Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Many shippers have created their own bunker adjustment factors (BAFs), but smaller beneficial cargo owners typically have to accept the BAFs proposed by ocean carriers. However, widespread distrust of the carrier fuel surcharge mechanism may have the effect of pushing more shippers towards coming up with their own BAF formula to have greater control of a process.

In mid-May, top officials from Nepal, led by Nepal Ambassador to Bangladesh Professor Chop Lal Bhusal, visited Banglabandha land port to see the transit route and how the nation’s goods would reach Chittagong and Mongla ports.

China’s government has invested billions in the China-Europe rail network, and volume, propelled by subsidies, has surged. However, those subsidies have created other downsides for shippers and the broader market.

A survey conducted by global shipping consultancy Drewry found considerable unease among global shippers and forwarders ahead of the low-sulfur fuel implementation. Concern was expressed by respondents about ocean carriers’ methods of fuel cost recovery with more than half, 56 percent, stating that they did not consider their service providers’ existing approaches as either fair or transparent.

The port authority, after discussions with rule-implementer the New Jersey Department of Labor, is disseminating detailed information to truckers on the new rules, which the authority believes will have little impact on the drayage fleet and won’t affect many truckers.

Rising transportation costs, the driver shortage, and accompanying rail and barge congestion have created challenging times for Europe’s shippers, to say the least. And then there’s the Brexit summit in two weeks.

Free time periods have been reduced and tariffs for demurrage and detention have increased considerably. Marine terminals and ocean carriers counter that detention and demurrage encourages shippers to pick up and return containers in order to boost cargo fluidity that’s challenged by the larger discharges of mega-ships.

The Rhine-Alpine Gateway is one of Europe’s most important rail routes connecting the Mediterranean ports with the economic heartland of Central Europe, handling half of the trade between northern Europe and Italy via Switzerland.

With 14,000 trucks crossing the UK-EU border every day and 53 percent of UK imports originating in Europe, shippers and logistics service providers are planning for the consequences of lengthy delays at border points should negotiations not result in a Brexit deal.

Set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the bill will discourage retailers and other shippers from contracting with the companies that misclassify drivers by making the beneficial cargo owners jointly liable for any fines assessed on those operators.

The ocean carrier found that existing rules regarding the stowage of dangerous goods cargoes, which create their own oxygen and can’t be extinguished using standard carbon dioxide-based on-board firefighting equipment, to be inadequate and has implemented new procedures across its fleet.

As trade concerns persist, the Maritime Association of Nationwide Shipping Agencies — representing local ship agents — called on authorities to address "still-unresolved" inland logistics challenges faced by ocean carriers and others at Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals.

The new bunker fuel adjustment factors will provide more insight concerning whether ocean carriers can recoup what they argue are increased operational costs for bunker fuel and for meeting the Jan. 1, 2020, low-sulfur mandate.

After being shut down for a week and a half, the Port of Wilmington reopened its gates to truckers on Monday, and the work to reduce and eliminate the backlog of containers from before Hurricane Florence and from vessels discharging since last Thursday continues.

Transshipment trade represents freight transported between an Indian port and an international “hub” port, when direct mainline connections are not available.

Brazil’s weaker currency, an expanding global economy, and enduring international customers should bode well for the port of Santos. But shippers say inefficiency and a lack of renovation are delaying that. Now, a number of shippers’ groups want a different form of port management.

Already chaotic and upended, the Trump administration’s proposed Jan. 1, 2019, 25 percent tariff on imports from China is causing importers to scramble for ocean, truck, and rail capacity — with the next ramification being the warehouse variable: will there be any space after the front-loading of imports?

The Teamsters union, which pushed for the rule change, believes a large proportion of the port’s trucker owner-operators could be found to be employees under the new rule. Truckers say the impact could range from merely creating an “administrative headache," to prompting some to leave the port, and perhaps the industry.

The decision means the price of a chassis in the United States will likely rise by a substantial amount.

