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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Commerce Department will push ahead with an anti-dumping duty on Chinese-built marine chassis, which would raise prices on equipment at a time when there are dislocations and shortages in several US ports and rail hubs.</div>

The Commerce Department will push ahead with an anti-dumping duty on Chinese-built marine chassis, which would raise prices on equipment at a time when there are dislocations and shortages in several US ports and rail hubs.

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<div>The US Department of Commerce will formally move ahead with an almost 40 percent duty on Chinese-made chassis, a move that would significantly raise acquisition costs for chassis providers just as an Asian import surge makes the equipment scarce.The 38 percent duty has been collected since Dec. 28 when Commerce issued a preliminary recommendation. In its move to make the duty official, the agency also said it was raising the amount to 39.14 percent.Still, the US International Trade Commission (ITC), which heard testimony from interested parties on Tuesday, has the final say on whether the duty will remain in place....

The US Department of Commerce will formally move ahead with an almost 40 percent duty on Chinese-made chassis, a move that would significantly raise acquisition costs for chassis providers just as an Asian import surge makes the equipment scarce. The 38 percent duty has been collected since Dec. 28 when Commerce issued a preliminary recommendation. In its move to make the duty official, the agency also said it was raising the amount to 39.14 percent. Still, the US International Trade Commission (ITC), which heard testimony from interested parties on Tuesday, has the final say on whether the duty will remain in place. If enacted, US chassis providers such as TRAC Intermodal, DCLI, Flexi-Van Leasing, Milestone Equipment Holdings, and Triton could face additional costs of $6,000 to $10,000 for each chassis manufactured by China International Marine Containers (CIMC), once CIMC passes on the extra costs it incurs at the US border. The Chinese company produces about 35,000 to 50,000 chassis annually, it has said previously. The 39.14 percent anti-dumping duty would be placed on top of the 25 percent tariff previously imposed under the Trump administration unless the ITC reverses the decision. For a $10,000 chassis, the anti-dumping duty would add another $3,914 to the cost, on top of the $2,500 tariff. CIMC has been paying the anti-dumping duty since the Commerce Department issued the preliminary 38 percent recommendation Dec. 28, but it has been held in an escrow account until the final decision. If the updated 39.14 percent is upheld, the US Customs and Border Protection will collect the money. If the duty is overturned, CIMC would receive a refund. The Coalition of American Chassis Manufacturers has argued that CIMC has undercut the market with low-cost chassis, unfairly driving US-based Cheetah Chassis, Hercules Chassis, Pratt Industries, Pitts Enterprises, and Stoughton Trailers out of the chassis business. The Commerce Department agreed in its Mar. 16 determination , but the ITC will make the final decision. The commission will vote April 13 on whether US businesses have been “materially injured” or not. A ruling explaining the vote will be published April 29 and an official order issued May 6. Robert DeFrancisco, an attorney from Wiley Rein representing the US chassis companies, said there is clearly an injury to US makers. “The evidence on the record that the International Trade Commission collected demonstrates that not only are those (Chinese) chassis subsidized, but they undersell the domestic industry by a wide margin,” he told JOC.com. CIMC testified during the 25 percent tariff investigation that it’s not owned by the Chinese government, doesn’t undercut the market, and makes a better product than US manufacturers. The duty, if enacted, would not only force US chassis providers to pay more, but also hit draymen, importers, and exporters who want to build a private fleet to hedge against chassis pool shortages. Can US companies feed the growing chassis appetite? The duty debate comes as there is a chassis shortage in Southern California, which Tioga Group founder Daniel Smith called “a genuine crisis” in March 16 testimony before the ITC. Frank Katz, chairman of Cheetah Chassis, argued that there is no shortage, saying instead chassis are “stuck” in the wrong port or location. Photo credit: Nicholas Carbone/Flickr. TRAC Intermodal, one of the top three US chassis providers, said supply is a problem, noting US manufacturers cannot satisfy urgent needs in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Memphis, and the Port of New York and New Jersey. "We do not import chassis from China and elsewhere because they are cheaper as a result of dumping or subsidies. We import chassis because we have to, we have no choice,” Val Noel, chief operating officer of TRAC Intermodal, told ITC during the Tuesday hearing. “I have lost track of how many times our company has gone to a US producer seeking 800 or more chassis within the next two or three months only to be told by the manufacturers it can only supply a portion of the requested chassis. Who can do business on that basis?" But Bob Whalin, CEO of Stoughton Trailers, testified before the ITC that his company will be able to produce at least 10,000 chassis annually beginning later this year, and more if the anti-dumping duties are upheld. DCLI has begun talks for US manufacturers to build chassis, but emphasized it wants well-built equipment in large quantities at a reasonable price. “Precisely when new chassis are scarce, these investigations threaten extremely high tariffs on top of the existing 25 percent tariff,” Mike O’Malley, DCLI’s senior vice president of government and public relations, told the ITC. “The intermodal supply chain is already stretched thin, and we need your help to ensure we can do our part to support the economic recovery that everyone so desperately seeks.” Frank Sonzala, CEO of CIE Manufacturing, likened the latest developments to a “10 round heavyweight battle,” telling JOC.com that “we’ve lost a couple rounds, but it’s not over.” CIE Manufacturing is the US-based division of CIMC, with construction plants in South Gate, California, and Emporia, Virginia. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @arijashe .

