Stockpiles in the country are building up. Also: more hints on the price of fuel in a post IMO2020 market; Russia’s lack of assistance to OPEC
Read on economy from container data does not indicate slowdown yet in cards for global trade.
Widespread jitters in the Australian political and business communities that China may have banned imports of Australian coal now appear to be unfounded. Customs clearance delays at Dalian are happening owing to entirely “normal” reasons and coal cargo can be re-routed around a given port anyway, coal mining and coal transport executives have explained to FreightWaves.
Sydney-headquartered multi-modal logistics operator Qube has announced “solid” company earnings today. ASX-listed Qube revealed a small 5 percent increase in revenues and a large 36 percent increase in profits.
Sydney, Australia-headquartered customs and logistics software provider WiseTech Global yesterday released details of massive increases in revenues and profits. ASX-listed WiseTech reported that total revenues increased by 68 percent.
Flinders Ports, South Australia, had a mixed bag of containerised cargo throughput results in 2018 compared to 2017, new data analysis shows. Overall containerised throughput – which includes imports, exports, empties and boxes in various configurations – was essentially flat.
Ken Husband drove a tanker truck 2,000 miles from Alberta to the Canadian capital, Ottawa, because he says the Trudeau government is hurting the oil industry. “What’s this country going to live on, apples and maple syrup?” he says.
TFI International Inc. wants to expand its last-mile business with the assets of U.S. courier BeavEX, which is seeking bankruptcy protection.
Brambles, a supplier of reusable pallets, crates and containers for the supply chain industries, recorded strong revenue growth but its profit was much lower in the first half of its financial year, according to results released to the Australian Stock Exchange.
An Australian court has refused permission for the creation of a coking-coal mine in New South Wales on the grounds that it would adversely contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and would set back the fight against climate change. Legal scholars are hailing the decision as a “hugely significant” ruling.
Canopy Growth says retail availability of its recreational cannabis productions have increased as it reported record revenues on the newly legal Canadian market.
The largest Canadian freight brokerage purchased a 3PL concentrated in the Southeastern United States.
Longshoremen working for DP World Australia (DPWA) are fired up over an alleged threat to their income protection insurance. That benefit was granted to them by the company three years ago in the last round of negotiations for a collective employment contract known as an “enterprise agreement”.
Every three years each of the stevedore companies enter into a protracted and bitter dispute with the local longshoremen’s representative body, the Maritime Union of Australia. This short article explains how and why.
Wharfies are eyeing strikes at DP World Australia in pursuit of better terms and conditions in their next collective employment contract. Asian maritime shipping schedules and landside Australian logistics timetables could be thrown into disarray.
A convoy of more than 150 trucks is trekking 2,500 miles from Alberta to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, to push for more pipelines and less regulation of the energy regulation
“It’s all about the cost savings, and, by the way, we’re also using the lowest emission option.”
Descartes Systems Group (NASDAQ: DSGX) has completed its acquisition of Management Systems Resources according to a Descartes press release.
Baraja raised U.S.$35m on the back of its ability to use lasers, prisms and the colors of the rainbow to grant sight to machines. It’s a critical step on the path to helping vehicles drive themselves. Photo – Shutterstock.
Leading dry bulk operator lists out upsets in iron ore and soybean trade as shipping rates slide on weak China demand.
Food delivery startup Zomato is mobilising its last-mile workforce to move towards mechanical and electric bikes for delivery – a move that the company believes would drastically reduce its carbon footprint.
Aurora Cannabis revenues have jumped since the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada. The company is ramping up production to meet the needs of Canadian consumers who contend with frequent shortages.
Radiant Logistics (NYSE: RLGT) achieved record revenue of $260.9 million in the company’s fiscal second quarter (the fourth quarter of 2018).
Australian Stock Exchange listed bulk rail freight operator Aurizon reported decreases in top-line revenue, earnings before interest, tax and depreciation, and a big decline in net profit after tax on February 11, 2019.
Brie Carere of FedEx.
A noticeable change in the pattern of trade is underway at Australia’s second biggest box port, Sydney’s Port Botany. Botany handled more boxes in the last calendar year than in 2017 – but those boxes arrived and departed on fewer, although larger, container ships.
Crude prices are stuck in a $50-$55 range for WTI, as news that would drive prices higher inevitably gets offset soon after by something pushing it lower.
Queensland’s Port of Brisbane handled just under 1.4 million twenty foot equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. Just under 29 per cent of all boxes handled were empty, according to the port’s trade statistics.
Around a foot of snow coming to the Olympic Mountains this weekend, but Seattle metro area could also see its share. Bitterly cold winds, too,
Genesee & Wyoming, Inc. (NYSE: GWR) beat fourth quarter revenue consensus estimates by $4.89 million. Revenue was expected to decrease by 0.2 percent year-over-year (Y/Y), but it increased 0.7 percent Y/Y from $571.6 million to $575.6 million, according to Seeking Alpha. GWR also beat fourth quarter consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimates of $0.89 by $0.11 to $1.00.
The key benchmark OTRI sounded the alarms about weaker markets, but other indicators were telling a different story.
