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Ports across the continent are struggling to clear bottlenecks as containers stack up in terminals and delay inland and feeder connections.

Multiple sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce have confirmed ongoing negotiations between the two liners covering India’s larger westbound trades to the US East Coast and North Europe.

Freight rate declines coupled with ship supply and cargo demand worries are rippling through the MPV sector.

Despite banking a collective operating profit of about $60 billion in 2024, a worsening supply-demand imbalance could make the next three years difficult for the container shipping industry.

The country’s competition watchdog is reviewing whether DP World’s acquisition of the logistics provider could lead to higher costs for shippers.

The Federal Maritime Commission is looking at areas where ships are having transit troubles with an eye on how US maritime influence can fix those problems.

A commentary published in a Hong Kong state-backed newspaper said the acquisition of Hutchison’s Panama assets by BlackRock and TiL would “Americanize” the canal and cause Washington to restrict Chinese access to the waterway.

Engineering, procurement and construction companies are in a tailspin about the possible withdrawal of suitable ships for project cargoes if the US government’s port call proposal linked to Chinese tonnage is implemented.

Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025–26 service year.

The dizzying pace of the Trump administration’s moves against longtime US trading partners is putting shippers at risk of facing hefty new costs as a result of tariff “stacking.”

But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.

Executives from CSX and Norfolk Southern say that while the market is no longer as strongly pro-shipper as it was a year ago, conditions have yet to shift in favor of rail carriers.

Some analysts see green shoots that could signal higher US freight demand, but those encouraging signs remain fragile in an uncertain economy.

The Cosco Shipping subsidiary recorded another highly profitable year but pointed to growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that will test container shipping in the year ahead.

The Dubai-based terminal operator’s end-to-end supply chain strategy is paying dividends with strategic investment in forwarding services attracting business from high value verticals.

While shippers might have expected ocean carriers to make application programming interfaces widely available by 2025, negative incentives have inhibited that progress.

The National Retail Federation now says it expects a downward shift in the second quarter as importers face challenges from tariffs and elevated inventories in the wake of significant cargo frontloading.

Zim’s decision to keep more capacity available for spot rather than contract business on the trans-Pacific allowed it to capitalize on the expanded deployment of capacity on the trade.

The ability to shift capacity to alternative growth markets combined with a diversified cargo mix will insulate the airline from US moves to target e-commerce imports from China, according to its chairman.

While the 15-month-old Red Sea crisis is ever present, ocean carriers and their customers are also now navigating the vagaries of the trade policies and proposals of the Trump administration.

After raising rates in anticipation of higher volumes, several top carriers have now dropped spot booking rates from West India to North Europe by between $300 and $500 per container, according to freight forwarder sources in Mumbai.

Reshuffling port calls because of a potential Trump administration fee on Chinese-built and -operated ships would place additional strain on the US intermodal supply chain, railroad executives say.

The explosion of logistics software-as-a-service tools is leading shippers to build data foundations that reside outside of their internal systems.

As a top tier of mega carriers has emerged through consolidation and organic growth, so has the need of those carriers to align their dominance on the ocean with capacity at ports.

US-bound spot truck shipments from Canada are shrinking but rates are rising, while Mexico-US spot market shipments outpace pricing, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to return to Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. 

Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships and improved schedule reliability.

While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.

Domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market has risen over the past two quarters, although that resiliency is going to be tested in the months to come, writes analyst Larry Gross.

The visibility market has bifurcated into standalone vendors too small to be captured by Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” report and larger vendors whose platforms extend far beyond what the report evaluates.

The so-called Ocean Shipper Bill of Rights was distributed by the National Industrial Transportation League at the conclusion of the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference.

European governments and the European Commission will carry out regulatory reviews to assess the level of market concentration MSC will have with the planned takeover of Hutchison’s port assets, with divestitures likely on the table.

Across all the terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, average rail dwell times peaked at just under 10 days in October, according to the Pacific Maritime Shipping Association.

The arrival of the first vehicle imports in five years has sparked renewed interest in the country’s auto shipment potential.

The carrier’s investment, announced while its chief executive met at the White House with President Donald Trump, comes amid heightened political sensitivities in the US as far as the container shipping industry is concerned.

Analyst Lars Jensen’s closing message to conference participants planning their supply chains for the coming year is to move slowly and carefully because it will take months before clarity emerges.

DHL group CEO Tobias Meyer recognized that the division’s performance remained lackluster, with the “volatile” gross profit/EBIT conversion rate below DHL’s 35% target.

Major carriers on the India-US East Coast trade are reporting success on their March rate recovery efforts, thanks in large part to recent sailing cuts, prompting some of them to announce even higher increases for next month.

Spot rates soared as the deadline for US tariffs approached this week, and now many shipments are stranded in transit, according to logistics providers.

The head of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told TPM25 that US exports of logs, fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products appear to be slowing due to China’s tariff countermeasures.