Commerce Department moves ahead with duties on Chinese chassis

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The canal agency highlighted data that refutes Trump administration claims about unfair treatment at the waterway, while the International Chamber of Shipping said freedom of navigation is a global responsibility. </div>

The canal agency highlighted data that refutes Trump administration claims about unfair treatment at the waterway, while the International Chamber of Shipping said freedom of navigation is a global responsibility.

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<div class="phx-topic">The agency in charge of the Panama Canal is pushing back against claims by the US Federal Maritime Commission that it discriminates against US waterborne commerce and says Chinese ownership of nearby ports has no bearing on ship transits through the waterway. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) delivered the comments Tuesday in response to the FMC’s review of “<a href="https://www.joc.com/article/fmc-probes-ocean-chokepoints-as-trump-looks-to-rule-the-waves-5962937">international maritime chokepoints</a>” that will be included in its next report to Congress. Along with probes into six other major shipping lanes, the FMC highlighted the Panama Canal’s “geopolitical importance,” adding that it is “crucial to the interests of the United States.” In response to any unfair treatment in waterborne commerce, the FMC said the US could deny the entry of ships registered to countries “responsible for creating unfavorable conditions.” The canal has become the subject of renewed interest in the US after President Donald Trump called the 1977 treaty giving Panama control of the canal a “rip-off” and urged “taking back” that control. Trump also alleged <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/panama-canal-transit-data-belies-trumps-claims-of-chinas-control-project44-5948559">China has gained influence over canal transits</a> and that the US vessels pay higher tolls than those of other countries. “No conditions exist at the Panama Canal, and no actions have been taken by the ACP in administering the canal, that discriminate against the United States, US interests, or global maritime trade involving the United States,” the ACP said. The agency’s comments cited language in the 1977 treaty that required the canal to be operated as a neutral waterway open to ships from any country. Panamanian law gives the ACP sole authority over the canal, relieving it of any political pressure from the Panamanian government. A separate treaty between the US and Panama gives navy ships of both countries’ priority transits during emergencies. While US naval vessels do pay transit tolls, they do not have to pay the reservation fees that commercial ships pay. Since canal ownership was officially transferred in 1999, the US Navy has paid about $1 million per year in canal tolls, according to the ACP, with US warships accounting for less than 1% of vessel traffic during that time. ACP also said there is no discrimination against US commercial shipping, citing data that shows 75% of the cargo going through the canal originates or ends in the US. The flag registry of ships going through the canal also doesn’t indicate any favoritism, the ACP said. <h3>FMC should follow ‘legal norms’ </h3>Part of Trump’s claims about Chinese influence over the canal stems from <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/hutchison-to-delay-panama-ports-deal-signing-amid-growing-beijing-pressure-5971728">Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison operating two nearby marine terminals</a>, which are now part of <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/hutchison-deal-shows-thirst-of-big-carriers-to-control-global-terminal-assets-5960717">a possible acquisition</a> by US investment fund BlackRock and Terminal Investment Limited, a unit of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC). The ACP noted Hutchison’s port concessions are granted by Panama, which also granted concessions to US, Taiwanese and Singaporean operators. Moreover, the ACP said there is no requirement for ships to stop at the Hutchison terminals and there is no evidence the Hutchison terminals are favoring one nation’s ships over another’s. “To the extent concerns have been expressed about the potential for future actions by Hutchison or the government of China, to the ACP’s knowledge those concerns remain hypothetical,” the ACP said. “These concerns contrast with the commission’s regulations, which require a finding that unfavorable conditions do exist before it acts.” As to whether the FMC can take any action over maritime chokepoints, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said in its comments to the agency that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) governs international shipping lanes. While 170 countries have ratified UNCLOS, the US remains a holdout. But the ICS noted that a 1983 policy statement from then-President Ronald Reagan supported the basic outline of UNCLOS. The ICS added that countries surrounding the shipping lanes mentioned in the FMC probe have agreed to ensure safe and neutral transits. The ICS admits there are chokepoints, such as where the Houthi attacks on commercial vessels going into the Suez Canal occur and in Russia’s dominance of the Northern Sea Passage. However, it said the FMC alone is in no position to police those lanes. “While operational and security risks exist in any international waterway, these do not constitute grounds for unilateral action by individual states,” the ICS said. “Any future assessments or policy decisions stemming from the FMC investigation should remain anchored in respect for established international legal norms and multilateral engagement.” Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The agency in charge of the Panama Canal is pushing back against claims by the US Federal Maritime Commission that it discriminates against US waterborne commerce and says Chinese ownership of nearby ports has no bearing on ship transits through the waterway. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) delivered the comments Tuesday in response to the FMC’s review of “ international maritime chokepoints ” that will be included in its next report to Congress. Along with probes into six other major shipping lanes, the FMC highlighted the Panama Canal’s “geopolitical importance,” adding that it is “crucial to the interests of the United States.” In response to any unfair treatment in waterborne commerce, the FMC said the US could deny the entry of ships registered to countries “responsible for creating unfavorable conditions.” The canal has become the subject of renewed interest in the US after President Donald Trump called the 1977 treaty giving Panama control of the canal a “rip-off” and urged “taking back” that control. Trump also alleged China has gained influence over canal transits and that the US vessels pay higher tolls than those of other countries. “No conditions exist at the Panama Canal, and no actions have been taken by the ACP in administering the canal, that discriminate against the United States, US interests, or global maritime trade involving the United States,” the ACP said. The agency’s comments cited language in the 1977 treaty that required the canal to be operated as a neutral waterway open to ships from any country. Panamanian law gives the ACP sole authority over the canal, relieving it of any political pressure from the Panamanian government. A separate treaty between the US and Panama gives navy ships of both countries’ priority transits during emergencies. While US naval vessels do pay transit tolls, they do not have to pay the reservation fees that commercial ships pay. Since canal ownership was officially transferred in 1999, the US Navy has paid about $1 million per year in canal tolls, according to the ACP, with US warships accounting for less than 1% of vessel traffic during that time. ACP also said there is no discrimination against US commercial shipping, citing data that shows 75% of the cargo going through the canal originates or ends in the US. The flag registry of ships going through the canal also doesn’t indicate any favoritism, the ACP said. FMC should follow ‘legal norms’ Part of Trump’s claims about Chinese influence over the canal stems from Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison operating two nearby marine terminals , which are now part of a possible acquisition by US investment fund BlackRock and Terminal Investment Limited, a unit of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC). The ACP noted Hutchison’s port concessions are granted by Panama, which also granted concessions to US, Taiwanese and Singaporean operators. Moreover, the ACP said there is no requirement for ships to stop at the Hutchison terminals and there is no evidence the Hutchison terminals are favoring one nation’s ships over another’s. “To the extent concerns have been expressed about the potential for future actions by Hutchison or the government of China, to the ACP’s knowledge those concerns remain hypothetical,” the ACP said. “These concerns contrast with the commission’s regulations, which require a finding that unfavorable conditions do exist before it acts.” As to whether the FMC can take any action over maritime chokepoints, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) said in its comments to the agency that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS) governs international shipping lanes. While 170 countries have ratified UNCLOS, the US remains a holdout. But the ICS noted that a 1983 policy statement from then-President Ronald Reagan supported the basic outline of UNCLOS. The ICS added that countries surrounding the shipping lanes mentioned in the FMC probe have agreed to ensure safe and neutral transits. The ICS admits there are chokepoints, such as where the Houthi attacks on commercial vessels going into the Suez Canal occur and in Russia’s dominance of the Northern Sea Passage. However, it said the FMC alone is in no position to police those lanes. “While operational and security risks exist in any international waterway, these do not constitute grounds for unilateral action by individual states,” the ICS said. “Any future assessments or policy decisions stemming from the FMC investigation should remain anchored in respect for established international legal norms and multilateral engagement.” Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Panama Canal Authority hits back at FMC ‘chokepoint’ probe as unwarranted