All-in rates on the way out as new surcharge formulas on the way in as ocean carriers work on ways to share cost burden with customers.
Rail operator Aurizon has completed the sale of its Queensland Intermodal Business to privately owned Australian logistics company Linfox. The Queensland Intermodal Business delivers general cargo for more than 300 customers across the state and includes a wide variety of freight including groceries, white goods and general goods.
Trucking Freight Futures are designed to offer market participants a chance to offset their risk in the trucking market. Stocks edge up as dollar advances. Amazon adds “transportation and logistics services” to the long list of industries and services it views as competition.
Record-breaking year also showed strains in supply chains as busiest U.S. East Coast port.
Australia’s busiest box port, the Port of Melbourne, broke the three million mark in handling twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) shipping containers in the last calendar year. It is likely the first time that any port anywhere in Australia has handled three million TEU in any twelve month period whether that’s on a running month, financial year, or calendar year basis.
An industrial dispute between the local longshoremen’s union, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), and stevedoring company, Hutchison Ports, is intensifying. A one day strike is now taking place.
It’s a growth story at Western Australia’s main container port, Fremantle Ports (Freo), with just under 10 percent growth of international shipping container traffic in the last calendar year. Stevedoring at the port is also up for tender.
Ryder System, Inc. (R: NYSE) presented its Service Excellence Awards to top-performing carriers at its ninth annual Mexican Carrier Recognition Event in Mexico City on January 17. The event – reported in a press release by Ryder on January 29 – recognized 20 Mexican carriers for their excellence in service in Ryder’s international supply chain.
Also in this report: a rebound in the market helped by OPEC production cuts; ExxonMobil grows big on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The Hershey Company, one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world, is promoting environmental sustainability in its cocoa supply chain.
Overall cargo volumes on Australia’s air routes have increased, according to the latest data from the federal government’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.
Australia is experiencing growth in volumes of inbound international air cargo, new official figures show. Freight volumes from overseas airports to airports in Australia grew by 7.3% in the year ended November 2018.
Americans have become used to buying fruit and vegetables year-round. But it wasn’t always that way, and improved transportation is the key to year-round produce.
New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland has been conditionally granted funds to buy hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of a wider project to build a hydrogen fuel production plant. That second project, in turn, is part of a bigger project to transform New Zealand into an electricity-powered economy.
Additional pipeline capacity from West Texas means filling bigger ships with crude oil; New Zealand steering away from carbon economy.
FreightWaves adds violations, fuel spread, and more rail data to SONAR platform
Dam collapse could pinch amount of ore heading to water; container crane falls on ship in Canada; Australian port tries to go clean.
One of the world’s largest coal export ports, the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, has announced it is committing to the EcoPorts global environmental and sustainability standards.
A high-level review of road safety governance has begun in Australia.A lack of road safety carries a terrible toll in lives and injuries in Australia
Australia’s National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has warned that grot and grime can obscure damage to parts during visual inspections; fatigue fractured leaf springs caused the death of truck driver Stephen Ross Brown.
Profitability will lag in high growth markets like Brazil and India, but aftersales services in NAFTA and the EU will drive profitability growth.
Trucks and truckers are baking in the extreme Australian summer heat, which is nudging the 122 F (50 C) in certain parts of the country for days at a time. (Photo: Shutterstock).
Missing USDA data on wheat stockpiles has traders reacting cautiously.
On the third day of trade talks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, David Carlyle said the U.S. government shutdown is having an impact on the U.S. economy.
Australia’s Heavy Vehicle National Law has been heavily criticised for being too bureaucratic, prescriptive and generally difficult to work with. A major review has been announced.
Slowdown headed for U.S. import volumes as largest exporter sees economy weaken ahead of prolonged holiday.
A company that’s been doing it, a company that says it’s going to be doing it and a company that is being affected by others doing it: that was the theme on three calls about precision railroading.
Playing pass the parcel is fun when you’re a little kid. It’s less so when the parcel is a great big bill that you’re being stiffed with as a side effect of a fight between longshoremen and their employer.
The sun is setting on the Australian shipping register as ship operators abandon the local coastal trading regime. Ship operators are fleeing the flag following the 2012 reforms.
Event in Vancouver to also discuss US trade policy, China dispute.
More than a foot of snow could fall in parts of the Northeast this weekend. Areas of ice, too, in major cities.
Plus: Skewering Theresa May, B.C. rail investigations, California clean air program assessment
The advent of modern communications technology such as, obviously, the mobile phone, has created a new, yet poorly understood and under-researched, form of driver distraction. Australian road authorities are calling for research and are updating their road rules.
Rolling strikes by workers at the Hutchison Ports Australia box terminals in Sydney and Brisbane started at 6:00 a.m. (Australian Eastern Standard Time) yesterday January 17 and are causing logistics chaos.
Significant snow, ice, wind to slam some big cities this weekend. Could take days to thaw out.
Gig economy companies contend with Supreme Court ruling that mandates full time workers to be considered as employees and not contractors; oil supply reduces after Saudi Arabia’s drastic production cut; government shutdown strains supply chains across the country.
