Latest news

The National Retail Federation has once again increased its forecast for imports into the 2024 peak shipping season, saying consumer spending remains strong despite geopolitical turmoil and stubbornly high inflation.

The Houston-based company expands to 30 vessels as it takes on management of six Harren Group bulkers and adds two more MPV ships to its fleet.

Changes in container volumes arriving in a particular port are driven by general economic conditions affecting the overall level of imports and the choice of that port as the import gateway for inland regions, writes analyst Larry Gross.

Terminal operators in Vancouver are bracing for a possible strike by railroad conductors and engineers later this month just as the terminals are beginning to experience reduced rail container dwell times.

The strains to the extended container shipping system amid the ongoing Red Sea disruption are showing again, largely due to higher-than-expected demand in Europe and the US for Asia imports.

The Sweden-based home furnishings giant expects the green transport option to reduce CO2 emissions from its Asian imports by 100,000 metric tons.

US rail unions have opposed measures that would allow Mexican crews to take trains across the border because they are reluctant to relinquish jurisdiction on transits within southern Texas.

Clothing imports are rebounding in 2024, but retailers will likely wait for clear signs of demand growth to bring in additional product after a double-digit percentage drop last year.

Group CFO Melanie Kreis would not comment on the near-term freight rate outlook or the likelihood of a modal shift from ocean to air or sea-air caused by supply chain disruptions, including the ongoing vessel diversions to avoid the Red Sea.

A rise in US imports is fueling optimism, especially among ocean carriers, but manufacturing’s malaise is tempering hopes for a broader transportation recovery.

The auditing initiative between the carrier and software vendor OpenEnvoy was kickstarted by CMA CGM’s ZEBOX technology incubator, which connects startups with entrenched logistics partners.

With US manufacturers shrinking their plastics inventories, overseas buyers are taking up an even more important role for North American resins producers.

Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles is already holding twice its normal inventory of rail containers and is draying some of the boxes to a near-dock storage yard to prevent the backlog from interfering with cargo handling operations.

US electronics imports are rebounding after a two-year decline as consumers replace devices purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic with newer products.

The chief executives of BNSF and UP argue that while shareholders judge them on financial metrics, it would be a mistake to shun intermodal business simply because its margins are not as good as hauling other types of freight.

The third-largest US LTL provider is joining competitors renovating and opening terminals acquired from Yellow and expects to complete that work by early 2025.

ONE's West India-North America Express (WIN) service is set to debut at Nhava Sheva with a May 12 call from the ONE Modern.

European importers are shrugging off gloomy economic forecasts, but rising volume out of Asia is putting pressure on available capacity that is already stretched by longer transits around southern Africa.

Sailing the longer voyages around southern Africa has allowed carriers to address their excess capacity challenges, but that is a short-term fix for a problem that is not going away, according to Vincent Clerc.

The tie-up is part of a wider move by individual members of THE Alliance to broaden their respective networks and maintain alliance commitments without adding a replacement carrier to succeed Hapag-Lloyd.

Elevated mortgage rates and inflation continue to drag down new home construction and remodeling activity, two of the major drivers of US household goods imports.

Continued year-over-year contraction in truckload shipments and shipper spending in the first quarter means the next pricing upswing is likely to be slow, rather than sudden.

While the carrier is seeing robust volume gains across its main trade lanes, the transits around southern Africa are absorbing capacity and leading to growing space constraints on routes not directly affected by the Red Sea diversions.

Federal conciliators have tried since March 1 to negotiate a deal between Canadian Pacific-Kansas City, Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters rail conference, without success.

Although electric trucks are improving, the electricity and charging networks needed to power them are not ready, Pitt Ohio’s Taki Darakos told a US House committee.

The jump in spot rates comes as factories in China saw an increase in purchase orders in April while strong US imports are expected to continue into May.

Container lines, which normally operate six weekly services connecting to Baltimore, have begun accepting bookings for shipments to the port as it eyes a reopening later this month.

While Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a terminal expansion deal at Brunswick, it will not be leaving Baltimore, the ro/ro carrier says.

The impact of companies relocating manufacturing to Mexico is beginning to be felt, with Ryder’s freight volumes rising all along the US-Mexico border.

The launch of the new services comes amid an investment boom by Chinese companies in Mexico as part of wider US nearshoring efforts that include Central and South America.

The split recommendation from the influential proxy research firm comes one day after Glass Lewis recommended ousting Alan Shaw and COO John Orr.

John Urban spent a year as chairman and CEO trying to salvage Slync, the logistics automation platform negatively impacted by the high-profile legal saga of its founder Chris Kirchner.

One forwarder that had a recent cargo sail from Mundra complained that loading was only confirmed subject to the additional charges being paid.

Ocean carrier reporting season is off and running and, as expected, the diversion of ships around southern Africa to avoid attacks in the Red Sea is playing a leading role in the financials.

Biomethane and biomethanol-based fuels suitable for shipping and produced outside Europe may not receive automatic certification within the European Commission’s gaseous fuel database to be released in November.

The spread between spot and contract ocean freight rates has widened amid fewer voyages from Asia to Europe due to the longer transit times around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

Project cargo shippers are pivoting and rethinking their supply chain strategies as global turmoil becomes the norm in a post-pandemic breakbulk market.

So-called “gray” pools in Kansas City, Memphis and St. Louis will stop operating on May 1 after ocean carriers and chassis providers pulled their support in the last 12 months.

While oil and gas investment will play a large role throughout the energy transition, renewables investment will dominate by 2030, according to S&P Global.

The visibility product, called Live Position, is the first service offered as part of the carrier’s 2022 investment to equip its entire box fleet with location-tracking hardware.