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">On top of the persistent pressure of overcapacity and muted demand, industry sources have also linked the market softening to the historical seasonal pattern of the Indian export trade. </div>

On top of the persistent pressure of overcapacity and muted demand, industry sources have also linked the market softening to the historical seasonal pattern of the Indian export trade.

<div class="phx-topic">The rate slide on the India-Europe trade has continued into May, sending carrier spot quotes to levels not seen since January 2023, according to an analysis of pricing data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from freight forwarders. Average booking prices on the westbound trade, the country’s largest by volume, have dropped by up to $500 per container month on month. Forwarder sources have pegged rates from West India (Nhava Sheva/Mundra) to Felixstowe/London Gateway or Rotterdam at $1,000 to $1,100 per FEU for the lead European carriers, with Asian counterparts quoting even lower. TEU booking rates out of West India stand in the range of $800 to $900 per box, but many carriers have an add-on of $100 to $200 per 20-foot unit in the form of container overweight fees on loads weighing over 22 tons. On top of the persistent pressure of overcapacity and muted demand, industry sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce have also linked the market softening to the historical seasonal pattern of the Indian export trade. “The first quarter (April-June) of a new fiscal year is usually light on volume movement,” said a Mumbai-based forwarder. “Carriers were anticipating rate setbacks, but the hit seems to be harder this time.” <h3>No price rebound expected for months </h3>Additionally, carriers are known to have more loading space or greater stowage flexibility out of India due to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/west-india-container-trade-facing-delays-vessel-skips-after-regional-tensions-6002928">the suspension of direct Pakistan coverage</a>, which for the premier routings, including CMA CGM’s Epic loop, had allocations between 300 to 500 TEUs per week for either Karachi or Port Qasim calls. Industry sources generally do not expect any sort of a measurable rate rebound until July or August as the market navigates a series of uncertainties. “Trade priorities for carriers might change very quickly in the short term, given the anticipation of another cargo rush out of Asia following the temporary tariff truce between the US and China,” a container industry representative who didn't want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “Capacity for India could tighten if some vessels are relocated, which is one of the likely scenarios.” Meanwhile, mainliners continue to rejig their India/Pakistan networks to tie in with the regional trade restrictions. Ocean Network Express (ONE) has effectively converted some of its intra-Asia connections, previously calling both markets, into shuttle operations for Pakistan coverage by removing Indian stops. “ONE has temporarily suspended fresh bookings on the WIN [West India-North America] direct service to/from Pakistan,” the Singapore-based liner said. “In the interim, ONE will provide alternative service coverage through transshipment.” Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

