Supply chain

As Cosco continues to guide its customers through email transmissions for the booking of cargo, there was good news on Wednesday.

Tariffs on containers are unwarranted and will needlessly raise costs throughout the supply chain, business leaders testifying on Capitol Hill agreed.

Log-Net’s $14.4 million jury verdict provides hope to small logistics providers seeking to defend their proprietary value added, but the case also serves as a note of caution for smaller, growing tech companies.

The expansion is needed to process increasing cargo volumes in the Manaus industrial park, also known as the Manaus Free Trade Zone.

Since Cosco’s overseas operations have not been affected, communication with US offices is able to take place, although at a slower pace, a key Cosco official said Tuesday.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance argues the market share loss is due to cheaper intermodal rail rates, but Prince Rupert says that is not the case — that two other factors are driving its value proposition.

Singapore's local drayage market has historically been highly disorganized and reliant on outdated modes of communication.

It’s now an unavoidable fact that the precautions traditionally taken to avoid container ship fires — such as ensuring that stowage plans comply with dangerous goods guidelines and carriers scan bills of lading for keywords indicating the possibility of misdeclared cargoes — are failing to adequately mitigate the risk to crews, cargoes, and ships.

Shippers and business groups argue the current truckers’ freight rate table is too generous and would increase shipper costs and retail prices by double digits. The truckers’ union wants a fair rate table and said it will strike again if it is not obtained.

Although the impact would be significant elsewhere, one port complex in the United States has the most to lose — and in a big way — by a protracted, major trade war between the world's two largest economies.

After a mixed performance in 2017, Europe’s top breakbulk ports face a complicated 2018, despite above-trend European GDP growth, due to the threat posed by tariffs and the reinstatement of sanctions against Iran.

The question shippers are asking is, “If you see the freight, can’t you let me know where there’s carrier capacity available?”

Pushing data back to users may very well prove to be the pivotal point at which the container shipping industry shifted en masse to portals. But getting to that step will likely require another cultural shift.

The new Panama Canal’s larger locks appear to have hit the shipping industry at the right time, given at least one, and possibly two, global trends in international trade.

The government has set a firm Sept. 30 deadline for all ports and terminals to join the radio frequency identification (RFID) program; a decree allows stakeholders to apply a mandatory RFID user charge of about $2 per container.

The East Coast’s largest port, with the most complex negotiations, has reached an agreement. The International Longshoremen's Association wants all such local agreements to be completed before the master contract that covers the ports on both coasts can be ratified.

Shippers that use the Port of New York and New Jersey may find that Syracuse offers an attractive option once a rail-linked inland port is built. But will its lower rent offset higher logistics costs?

Many experts argue that blockchain technology is tailor-made for container shipping’s international logistics work. But blockchain faces numerous hurdles — the biggest of which may be cultural.

US importers plan to bring in record container volume this peak season, which will translate into an impressive 2018 year-end gain compared with 2017.

Ocean carriers want to avoid being caught up in secondary sanctions that will be imposed by the United States on companies dealing with Iran.

The world’s biggest transport operator sees a combination of fuels and technologies as necessary to meet shipper sustainability goals.

With supply and demand in more of a balance, sector analysts say shippers should expect higher reefer rates.

Better tech and service may be up ahead. A global head of reefer management for a major ocean carrier predicted that shipping is moving toward a “new era of customer focus” with an emphasis on “creating products that actually add value to customers’ supply chains.”

Shippers watching for the way the Federal Maritime Commission rules on a wide variety of issues that affect the movement of cargo may question the quality of analysis and decision making that will result from having just two Republican commissioners on the board, out of a possible five-member bipartisan board.

The suspension decision was implemented after delegates from the National Sindifisco and a politician close to Brazilian President Michel Temer reached an agreement.

A petition calling for a ‘small business’ exemption to the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate has failed, and that means the ELD era has become more entrenched.

Global trade-oriented blockchain solutions are moving from pilot to purported commercial viability in Asia and Europe, as shippers evaluate whether blockchain is something in which they should invest in the short term and which project to back.

The Europe-based ocean carrier has created another specialized, end-to-end cold chain logistics operation, as it works vigorously to establish a stronger foothold in the emerging market economy.

Djibouti’s strategic location on the Gulf of Aden makes the area an important military outpost for several world powers.

Cell phone service providers may soon pull the plug on a key data pipeline underpinning domestic visibility software, but most companies have switched to other location systems. Shippers need to ensure that their providers aren’t overly exposed to this cell phone triangulation data.

Although the truck strike has ended, Brazil’s transportation bottlenecks need a bigger government and private sector fix.

Like the US airline industry earlier, the global container shipping industry has reached a point where cost cutting and mergers will yield little if any additional value. This is the view of a longtime carrier executive, a Maritime Hall of Fame inductee who argues creating value for customers will characterize the current era, with customer service the first visible change area.

Amazon’s new network could help reduce shipper costs, and even aid other transportation providers, as volumes outstrip capacity. But as one might sense, Amazon’s latest play also will affect resources in an already beyond-tight US trucking sector.

Maersk's annoucement that it has used the start-up software provider to build its new e-commerce interface makes two points that all stakeholders in container shipping should note.

Energy prices have risen, lowering the margins of a key supply chain performer, and that has implications for the container shipping industry.

Technology, and in particular visibility and cargo track/trace tech, offers a multitude of benefits, including improved efficiency. But along with a monetary cost/benefit analysis, potential users should ask if they are willing to accept any operational adjustments that will be required to use it.

Industry leaders generally agree that the Goods and Service Tax has tapered the cascading effect of multiple central and state levies on supply chains — and that has resulted in substantial cost and productivity benefits.

Shippers in Argentina, hit Friday by a one-day customs officers' strike in Buenos Aires, had breathed a momentary sigh of relief this week, after truck drivers accepted a 19 percent pay increase and did not strike.

Shared worksheets and manipulatable charts are the standard in trucking logistics, as they are in other sectors, but there is a scenario that would see truckers, shippers, and others abandon them.

Heavy-duty and medium-duty electric trucks from the largest US truck maker will get a workout in applications such as drayage, as a step toward full production.