Supply chain

Heeding requests from the third-party logistics providers community involved with container freight stations, the customs agency put aside a decree restricting storage of direct port delivery containers left uncleared by consignees at the wharf, to a single, port-designated off-site depot, and instead reopened that business to all storage yards in and around the port.

After a container is unloaded from a vessel to the yard, the Chittagong Port Authority lets shippers store the container in the yard for free for four days; on the fifth day, storage rent is charged.

The new system, which begins in August, pending Federal Maritime Commission approval, assesses a flat fee on all day and night container moves, requires an appointment, and is a response to complaints from beneficial cargo owners and truckers about the high price of the traffic mitigation fee and truck bunching at certain times of the day.

Can deep, wide, sophisticated supply chain visibility help shippers ‘create’ capacity and control rising costs?

Increasing customer demands and the need for more flexible supply chains means the warehouse of the e-commerce era will do much more, and also achieve more for businesses.

The strike, owing to a pay and benefits dispute with Brazil's federal government that dates to November, has increased dwell times at the port to seven days, with some shippers facing up to 14-day delays.

In 2017, the strengthening global economy increased business volumes and freight rates — boosting Top 50 third-party logistics providers’ revenue, while fueling niche mergers and acquisitions.

A bill before the California Legislature that would make beneficial cargo owners share in liability for paying wages, fines, and damages to misclassified harbor truck drivers draws Teamsters support and California Trucking Association opposition.

Despite a 28 percent increase in container volume in the first quarter, Prince Rupert today is fluid. The port predicts continued fluidity through peak season even with continued double-digit growth, but beneficial cargo owners are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Shippers tracking the Maersk-IBM blockchain project to see if it yields real benefits in helping them monitor cargo movement could soon get a glimpse of whether it does. But they can also expect trucking rate increases and no near-term resolution to the problem of getting truck capacity.

The warning follows reports that Djibouti is working with other parties at the disputed Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT), a move DP World said would violate its exclusivity rights. Further, DP World said it has started new arbitration proceedings at the London Court of International Arbitration to settle the DCT issue with the government of Djibouti.

Full enforcement of the electronic logging device mandate began April 1, but inspectors issued a slew of violations in early 2018, federal data show.

Argentina’s economy and international trade volumes have disappointed economists and analysts for a decade, but current economic and related conditions suggest that the South American country is headed for a sustained period of economic and trade growth.

Europe’s automotive logistics sector is on a roll. Volumes are rising across the supply chain, and with the strengthening EU and US economies, 2018 should prove to be a year of continued sector growth. However, concern about a possible trade war and Britain’s complex exit from the European Union are two trade storm clouds.

Regarding international logistics, it is clear and easy to note that new digital forwarders have several advantages. But what is often overlooked is that legacy forwarders have certain advantages too.

Dubbed an Uber-like, on-demand operation, the new, streamlined logistics solution will have digital capabilities and will involve well-defined standard operating procedures at each terminal to ensure efficiency.

Digitalizing the forwarding business will improve efficiency and automate repetitive functions, but transporting containerized cargo across continents will always require a human touch, key industry decision makers argue.

Neither country has listed a deadline for tariff implementation, hence the situation remains dynamic and fluid. However, key analysts are formulating worst-case scenarios.

The year is off to a good start in terms of air cargo volume, but the trade dispute between the United States and China is making confident predictions for 2018 difficult.

Yilport, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mississippi State Port Authority in February, is promising to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the state’s Port of Gulfport, which it says has the potential to feed volume, particularly refrigerated goods, between Gulfport and Yilport terminals in Ecuador and Peru.

By partnering with digital marketplace NEXT Trucking, MOL Consolidation Services looks to link Asian vendors with scarce US truck capacity.

Steel and aluminum are important cargoes at US ports on the Gulf, East, and West coasts and the Great Lakes.

US truck capacity may get worse before it gets better, as electronic logging device enforcement begins this month with anywhere from 10 to 25 percent of drivers not having the required device in their cabs. Even so, shippers can use tips described here to keep their freight moving with minimal disruption.

Maersk India has substantially expanded its end-to-end cold chain service to and from India, which has enabled domestic reefer shippers to venture into new locales.

Investigators in the inquiry, led by Commissioner Rebecca Dye, have directed carriers to provide detailed information about their detention and demurrage practices; the same is being sought from marine terminal operators.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust finished fiscal year 2017-2018 with record volume, but it will have to increase productivity more and deploy an enhanced shipper outreach effort to take full advantage of the 2.4-million-TEU capacity addition from PSA International’s new Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals.

Shippers worried that the launch of the US Customs and Border Protection bureau’s (CBP's) much-delayed Automated Commercial Environment system could disrupt cargo flow can take comfort from the CBP’s conclusion that the launch went off without a major incident, and is operating as it should.

West Coast ports have taken the lead in breaking down the barriers to information sharing by establishing information portals that will allow all port users to access the shipment data they need in a secure environment. This development promises to accelerate productivity.

There has been little progress regarding the Trump infrastructure plan, but shippers will benefit from $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant funds appropriated in the current federal budget — triple the amount of last year. Lawmakers have also expressed a commitment to pass a Water Resources Development Act bill in 2018 for port dredging projects to enable them to handle larger vessels.

Shippers could find their cargo severely disrupted at the Port of New York and New Jersey if a ban on pre-2007 trucks goes into effect, according to a letter by the New York Shipping Association and several trucking groups that criticizes an effort by two congressmen to revive the ban.

After six years of losses, the container shipping industry ended 2017 with a profit of about $7 billion. Financial reports of the 13 carriers do show improvement but do not yet reflect a full recovery — a recovery that should continue in 2018, given the strengthening global economy, unless political issues intervene.

Shippers should be aware that there are anecdotal reports that questionable forms of co-brokering or double brokering are on the rise in 2018, as the supply of US trucks tightens and some brokers look to make a quick buck. During these instances, shippers essentially fund a double commission and could be exposed to financial damages, delays or lawsuits when things go wrong.

The central portal is designed to handle delivery orders, transport orders, gate open cut-off times, delivery gate schedules, gate-in bookings, and pre-gate schedules electronically, instead of in hard-copy form — an existing system that entails long delays and lacks shipment visibility.

As the electronic logging device mandate enforcement deadline looms, Trucker Path and Convoy have introduced new features to help truckers and shippers manage driver time in the digital era.

Kerry Logistics will focus on the cross-border e-commerce sector where the Hong Kong-listed third-party logistics provider is seeing strong demand.

In theory, blockchain has the potential to enable global container carriers to create a universal, standardized, ledger system with many more efficient processes. The question is whether carriers who are fierce competitors and who do not trust each other can use a system in which trust is integral.

Here is a directory of more than 175 warehousing service providers across the United States.

PierPass has its supporters and detractors, but port users agree that the largest US gateway could not handle 17 million TEU per year without a regular schedule of night and weekend gates.

China’s planned tariffs will initially affect US containerized exports, but an escalation could produce a wider impact.