The rate slide on the India-Europe trade has continued into May, sending carrier spot quotes to levels not seen since January 2023, according to an analysis of pricing data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from freight forwarders. Average booking prices on the westbound trade, the country’s largest by volume, have dropped by up to $500 per container month on month. Forwarder sources have pegged rates from West India (Nhava Sheva/Mundra) to Felixstowe/London Gateway or Rotterdam at $1,000 to $1,100 per FEU for the lead European carriers, with Asian counterparts quoting even lower. TEU booking rates out of West India stand in the range of $800 to $900 per box, but many carriers have an add-on of $100 to $200 per 20-foot unit in the form of container overweight fees on loads weighing over 22 tons. On top of the persistent pressure of overcapacity and muted demand, industry sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce have also linked the market softening to the historical seasonal pattern of the Indian export trade. “The first quarter (April-June) of a new fiscal year is usually light on volume movement,” said a Mumbai-based forwarder. “Carriers were anticipating rate setbacks, but the hit seems to be harder this time.” No price rebound expected for months Additionally, carriers are known to have more loading space or greater stowage flexibility out of India due to the suspension of direct Pakistan coverage , which for the premier routings, including CMA CGM’s Epic loop, had allocations between 300 to 500 TEUs per week for either Karachi or Port Qasim calls. Industry sources generally do not expect any sort of a measurable rate rebound until July or August as the market navigates a series of uncertainties. “Trade priorities for carriers might change very quickly in the short term, given the anticipation of another cargo rush out of Asia following the temporary tariff truce between the US and China,” a container industry representative who didn't want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “Capacity for India could tighten if some vessels are relocated, which is one of the likely scenarios.” Meanwhile, mainliners continue to rejig their India/Pakistan networks to tie in with the regional trade restrictions. Ocean Network Express (ONE) has effectively converted some of its intra-Asia connections, previously calling both markets, into shuttle operations for Pakistan coverage by removing Indian stops. “ONE has temporarily suspended fresh bookings on the WIN [West India-North America] direct service to/from Pakistan,” the Singapore-based liner said. “In the interim, ONE will provide alternative service coverage through transshipment.” Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Overcapacity, trade seasonality push India-Europe rates to multi-year low

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The predicted rush to get US imports from China on the water has begun as shippers take advantage of the 90-day cut in tariffs, according to CEO Rolf Habben Jansen. </div>

The predicted rush to get US imports from China on the water has begun as shippers take advantage of the 90-day cut in tariffs, according to CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.

