPS’s focus to package deliveries.

US importers are pulling forward orders to avoid potential congestion, but trucking and intermodal networks are still slack, speakers said at the launch of CSCMP’s State of Logistics report.

Cargo flow is improving through Singapore and major Chinese ports, but India’s largest container gateway, Mundra, is straining under rising transshipment volumes, ocean carriers and forwarders say.

Houthi rebels have little incentive to stop attacks even if there is a Gaza-Israel ceasefire, there’s no US appetite to root them out, and a political solution is highly unlikely, according to geopolitical analysts.

Despite sliding breakbulk volumes during the first five months of the year, there are signs that spillover cargo may reappear at the Port of New Orleans thanks to the disrupted global market.

Meeting the European Union emissions reduction targets for transportation will require a significant modal shift in freight from road to the rails over the next few years, but that is being undermined by EU regulations, according to industry groups.

The average US transactional dry-van truckload rate rose “a fraction” above its year-ago level Wednesday, following strong year-over-year gains in spot market volumes, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

With backing from the South Korea government, HMM is deploying more ships to help the country’s exporters weather soaring container rates amid heightened demand for their goods.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is increasing capacity between Asia and the West Coast of Mexico amid surging foreign direct investment by China into Mexico.

How do you build a robust, resilient system in the face of operational and geopolitical disruptions that throw conventional container shipping networks into disarray?

Suspending construction work will allow the Port of Charleston to reopen all three berths in the Wando Welch terminal for two weeks and reduce a backlog of anchored vessels, but ocean carriers should anticipate at least two days of waiting to get a berth once work resumes.

Local forwarders say the rate hikes are partly due to worsening delays at key ports in Brazil, with ongoing construction work closing part of Navegantes and vessel diversions from that port overwhelming other gateways.

Despite a 7.1% unadjusted month-to-month increase in mostly contractual truck tonnage, more data is needed before the American Trucking Associations will call it a “recovery.”

The February decision from the agency said ocean carriers can mandate which chassis to use for carrier haulage business, but not for merchant haulage.

Hapag-Lloyd will be withdrawing from the Indamex service it has operated in conjunction with CMA CGM for decades and will kick off a standalone loop on the route in early August.

The pointed sentiments expressed recently by the ILA are a departure from the low-key, business-like approach to prior negotiations along the East and Gulf coasts, and thus unfamiliar to shippers trying to weigh the risks of labor strife, writes Peter Tirschwell.

With supply chain volatility becoming “permanent,” more companies are taking control of previously outsourced parts of their supply chain, and even offering their own services, according to a closely watched annual report on the state of logistics.

The airline industry is pinning its hopes on sustainable aviation fuel providing a long-term path to net zero, but there will not be enough biofuel to go around, European climate campaigners Transport & Environment have found.

The uneven success of the digital brokerage model suggests that the foundations of the market were harder to disrupt than venture investors first envisioned a decade ago, and maybe even harder than some of the founders of digital brokerages had foreseen.

The market share of loads entering or exiting the port’s Garden City Terminal on train has increased from a year ago as the Georgia Ports Authority grows into a relatively new on-dock rail yard.

Forwarder sources believe that the upcoming weeks could prove challenging for bookings to the US East Coast, given that ONE’s WIN service will have two blank sailings out of India in July.

The longer transits around southern Africa, port congestion at key hubs in Asia and unseasonally strong demand have absorbed all the capacity carriers threw into the major east-west trade lanes early this year.

With vessel space from Asia to the US at a premium amid an early peak season, ocean carriers have been largely successful in implementing the surcharges in June, and some will keep pushing their luck in July.

Produce shipments by weight have dropped in 2024, and that’s helped maintain “adequate” truckload capacity in most parts of the US, the Department of Agriculture said.

This year’s truckload spot rates are hugging the baseline set in 2023 as the freight recession drags on; a major increase seems unlikely anytime soon.

Still, insurers said the difficulties have yet to materialize in a noticeable rise in claims for spoiled cold chain or perishable products.

Measures to mitigate the impact of a potential labor disruption at US East and Gulf coast ports could cause the trans-Atlantic market to follow the same path as the heavily disrupted trades out of Asia.

The ocean carrier joins rivals Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd — all investors in NYSHEX — in using the contract management platform.

CargoSense said the funding will be used to expand its partner ecosystem of integrated management systems and data sources for its shipper customers.

Trade disruption and related congestion, high container rates and tight capacity are pushing shippers to rethink transport modes and make early moves toward revisiting the spillover market seen during the pandemic.

Summer strikes have begun in Europe with a series of walkouts causing significant disruption across the main German and French container ports.

Large Indian industrial importers, relying heavily on China for input products, have complained that despite shelling out exorbitantly high freight rates, vessel space at load ports continues to be problematic.

The International Longshoremen’s Association cited the “massive profits” ocean carriers have booked in recent years to highlight the wage proposal it plans to push in contract talks with employers.

With two new services starting up in the past month, the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma anticipates a rebound in imports from Asia this peak season.

The port is the latest inland location in the western US looking to capitalize on strict regulations in California that are driving up costs for trucking companies.