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Pandemic-born disruption will continue forcing logistics practitioners to rework supply chains in 2022 to deal with ongoing congestion and equipment shortages.

Global vessel schedule reliability remained at a six-year low in November amid the ongoing chaotic market for trans-Pacific shipping.

A sea change in ocean freight rate volatility has precipitated new efforts to drive usage of derivatives, with index providers suggesting there is previously unseen appetite from shippers and forwarders for hedging tools.

Forwarders are raising red flags as a more integrated Maersk becomes better equipped to establish direct relationships with shippers.

Clearing an unprecedented number of low-value shipments driven by cross-border e-commerce will require US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to leverage automation.

Railroads and chassis providers will deploy more than 10,000 domestic chassis next year to reduce supply chain congestion, which in turn should lower demurrage fees.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is seeing more vessels sit longer at anchor as December winds down owing to increasing number of large ship calls.

The Port of Long Beach’s foray into providing cargo data for shippers has to be viewed within a confusing landscape of data providers, including the neighboring Port of Los Angeles.

Extra-loaders carrying spillover cargo are dramatically increasing container imports at the Port of Everett in Washington state.

Shippers are paying demurrage to BNSF Railway in Dallas, Phoenix, and Stockton because there are not enough DCLI chassis to pick up 53-foot containers.

Maersk will significantly expand its Asia Pacific contract logistics and e-commerce footprint in Asia Pacific with its latest multi-billion-dollar acquisition.

Under legislation passed by the House on Dec. 8 and soon to be considered in the Senate, Congress is moving forward on requiring container lines and marine terminals to validate storage fees meeting US shipping law requirements.

In a bid for predictability, shippers are signing up for long-term MPV charters despite rocketing rates fueled by strong cargo demand from traditional customers and freight forwarders managing spillover container cargo.

Futures contracts based on container rates across several major trade lanes will start trading at the end of February on one of the world’s largest financial exchanges.

Port bottlenecks at both ends of the Asia-Europe trade are forcing carriers to cancel sailings even as they increase capacity to compensate for vessels delayed by congestion.

While newbuildings add needed tonnage to the MPV/HL fleet, they will not stave off what sector participants say is a looming capacity shortage.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has made an offer for the largest port and logistics provider on the African continent as it looks to expand on a growing market.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have excess on-dock rail capacity, so they are urging importers to ship more containers via intermodal rail to increase cargo velocity in Southern California.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is temporarily omitting New York-New Jersey from a Suez service to the US East Coast and instead making Savannah the first port of call, citing vessel congestion along the coast.

A White House plan to encourage more trucking companies to recruit drivers via apprenticeships isn’t a short-term fix but may help long-haul carriers find drivers for the long term.

The Port of Charleston has almost cleared the backlog of vessels anchored off the harbor through a coordinated effort with labor, truckers, and ocean carriers to increase the flow of boxes through the Wando Welch Terminal.

The US secretaries of Transportation and Agriculture are urging ocean carriers to bring more ships to Oakland and Portland so agriculture shippers can get their products to market.

A $60 million funding round into LatAm forwarder Nowports continues a trend of late-2021 cash infusions into early-stage logistics startups by big-name investors, including Tiger Global and SoftBank.

FedEx Freight handled higher freight volumes and helped with the delivery of FedEx Ground packages this fall, relying on price hikes and “judicious” network management.

Wan Hai Lines is looking to clear out a backlog of its vessels at anchor or drifting off the ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach after securing a new terminal deal with SSA Marine.

A slight year-over-year decline in imports from Asia in November from near-record volumes a year ago appears to be the result of thousands of containers idled on vessels sitting outside congested US ports.

Once often discounted, general rate increases are going to stick as LTL trucking demand grows faster than capacity.

Convoy’s recent foray into developing technology for use by other brokers hints at a future where freight procurement is centered around platforms where companies complement and compete with one another.

HMM India officials said the carrier plans to use a fleet of eight to 12 vessels with an average capacity of 5,000 TEU on its new service linking the Indian port of Kattupalli with the Far East and Latin America.

CSX has been forced to restrict the movement of containers between Memphis and Charleston due to a lack of dray capacity, the latest in a series of congestion-related issues affecting the port in recent weeks.

After a brutal 12 months of record high rates and all-time low schedule reliability, ocean contract rate trends show shippers are heading for another year of highly elevated transportation costs.

The current surge in imports from Asia is expected to continue for at least the next six months as retailers will use the second quarter for inventory replenishment prior to another early peak shipping season in 2022.

There was a lack of substantial debate in the House before passing major ocean shipping reform legislation even after the ranking member of the maritime subcommittee warned that while he supported the bill, he had reservations.

The current backlog of ships at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex will not be unloaded until well into 2022 as even more containers prepare to head toward Southern California

Congested marine terminals, chock-full warehouses, and chassis shortages are likely to create a high level of supply chain disruptions throughout 2022, experts told JOC’s Port Performance North America webcast.

The growth in air freight on the trans-Pacific to move auto parts, footwear, and apparel has been significant this year as US shippers try to circumvent the ocean congestion that is delaying imports from Asia.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is changing a trans-Pacific service calling on Portland to the East Coast, but the carrier is keeping a stake at the Oregon port via a new shuttle service

Redwood CEO Mark Yeager said the company’s acquisition by a new private equity firm gives the Chicago-based 3PL ammunition to compete in a market that has seen “dramatic consolidation” in 2021.

The diversion of freight from intermodal rail to truck adds miles to import shipments, significantly increasing costs, the Cass Freight Index finds.

The $480 million purchase of the former Port Logistics Group connects seaports more closely to Ryder System’s e-commerce fulfillment network.