<div class="phx-topic">Hapag-Lloyd on Wednesday said it has seen a 50% increase in bookings from China to the US this week since a preliminary trade deal was agreed to last weekend between the world’s two largest economies. CEO Rolf Habben Jansen told analysts on a first-quarter earnings call that the carrier was handling “a real surge in bookings” as US importers took advantage of a 90-day cut in tariffs following the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/capacity-crunch-beckons-on-eastbound-trans-pacific-after-us-china-deal-6002956">agreement between Washington and Beijing</a>. “We have seen over the last couple of days that bookings have been up more than 50% compared to what we saw over the last four weeks, and they are also up in double-digit percentages compared to the period before the tariffs,” Habben Jansen said. Under the preliminary trade deal reached in Geneva last weekend, the US will cut its tariffs on China from 145% to 30%, while Chinese tariffs on the US will be reduced from 125% to 10%. Trade talks between the two countries will continue during the 90-day pause, with US importers expected to make good use of the lower tariffs during that period. “We expect to see a surge in volume in the upcoming 60 or 90 days, but beyond that it is very difficult to predict and will depend on what kind of agreements will be closed between the US and other countries,” Habben Jansen said. Hapag-Lloyd released its <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/one-makes-big-cut-in-fy-2025-profit-forecast-due-to-economic-uncertainty-5994563">preliminary first-quarter financial results</a> in April and confirmed the numbers with analysts during Wednesday’s earnings call. Revenue for the first quarter was up 15% year over year at $5.3 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 17% to $1.1 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 24% to $487 million and net profit increased 45% to $469 million. The solid start to the year came on the back of a 9% increase in average freight rates to $1,480 per TEU that built on a 9% jump in volume to 3.3 million TEUs that was “the highest year-over-year [volume] growth in many quarters,” according to Hapag-Lloyd CFO Mark Frese. <h3>Withdrawn capacity to return ‘fairly quickly’ </h3>Despite the overall strong result, analysts on the earnings call were focused predominantly on the trans-Pacific trade lane following the China-US trade deal. In April, Hapag-Lloyd said its US bookings were down as much as 30%, a level confirmed by other carriers, with <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/msc-suspends-two-us-services-rejigs-others-as-tariffs-hit-chinese-imports-6000649">several trans-Pacific services canceled</a> amid <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-capacity-cuts-accelerating-amid-sharp-reduction-in-chinese-cargo-5992769">a swathe of blank sailings</a>. As bookings surge, Habben Jansen was asked whether there would be a delay in the return of capacity that had been withdrawn from the trade lane and whether US ports would cope with a sudden increase in volume over the next few months. “I do expect the capacity is going to come back fairly quickly,” he said, noting that the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk did not blank sailings but replaced larger ships on the trans-Pacific with smaller vessels as volume dropped. “Now we will reverse that and from next week we will deploy bigger ships in the positions where over the last couple of weeks we have had smaller ones in,” Habben Jansen added. “I expect that those who put blanks into their schedules will, as the quarter progresses, continue to put ships and services back in.” The CEO was less confident about <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/container-lines-warn-of-congestion-threat-when-asia-imports-rebound-5993793">the ability of US ports to handle the flood of volume</a> that will likely be heading their way. “I’d hope that the ports are going to be disciplined in not accepting too many extra ships, because the last thing we need right now is a massive amount of congestion in the US ports, and some of them are definitely strained,” he said. Hapag-Lloyd’s full-year profitability forecast was left unchanged with EBITDA expected to be between $2.5 billion and $4 billion and EBIT between breakeven and $1.5 billion. However, the carrier added a large caveat, warning that major geopolitical challenges and volatile freight rates left the financial outlook “subject to a very high degree of uncertainty.” <h3>HMM’s Q1 net profit jumps </h3>Meanwhile, another carrier to highlight the volatile nature of container shipping markets was HMM, which also announced a set of solid first-quarter results Wednesday. The South Korean carrier said revenue in the first quarter was up 23% year over year to just over $2 billion, while operating profit rose 51% to $440 million and net profit increased 52% to $530 million. Container volumes handled by HMM in the first quarter increased 4.2% compared with the first three months of last year, to 931,000 TEUs, with the average rate of $1,358 per TEU up slightly year over year. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Hapag-Lloyd on Wednesday said it has seen a 50% increase in bookings from China to the US this week since a preliminary trade deal was agreed to last weekend between the world’s two largest economies. CEO Rolf Habben Jansen told analysts on a first-quarter earnings call that the carrier was handling “a real surge in bookings” as US importers took advantage of a 90-day cut in tariffs following the agreement between Washington and Beijing . “We have seen over the last couple of days that bookings have been up more than 50% compared to what we saw over the last four weeks, and they are also up in double-digit percentages compared to the period before the tariffs,” Habben Jansen said. Under the preliminary trade deal reached in Geneva last weekend, the US will cut its tariffs on China from 145% to 30%, while Chinese tariffs on the US will be reduced from 125% to 10%. Trade talks between the two countries will continue during the 90-day pause, with US importers expected to make good use of the lower tariffs during that period. “We expect to see a surge in volume in the upcoming 60 or 90 days, but beyond that it is very difficult to predict and will depend on what kind of agreements will be closed between the US and other countries,” Habben Jansen said. Hapag-Lloyd released its preliminary first-quarter financial results in April and confirmed the numbers with analysts during Wednesday’s earnings call. Revenue for the first quarter was up 15% year over year at $5.3 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 17% to $1.1 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 24% to $487 million and net profit increased 45% to $469 million. The solid start to the year came on the back of a 9% increase in average freight rates to $1,480 per TEU that built on a 9% jump in volume to 3.3 million TEUs that was “the highest year-over-year [volume] growth in many quarters,” according to Hapag-Lloyd CFO Mark Frese. Withdrawn capacity to return ‘fairly quickly’ Despite the overall strong result, analysts on the earnings call were focused predominantly on the trans-Pacific trade lane following the China-US trade deal. In April, Hapag-Lloyd said its US bookings were down as much as 30%, a level confirmed by other carriers, with several trans-Pacific services canceled amid a swathe of blank sailings . As bookings surge, Habben Jansen was asked whether there would be a delay in the return of capacity that had been withdrawn from the trade lane and whether US ports would cope with a sudden increase in volume over the next few months. “I do expect the capacity is going to come back fairly quickly,” he said, noting that the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk did not blank sailings but replaced larger ships on the trans-Pacific with smaller vessels as volume dropped. “Now we will reverse that and from next week we will deploy bigger ships in the positions where over the last couple of weeks we have had smaller ones in,” Habben Jansen added. “I expect that those who put blanks into their schedules will, as the quarter progresses, continue to put ships and services back in.” The CEO was less confident about the ability of US ports to handle the flood of volume that will likely be heading their way. “I’d hope that the ports are going to be disciplined in not accepting too many extra ships, because the last thing we need right now is a massive amount of congestion in the US ports, and some of them are definitely strained,” he said. Hapag-Lloyd’s full-year profitability forecast was left unchanged with EBITDA expected to be between $2.5 billion and $4 billion and EBIT between breakeven and $1.5 billion. However, the carrier added a large caveat, warning that major geopolitical challenges and volatile freight rates left the financial outlook “subject to a very high degree of uncertainty.” HMM’s Q1 net profit jumps Meanwhile, another carrier to highlight the volatile nature of container shipping markets was HMM, which also announced a set of solid first-quarter results Wednesday. The South Korean carrier said revenue in the first quarter was up 23% year over year to just over $2 billion, while operating profit rose 51% to $440 million and net profit increased 52% to $530 million. Container volumes handled by HMM in the first quarter increased 4.2% compared with the first three months of last year, to 931,000 TEUs, with the average rate of $1,358 per TEU up slightly year over year. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

