Maritime

Lawmakers and shippers urge quick wrap-up of new dockworker labor pact on the eve of the contract deadline.

Spot freight rates are easing, but in a sign of resilience, container-ship charter rates remain near all-time highs.

Container lines stand to gain from unprecedented berthing priority under a proposal introduced by California lawmakers aimed at helping U.S. exports.

Container and breakbulk volumes rise as Gulf Coast ports record strong shipping volumes in May.

A flood of newly built container ships will be delivered by shipyards in 2023-25. Can liners maintain pricing power?

Trailer Bridge signed a $62 million lease agreement with the Jacksonville Port Authority to continue operating a Blount Island terminal through at least 2041.

Both Democrats and Republicans representing the Pacific Northwest say the creation of a ship-to-rail container port at the existing Port of Coos Bay could boost West Coast port capacity by as much as 10%.

Three commissioners of the Federal Maritime Commission contend a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern would result in diverting U.S.-bound intermodal traffic to Canadian ports.

Container shipping rates remain far above pre-COVID levels, yet there are more signs of prices easing.

Pactum uses AI and chatbots to automate contract negotiations for some of the biggest companies in the world.

The first half has been phenomenal for product tankers. How much of shipping upside is due to the war?

FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller analyzes the bullwhip effect on the current retail and trucking environments.

The drowning of over 15,000 sheep off Sudan is just the latest in a very long line of black marks for livestock shipping.

Port Houston awarded $429 million to Weeks Marine and Curtin Maritime Corp. to dredge the Houston ship channel.

On this week’s Drilling Deep podcast, host John Kingston talks with colleague Henry Byers about the data that shows a coming collapse in ocean freight movements.

Despite the debate on ocean shipping reform, the law will be signed into law by President Biden relatively soon. With his presidency increasingly defined by record-breaking inflation, it is clear his administration is focused on efforts to correct course.

Retail sales are still up double digits compared to pre-COVID. Inventory-to-sales ratios have yet to fully recover.

Federal Maritime Commissioner Dan Maffei says in an interview that the bill will return “credibility to the supply chain.”

A number of East Coast ports saw volumes increase in May, and Savannah was one of them.

Blackstone Group, one of the premier New York investment groups, is putting $130 million on fintech/freight tech firm PayCargo.

Chain.io has raised $11 million in a funding round to help grow its technology and support base as it seeks to create frictionless supply chain integrations.

America’s peak cargo importing season will start early this year, by the end of this month, says the Port of Los Angeles boss.

Japanese shipping firm Ocean Network Express has filed a lawsuit against Union Pacific because a shipment of solar panels was stolen in transit.

President Biden plans to sign into law the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, the first ocean shipping regulations passed by Congress since 1998.

Bulk commodity shipping stocks held up well before this month. Now they’re falling alongside container shipping stocks.

Shanghai’s weekend quarantine of 15 out of its 16 districts affected the flow of exports bound for the Port of Shanghai, according to CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map provider OrientStar Group.

OceaNS Bridge Express, a partnership among NS, Union Pacific, Hapag-Lloyd and the Port of Virginia, could be a means to avoid West Coast port congestion while taking advantage of East Coast port capacity improvements.

Ex-Amazon executive is seen as the more experienced operator that Flexport now needs.

President Biden made his case for getting ocean carrier reform on the books by accusing ocean carriers of jacking up prices for consumers.

Both sides were slated to return to the negotiation table Friday.

Analysts from J.P. Morgan and Bank of America warned of an impending disaster for U.S. imports.

May was one of the busiest months in history for the container ports of Long Beach and Charleston.

FMC rulemakings and reports included in the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 will begin taking shape soon after the bill is enacted. Here’s a breakdown.

President Biden underscored his support for ocean shipping reform as he prepares to speak at the Port of LA. Here’s a rundown of major efforts the administration has taken to date to ease supply chain disruption.

With President Biden to speak at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, here’s a look at how California’s San Pedro Bay emerged as America’s key port complex.

“We are pleased with this settlement as it creates a common understanding in close cooperation and coordination with the authority on the future handling of demurrage and detention charges in the U.S.,” Hapag-Lloyd said.

There is one reason behind this trade snarl. One. Can you guess? Bet you can’t unless you are an importer.

The International Maritime Organization and a California congressman look for strategies to lower emissions on World Ocean Day.

Founder Ryan Petersen will become Flexport’s executive chairman after a six-month transition.

Green hydrogen producer Plug Power is building a plant at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium to help decarbonize the region’s logistics.

A combination of rising fuel prices, lowering spot rates and falling imports makes for a freight market in transition.

EU sanctions on Russian petroleum exports could have much more serious repercussions than earlier U.S. moves.

The French and Danish container lines CMA CGM and Maersk are reinvesting big profits in their air cargo fleets and service offerings.

There’s no wave of containers coming to rescue U.S. freight markets. Booking data shows that U.S. imports are cratering.

Maersk said it can provide end-to-end supply chain solutions with its ships calling its APM Terminals Elizabeth, followed by clearance through Maersk Customs Services and finally storage, fulfillment distribution and inland transportation through Performance Team.

CMA CGM, the world’s third largest liner company, froze spot rates in September-January, yet its revenue per container kept rising.

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: Port Houston kicks off a $1.1 billion ship channel expansion; trucks carried 68% of all U.S.-Mexico cargo moved in March; a Texas woman pleads guilty to embezzling millions from a shipping company; and Siemens plans to build a $35 million export plant in Mexico.