Federal Maritime Commissioner Rebecca Dye Wednesday said her investigation into detention and demurrage will chiefly focus on developing uniform definitions and identifying the responsibilities of ocean carriers and marine terminal operators to make boxes accessible during free time.

“Unfortunately, a no-deal scenario is still quite possible,” according to European Council President Donald Tusk. “But if we act responsibly, we can avoid a catastrophe.”

The biggest disruption is for truckers traveling Interstate 95 through the Carolinas. Flooding has shut down most of I-95 in North Carolina, except for a nine-mile stretch.

The law and the complaint suit are the latest salvos in the ongoing dispute between the commission on one side, and on the other the New York Shipping Association and the International Longshoremen’s Association, over the commission’s role at the port. Both sides contend that they are trying to correct problems that can hinder the smooth operation of the port and therefore the cost-efficient flow of shipper’s cargo.

SKIL Infrastructure Ltd. has been interacting with Sri Lankan authorities and officials in New Delhi regarding a strategic collaboration between the two nations for the construction of a multipurpose harbor-cum-industrial zone at Trincomalee.

Estimates on the cost of the container shipping industry meeting the mandate range from $5 billion to tens of billions of dollars, but ocean carriers are uniform regarding one aspect of this substantially higher cost.

The Dubai-based port operator said the transfer of Port de Djibouti SA shares in the terminal joint venture to the government of Djibouti appeared to be an attempt to undermine a new ruling by the English High Court on the increasingly acrimonious dispute.

Neither the employers nor the union are saying what contract terms are being negotiated, other than to say these are “normal contract issues," a maritime employers’ association official said.

Shippers would applaud clarity and uniformity when demurrage and detention is charged and why. Ocean carriers and marine terminal operators, however, argue establishing a uniform definition isn’t as simple as it appears.

To say that the Trump administration’s steel tariffs and quotas have upset the global steel market would be an understatement, as nations who have hit their quotas are scrambling for new markets, and US importers are searching for new sources of affordably priced steel.

Gov. Brown has until Sept. 30 to sign the legislation. The California Labor Commissioner will publish, by Jan. 1, 2019, a list of drayage companies that have failed to pay final judgments they were assessed for labor violations.

It’s not clear whether the petition will survive or not when a final decision is made in December, but shippers' concerns appear to have struck a chord with the federal agency.

Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall late Tuesday evening near Pascagoula with winds of approximately 70 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center reported.

The 2017 emissions inventories for Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland, which were produced by outside consultants, detail steps the ports have taken to reduce both health-risk and greenhouse gas emissions from vessels, harbor craft, trucks, trains, and cargo-handling equipment.

Decades of truck-oriented Brasilia administrations and a bias against rail created a vulnerable trade transport system. The spring truckers’ strike exposed it, and months later trade logistics has yet to recover.

The proposed facility where containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be transferred to intermodal trains would be a boon to beneficial cargo owners and freight transportation interests for several reasons. But there's also a not-insignificant environmental benefit.

The Confederation of Industrial Chambers, which represents more than 120 chambers around Mexico, said the government should hold off enforcing the hours-of-service rules, and it cited several reasons for its request.

A new study by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Management College says the deployment of larger vessels and larger alliances, combined with the historical structure of the port, is leading to a critical rise in the number of inter-terminal transfers, resulting in higher charges to shipping lines, placing the port at a disadvantage.

Almost all shipping industry stakeholders agree that tariffs would raise costs across the transportation landscape, and eventually slow the movement of freight. So why are some US chassis makers asking for a tariff on imported chassis?

Like much of global trade, pent-up demand and emerging market country development, among other economic fundamentals, bode well for the roll-on, roll-off sector’s growth prospects in the immediate years ahead, if the threat of tariffs subsides.

Few debate the enhanced safety on US roads stemming from the electronic logging device (ELD). But what about circumstances the truck driver cannot control, such as an accident that suddenly closes a major highway? Or when equipment breaks down? Proposed reforms address these and more.