China-US ocean bookings surge since weekend trade deal: Hapag-Lloyd

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index hit its lowest point since 2014 in the first quarter, but April saw a net gain of 558 active carriers, US data shows.</div>

The Journal of Commerce Truckload Capacity Index hit its lowest point since 2014 in the first quarter, but April saw a net gain of 558 active carriers, US data shows.

<div class="phx-topic">Large US truckload carriers are cutting even more capacity from their truck fleets, trying to reach a balance with demand that stubbornly keeps slipping lower. At the same time, at least one indicator shows the number of active truck fleets is once again rising. Trucking companies that <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-truckload-shippers-hedge-contract-rates-as-carriers-cut-capacity-5998125">promised to cull more trucks</a> kept their pledge, driving the Truckload Capacity Index (TCI) published quarterly by the Journal of Commerce down 0.8 percentage point to 74.9% in the first quarter. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="1c27408c-a4a7-4bbf-84f5-4fe3e53846e0"></dynamic-object></div>The TCI index, which reflects actual truck counts at large publicly owned carriers, has dropped 18.3 percentage points from its mid-2022 peak and hasn’t been this low since the third quarter of 2014. The index is based on a truck count from the 2006 fourth quarter. “Market conditions continue to favor the shipper amidst choppy conditions in the industrial economy,” Frank Lonegro, CEO of Landstar System, told Wall Street analysts during an earnings call Tuesday. “Truck capacity continues to be readily available.” Landstar in the first quarter reduced its truck fleet by 2.5% from the previous quarter and 8.4% year over year. The TCI index dropped 1% sequentially and 5.1% on an annualized basis in the same period. Landstar is one of the carriers included in the index group. “The first quarter is historically the most challenging quarter from a net truck count standpoint,” Lonegro said. “It is typical to incur turnover in BCO [business capacity owner or owner-operator] truck count in a low rate per load environment.” <h3>Incoming capacity </h3>But Landstar continues to add trucks as well, which underscores that truck capacity shouldn’t be viewed just through black and white, up and down lenses. “In the fourth quarter, we added 500 trucks, but we lost 700 trucks,” Lonegro said. “The fact that new folks are coming to us tells us that the model is quite sound and quite resilient,” he said. And new folks are coming into trucking, despite soft demand and low carrier pricing, and drawn perhaps by the prospect of <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariffs-amplify-us-warehousing-demand-disrupt-inland-truck-routes-6001311">pulled-forward US imports</a>. More carriers with active operating authorities entered trucking than left the business in April, with new carrier authorities jumping 48% from March, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data shows. The net number of new authorities in April was 558 carriers. “That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the highest number we’ve had since 2022,” said Avery Vise, vice president for trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence. April was only the fourth period in the past 31 months when there’s been net positive growth, he said. Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight &amp; Analytics, sees a surge in spot market demand in the actual number of loads moved in recent months — a metric he said has increased 17% from February through May, coinciding with pulled-forward freight. As a metric, loads posted are used more often to track volumes and load availability than loads moved or completed transactions, but loads may be posted multiple times on several load boards. That has the potential to obscure or distort underlying trends. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Large US truckload carriers are cutting even more capacity from their truck fleets, trying to reach a balance with demand that stubbornly keeps slipping lower. At the same time, at least one indicator shows the number of active truck fleets is once again rising. Trucking companies that promised to cull more trucks kept their pledge, driving the Truckload Capacity Index (TCI) published quarterly by the Journal of Commerce down 0.8 percentage point to 74.9% in the first quarter. The TCI index, which reflects actual truck counts at large publicly owned carriers, has dropped 18.3 percentage points from its mid-2022 peak and hasn’t been this low since the third quarter of 2014. The index is based on a truck count from the 2006 fourth quarter. “Market conditions continue to favor the shipper amidst choppy conditions in the industrial economy,” Frank Lonegro, CEO of Landstar System, told Wall Street analysts during an earnings call Tuesday. “Truck capacity continues to be readily available.” Landstar in the first quarter reduced its truck fleet by 2.5% from the previous quarter and 8.4% year over year. The TCI index dropped 1% sequentially and 5.1% on an annualized basis in the same period. Landstar is one of the carriers included in the index group. “The first quarter is historically the most challenging quarter from a net truck count standpoint,” Lonegro said. “It is typical to incur turnover in BCO [business capacity owner or owner-operator] truck count in a low rate per load environment.” Incoming capacity But Landstar continues to add trucks as well, which underscores that truck capacity shouldn’t be viewed just through black and white, up and down lenses. “In the fourth quarter, we added 500 trucks, but we lost 700 trucks,” Lonegro said. “The fact that new folks are coming to us tells us that the model is quite sound and quite resilient,” he said. And new folks are coming into trucking, despite soft demand and low carrier pricing, and drawn perhaps by the prospect of pulled-forward US imports . More carriers with active operating authorities entered trucking than left the business in April, with new carrier authorities jumping 48% from March, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data shows. The net number of new authorities in April was 558 carriers. “That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the highest number we’ve had since 2022,” said Avery Vise, vice president for trucking at FTR Transportation Intelligence. April was only the fourth period in the past 31 months when there’s been net positive growth, he said. Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, sees a surge in spot market demand in the actual number of loads moved in recent months — a metric he said has increased 17% from February through May, coinciding with pulled-forward freight. As a metric, loads posted are used more often to track volumes and load availability than loads moved or completed transactions, but loads may be posted multiple times on several load boards. That has the potential to obscure or distort underlying trends. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Large truckload carriers make capacity cuts, but trucks reenter the market