It took longer than expected, but the IMO 2020 investment pitch — save on ship fuel by installing scrubbers — is paying off big time.

KlearNow has launched KlearNow Drayage, a marketplace for importers and drayage operators.

An expert reveals what’s wrong with ocean shipping giants. Consumers are footing the bill for their massive profits.

The number of container ships waiting off Los Angeles/Long Beach recently sank to 25, the lowest tally since July 2021.

The Federal Railroad Administration grant will be used to upgrade the intermodal rail yards at the Seagirt Marine Terminal.

The Port of Hamburg could suffer a container pileup if labor issues are not resolved in Germany.

While the Federal Maritime Commission’s Rebecca Dye found no evidence of collusion among the major ocean carriers, an investigation into the “numerous charges” they assess still could be launched.

Freightos, a backed by FedEx, is raising capital through a special purpose acquisition company and IPO.

Tankers are loading up on American crude, diesel and gasoline exports. Can the free market withstand political pressure?

Work remains for the Biden administration’s new port envoy, Stephen Lyons, to untangle freight supply chains.

Supply chain bottlenecks on the West Coast last year were evident in global port ranking data.

A Florida trio was recently sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a $200 million infant formula fraud scheme.

The port is undergoing a modernization initiative and aims to double container capacity as part of a broader effort to attract market share from Northeast and Midwest customers.

Without sanctions, tankers will keep loading Russian oil. ‘We’re not taking a moral high ground,’ says Frontline’s CEO.

Safety stats show resilience despite aging ships, cut corners on maintenance and rising pressure on seafarers.

A new tracking analytic uncovers the undercurrents within the flow of trade.

Gulf Coast ports continue to see strong demand for container and breakbulk cargo services during the month of April.

The Jacksonville harbor deepening project “demonstrates Florida’s unwavering commitment to strengthen and grow supply chains.”

East Coast gasoline inventories are alarmingly low. Gasoline imports from Europe could help but may not be enough to fill the gap.

It has been a terrible year for the stock market, a great one (so far) for product tanker and dry bulk shipping stocks.

Megaships are helping cause our current supply chain chaos. Big container boats have hampered competition and clogged up ports.

Zim continues to outpace growth rates of rival container shipping lines, but investor demand fears are on the rise.

While drayage has faced demand surges, they have often been the relatively short-lived consequences of labor strikes or steamship company shutdowns. The impact of the pandemic has been much greater, and it is here to stay.

The Port of New York and New Jersey’s outgoing and incoming directors discuss container migration, reliance on data and how they avoided problems plaguing West Coast ports.

According to maritime expert John McCown, the U.S. ports with the strongest April performance were Charleston, South Carolina; Houston; and New York/New Jersey.

It was another record month for GPA, with container volumes up by over 6% year-over-year.

Container shipping spot rates are easing, at least temporarily, and far fewer ships are stuck waiting off U.S. ports.

FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller lays out the premise of Freedom Trade.

When it comes to lifting lockdowns in China, false hope will remain the norm.

Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd sees consumer demand and spot rates slipping, with market highs in the rearview mirror.

First came a pause in cargo bookings to Russia. Now, ocean carriers have halted almost all of their Russian port calls.

April volumes at the Port of Virginia in Norfolk were at the second highest in port history, right behind December 2021.

Ann Phillips will take over at the U.S. Maritime Administration as the agency receives a fresh boost of funding for port infrastructure.

A 34% increase in retail imports is driving cargo volumes higher, SC Ports said.

Shares of ocean shipping companies have given back much of their 2022 gains after another big sell-off.

China’s zero-COVID policy is a prescription for more inflation and supply chain “illness.”

The pain at the pump keeps getting worse. Bad news for consumers. Good news for owners of refined product tankers.

U.S. regulators have ordered the world’s largest ocean carriers to submit more pricing and capacity data to help protect shipping markets from anticompetitive practices.

Trucking solutions, sitting cargo are among the issues in Henan province’s capital city.

‘Right now, we don’t see a huge buildup of volumes because of the closedown in Shanghai,’ reports Maersk CEO Soren Skou.

New container prices, new production, lease rates, lease durations and used container prices are all down.

Expeditors suffered a serious cyberattack in the first quarter, with a loss of volume, but still managed to make more money than the first quarter of 2021.

Container-ship transits of the Panama Canal are up as liners favor the East Coast. LNG transits are down as U.S. gas heads to Europe.

Craig Fuller explains the impact of higher diesel prices on the U.S. economy and consumers.

“Higher shipping costs hit prices of imported goods at the dock within two months and quickly pass through to producer prices — many of whom rely on imported inputs to manufacture their goods,” IMF researchers wrote.

“The only reason for an oil tanker to go to Saldanha Bay is to unload the oil into storage,” says an industry consultant.

Gulf Coast ports got a boost in March from imports of steel and plywood, and exports of petroleum and crude oil.

New reports from Maersk, Kuehne+Nagel and Drewry point to an ongoing boom for container shipping lines.

COVID lockdowns in major Chinese cities are bottling up freight shipments, but the full impact on global trade won’t be clear until this summer.

China’s zero-COVID measures will make it harder for European exports to reach the East Coast because empty containers aren’t getting where they’re needed.

Retail stock pickers seem increasingly nervous about shipping. Shares of dry bulk, tanker, container and mixed-fleet owners all fell.

FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller writes about the impact of Chinese lockdowns on global supply chains and the U.S. trucking industry.

The Shanghai lockdown isn’t following the same supply chain script as the big Chinese disruptions of 2020 and 2021.