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An economic partnership agreement signed earlier this year between India and the United Arab Emirates is driving new trade opportunities, prompting ocean carriers to boost service between the two countries.

The unprecedented infusion of cash into supply chain technology development over the past two years was akin to putting the sector on a diet of steroids, writes JOC analyst Lars Jensen.

The Senate measure ends the threat of a country-wide rail strike that could have begun Dec. 9, crippling cargo movement in the midst of the holiday season.

The short-line rail operator for the Port of New Orleans has received a state grant that will fund a new transload facility offering faster access to major highways.

Several US truckload shippers say they are leery of using the spot market because they wish to maintain strong relationships with their trucking partners rather than be seen as transactional when the market flips in favor of carriers.

Freight rates in many eastbound trans-Pacific service contracts have been renegotiated lower as carriers seek to prevent customers from bailing on them to take advantage of plunging spot rates.

Months of negotiations by Europe Union executive bodies over how shipping will be included in the Emissions Trading System have ended in agreement, with member states to have the final say in mid-December.

The Port of Houston, citing technology problems, is postponing the start date of a new fee that would penalize shippers who don’t retrieve import containers after the allowable free time.

The US House of Representatives has waded into ongoing rail negotiations, passing a bill to prevent a potential strike and a second resolution that would give workers seven paid sick days.

All supply chains converge at the marine terminal, so facilitating and protecting fluidity through the terminal is the key to unlocking broader supply chain effectiveness, writes JOC’s Peter Tirschwell.

OneRail has channeled the need for shippers to access final-mile capacity and service level consistency into a large venture capital funding round.

Sharply falling rates and demand signal an end to the extreme profitability enjoyed by carriers over the last two years, according to analysts.

TradeLens’ failure to gain traction after four years was due to several factors, not least of which was trying to convince ocean carriers and their customers to provide sensitive data to a technology platform partly owned by Maersk.

Vessel on-time performance to US ports continued to improve in October, although carriers in the eastbound trans-Pacific underperformed global schedule reliability.

Trade groups representing railroads and shippers are confident Congress will act to prevent a potential strike in December, but that is not stopping them from discussing the stakes involved.

South Korea’s government took the unprecedented step of ordering some of the striking truckers back to work Tuesday, although strike organizer Cargo Solidarity said it would defy the order.

The ability of ocean carriers to manage their growing supply of excess capacity is becoming weaker by the week as supply chain bottlenecks ease and global economic headwinds strengthen.

The South Atlantic Chassis Pool 3.0 has received federal approval and should launch officially in 2023, but it will face a daunting challenge satisfying rising demand as discretionary cargo shifts from the West Coast to East Coast ports.

US-based MPV operator Intermarine is expanding into Asia and Europe via a partnership with Thailand’s WeShip.

Newly launched ocean carriers Kalypso and Ellerman are debuting trans-Atlantic services for US shippers that want to bypass the delays and congestion seen over most of 2022.

Central America and Caribbean trade has largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to healthy peak season demand, but port congestion and labor issues continue to cause intermittent delays.

CMA CGM continued its run of extreme profitability in the third quarter, strengthening its already solid balance sheet and slashing debt levels, but it warned that economic headwinds are strengthening.

Retailers that have seen final-mile costs more than double during the pandemic are increasingly making investments in their last-leg delivery networks.

If there’s one lesson from the pandemic, it’s that working to ensure efficient container flow through US ports during sustained cargo surges must be the highest priority, whether it’s achievable or not, writes JOC’s Peter Tirschwell.

The expanding platform provided by shippers seeking green transport has allowed Maersk to ramp up its ocean sustainability efforts, with greening landside logistics the next target.

Forwarder Kuehne + Nagel is receiving new freighter capacity as global demand wanes and rate levels tumble through a non-existent peak season.

The resumed service at India’s VOC comes as the port has embarked on a raft of new infrastructure projects to position itself as an alternative transshipment hub to Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port.

Drought is keeping the Mississippi River at historically low water levels, tying up barge capacity and extending the southbound grain season.

The highs for the container shipping industry, as measured by profits and pricing power, hit atmospheric levels, raising questions of just how steep a fall is in store.

The cargo surge that began with the COVID-19 recovery in mid-2020 forced US ports to develop a new playbook to cope with the unprecedented port and inland supply chain congestion that resulted, according to APM Terminals.

Europe’s executive bodies head into their final round of negotiations to set the parameters governing shipping’s inclusion in the regional Emissions Trading System with industry stakeholders watching closely.

The fund is one of several measures taken by South Korea’s government to help the country’s shipping sector weather the downturn in container trade.

Lawmakers in Washington will face pressure to bridge the divide between rail labor and management because any job action could snarl supply chains in the weeks leading up to end-of-year holidays.

The Port of Mobile’s breakbulk dockworkers will go ahead with a strike against stevedoring firm CSA Equipment after a month-long cooling period failed to produce a new contract.

Union Pacific Railroad will no longer cap storage fees at seven inland ramps beginning next week, citing declining import volumes on the West Coast that has restored more typical cargo flow.

Richard Lidinsky, a former chairman for the US Federal Maritime Commission, leaves a legacy of agency reform whose work echoes through the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.

Canada’s transport regulator has introduced a new bill that would give the government more authority to monitor port activity and address rail issues faster.

Maersk and MSC have suspended a trans-Pacific US East Coast service as freight rates and volumes continue to slump as 2022 winds down.

Growing uncertainty over demand levels and falling rates is making longer-term traditional air freight block space agreements unattractive.

While a stabilization of rates on the trades out of India was always in the cards, the speed at which the market turned has caught carriers off guard, says the head of the country’s container shipping lobby group.