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Technology providers are rolling out artificial intelligence tools to help augment transportation teams and service providers with limited resources. </div>

Technology providers are rolling out artificial intelligence tools to help augment transportation teams and service providers with limited resources.

<div class="phx-topic">The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in applications touching multiple trucking modes continued this week, with fleet software vendor Optimal Dynamics landing a $40 million funding round and drayage software vendor PortPro releasing a set of AI agents. Optimal Dynamics, which helps carriers and private fleets improve a range of functions including network design, dispatching and driver utilization, landed the new funding round on the back of what it called significant growth in revenue and its customer base over the last 12 months. The $40 million investment is the company’s first since a $33 million round in 2022 and brings total investment to $93 million since its founding in 2017. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a venture arm within Koch. Optimal Dynamics, which lists CRST, D.M. Bowman, Halvor Lines, KBX Logistics, Leonard’s Express and Uber Freight as customers, is an archetypal example of the way AI has gradually permeated the truckload world. The company at first had some difficulty selling its vision for using AI to automate strategic and tactical fleet management decisions. But its recent progress has come as the logistics world has more broadly accepted AI’s role in tasks as rote as responding to customer service inquiries and as sophisticated as making decisions on which loads to accept and which trucks to allocate loads to. Optimal Dynamics said use of its tools has led to an average increase of 17% to 24% in weekly revenue per truck. “We’ve demonstrated real impact in trucking — solving critical, high-scale planning challenges — and are now building the foundational decision layer for logistics at large,” CFO Scott Kenerly said in a statement Monday. Optimal Dynamics said the infusion of capital will help accelerate the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities, while scaling its product, support, and sales teams “to meet surging demand for decision automation in logistics.” <h3>Native agents </h3>A more recent trend in AI adoption has come via the form of so-called agents, commonly called agentic AI, where purpose-built agents perform tasks within a system. On Tuesday, PortPro, a transportation management software vendor for drayage operators, said its system now has native AI agents that “allow users to ask operational questions, pull real-time insights, and automate common tasks like updating spreadsheets, checking documents, or sending load updates.” The agents are available via a chat interface within the transportation management system (TMS), where PortPro has already developed a number of pre-built agents, or users can customize agents based on how their team already works. “This isn’t about adding new layers of tech — it’s about removing friction,” PortPro CEO Michael Mecca said in a statement Tuesday. It’s not just transportation providers that are investing in AI. Domestic shippers are also using tools with embedded AI process automation or decision-making agents. Those tools aren’t necessarily transformative, but rather augment transportation teams with limited resources. For example, EVO, an outdoor goods retailer, over the past two years has been using an AI agent from its transportation management software vendor Shipwell to tackle the transportation order creation process. “Anything I can automate or take off our plate is money saved for us,” Vanessa McClain, EVO’s transportation and vendor relations manager, told the Journal of Commerce. “I don’t need it to think for me; I need it to do a task.” The order creation agent within Shipwell, which the software vendor calls Swifty, saves McClain and her team five to 10 minutes per order across the 600 to 700 shipments it moves per year. It also increases the accuracy of those orders, as it eliminates the re-keying of data from email into Shipwell. “We have vendors fill out a routing request form when they have a shipment ready,” McClain said. “With Swifty, we forward that email [to Shipwell] and it creates the order and then we select the carrier as opposed to getting the email from the vendor and hand-keying it into Shipwell.” <h3>Limited resources </h3>Shipwell President Jason Traff noted that transportation departments “aren’t flush with resources.” “If we can replace tasks that are boring ... you can increase the frequency to do other tasks, like checking in with carriers and partners,” he said. Shipwell began developing AI workflow agents to help its customers get more out of the system it provides, with those agents focused on five areas: order creation, documentation classification, shipment updates, appointment scheduling and dynamic quotes. More than a quarter of Shipwell’s customers now use at least one of those agents, Traff said. And the number is growing. “Where established platforms have the advantage is you take this [learning] model and plug it into the system of record,” he said. “You need the ability to hook AI into other things.” The use of Shipwell’s AI agents comes as a flood of standalone agentic AI tools have emerged for shippers, brokers and fleets to use to bolster the bandwidth of their teams. But Traff’s contention is that those agents work better within an existing system as opposed to being deployed on top of an existing system. “A TMS is a store of information that has to be displayed in a certain way to help make good decisions,” he said. “That’s the power of using these agents inside a TMS.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in applications touching multiple trucking modes continued this week, with fleet software vendor Optimal Dynamics landing a $40 million funding round and drayage software vendor PortPro releasing a set of AI agents. Optimal Dynamics, which helps carriers and private fleets improve a range of functions including network design, dispatching and driver utilization, landed the new funding round on the back of what it called significant growth in revenue and its customer base over the last 12 months. The $40 million investment is the company’s first since a $33 million round in 2022 and brings total investment to $93 million since its founding in 2017. The round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a venture arm within Koch. Optimal Dynamics, which lists CRST, D.M. Bowman, Halvor Lines, KBX Logistics, Leonard’s Express and Uber Freight as customers, is an archetypal example of the way AI has gradually permeated the truckload world. The company at first had some difficulty selling its vision for using AI to automate strategic and tactical fleet management decisions. But its recent progress has come as the logistics world has more broadly accepted AI’s role in tasks as rote as responding to customer service inquiries and as sophisticated as making decisions on which loads to accept and which trucks to allocate loads to. Optimal Dynamics said use of its tools has led to an average increase of 17% to 24% in weekly revenue per truck. “We’ve demonstrated real impact in trucking — solving critical, high-scale planning challenges — and are now building the foundational decision layer for logistics at large,” CFO Scott Kenerly said in a statement Monday. Optimal Dynamics said the infusion of capital will help accelerate the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities, while scaling its product, support, and sales teams “to meet surging demand for decision automation in logistics.” Native agents A more recent trend in AI adoption has come via the form of so-called agents, commonly called agentic AI, where purpose-built agents perform tasks within a system. On Tuesday, PortPro, a transportation management software vendor for drayage operators, said its system now has native AI agents that “allow users to ask operational questions, pull real-time insights, and automate common tasks like updating spreadsheets, checking documents, or sending load updates.” The agents are available via a chat interface within the transportation management system (TMS), where PortPro has already developed a number of pre-built agents, or users can customize agents based on how their team already works. “This isn’t about adding new layers of tech — it’s about removing friction,” PortPro CEO Michael Mecca said in a statement Tuesday. It’s not just transportation providers that are investing in AI. Domestic shippers are also using tools with embedded AI process automation or decision-making agents. Those tools aren’t necessarily transformative, but rather augment transportation teams with limited resources. For example, EVO, an outdoor goods retailer, over the past two years has been using an AI agent from its transportation management software vendor Shipwell to tackle the transportation order creation process. “Anything I can automate or take off our plate is money saved for us,” Vanessa McClain, EVO’s transportation and vendor relations manager, told the Journal of Commerce. “I don’t need it to think for me; I need it to do a task.” The order creation agent within Shipwell, which the software vendor calls Swifty, saves McClain and her team five to 10 minutes per order across the 600 to 700 shipments it moves per year. It also increases the accuracy of those orders, as it eliminates the re-keying of data from email into Shipwell. “We have vendors fill out a routing request form when they have a shipment ready,” McClain said. “With Swifty, we forward that email [to Shipwell] and it creates the order and then we select the carrier as opposed to getting the email from the vendor and hand-keying it into Shipwell.” Limited resources Shipwell President Jason Traff noted that transportation departments “aren’t flush with resources.” “If we can replace tasks that are boring ... you can increase the frequency to do other tasks, like checking in with carriers and partners,” he said. Shipwell began developing AI workflow agents to help its customers get more out of the system it provides, with those agents focused on five areas: order creation, documentation classification, shipment updates, appointment scheduling and dynamic quotes. More than a quarter of Shipwell’s customers now use at least one of those agents, Traff said. And the number is growing. “Where established platforms have the advantage is you take this [learning] model and plug it into the system of record,” he said. “You need the ability to hook AI into other things.” The use of Shipwell’s AI agents comes as a flood of standalone agentic AI tools have emerged for shippers, brokers and fleets to use to bolster the bandwidth of their teams. But Traff’s contention is that those agents work better within an existing system as opposed to being deployed on top of an existing system. “A TMS is a store of information that has to be displayed in a certain way to help make good decisions,” he said. “That’s the power of using these agents inside a TMS.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

AI continues its advance across truckload fleets, drayage

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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