Container volumes remain strong, but delays mean fewer overall pickups; drivers also not pleased with new fees for flipping containers.
Airbus (AIR: EURONEXT) broke ground for its new A220 manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama on Wednesday. The newest airliner in Airbus’ product line, the A220 is designed to revolutionize the market for 100-150 seat aircraft.
Arctic air heading to Midwest and Northeast this weekend. After rebounding, longer period of super cold weather could begin later this month, spreading to other regions of U.S.
Infestations of the brown marmorated stink bug found on ships en-route to Australia are causing havoc with local supply chains. Bugs are breeding, ships are re-routing, trucks are idling and supply chains are collapsing.
U.K. votes down Brexit deal, leading to more uncertainty on rules for freight forwarders; stowaway bugs bug Australia.
The market for lumber slowed considerably in the second half of 2018 as the Chinese economy lost momentum and trade disputes with the U.S. persisted.
A current rail attorney who was with the STB for many years wonders whether it has ever broken free of the changes envisioned by the Staggers Act.
Dry van rates hit air-pocket last month and lose altitude; but other indicators of freight economy still looking up.
Auto parts imports could take a hit as vehicle sales slow; Japan makes its own play for African port supremacy.
Australian livestock haulers will greatly benefit from a programme of livestock-haulage related road upgrades in Northern Australia. Road investment decisions have been informed a massive transport research and simulation project by the national scientific research agency.
Downhill driving presents particular safety risks to truck driving. Australian law requires truckers to shift to a lower gear and not use the primary brake for the descent. National telematics body Transport Certification Australia has launched a new app that records the details of the descent for the purposes of improving safety and creating an audit trail. (Photo: Shutterstock).
“You don’t want to start a trade war with China for the same reason you don’t fight a land war with Russia: They will ‘out-suffer’ you.”
U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue threw down $25,000 for ideas on how to pay for infrastructure. And told Washington to open back up.
Jim Vena, protege of vaunted rail executive Hunter Harrison, seen as likely helping boost UP’s move to greater efficiency.
New truck sales figures broke records in Australia last year but, what goes up must come down. Expert analysts are worried that 2018 may have been a peak and that a decline in new sales is on the way. The Truck Industry Council reveals which brands of trucks sold best in Australia last year in each of the heavy duty, medium duty and light duty trucks along with the light duty vans. (Photo: Mitsubishi-Fuso).
Coming back for more: unsatisfied with having drenched the very far northern tip of Australia, ex-Tropical Cyclone Penny has done a U-Turn in the Coral Sea and is heading back to Queensland. Trucking operations are likely to be hampered by rain, strong winds and local flooding. (Graphic: Bureau of Meteorology and MetEye).
Although it’s early in 2019, there has already been a major restructure of Australia’s byzantine freight-related governmental advisory sector. Ownership of Transport Certification Australia has now transferred – by order of one of the nation’s top transport decision-making bodies – to Austroads.
Record intermodal shipments on the rail for the second year in a row has deep implication for the trucking market into 2019. Trucking will benefit, at least partially, from Norfolk Southern’s latest decision.
A new rule in Mexico will boost demand for ultra low sulfur diesel. Also: the Saudis pull back from the U.S. and why it isn’t a big deal.
Australian trucking continues to prove fatally dangerous to drivers with a death rate in Australian road transport nearly six times greater than the national industrial average.
Forager is building a digital freight marketplace to automate elements of cross-border logistics.
China announced wide-sweeping changes to its import and export tariffs over the Christmas break; Australia-based expert China-watchers are divided as to Beijing’s motivations and what it might mean for Australia. Photo: Shutterstock.
Joplin, Missouri-based Contract Freighter Inc (CFI) will “assume responsibility” for Chicago-based freight transport company, Optimal Freight, at the start of the New Year. Financial details of the transaction are not available at the time of writing.
The ELD mandate, tough to find drivers, going the last mile, precision railroading…the most intriguing stories of 2018.
Redstar Transport, a large long-distance and heavy-freight trucking business, collapsed in Australia after running out of cash just days before Christmas. Hundreds of people have been thrown out of work. Cargo has been returned to the depot. And the liquidation of Redstar may have wider consequences than is first apparent.
After a series of high-profile scandals involving the dumping of asbestos-containing waste on Sydney streets, the local authorities have welcomed a series of guilty pleas and court-imposed jail time on offenders. Meanwhile, the authorities have increased the value of fines and lengthened jail sentences for transport-related asbestos crimes.
Even the Port’s director agrees something needs to be done; East Coast port notches new record; ATA crows about California victory.
Bison Transport operates twin 53-foot trailers in Canada, and generally has lower rates of incidents than with single trailers.
Europe’s council of ministers has decided to cut carbon emissions from trucks by 30% by 2030, but some industry associations say this is too much too fast.
Other highlights: Drones wreak havoc, Amazon goes to school
Facial recognition will be tested next year on the Peace Bridge that connects the U.S. and Canada as a possible solution to speed up commercial border crossings.
Routeique will bring its expertise in end-to-end supply chain management to the Alliance.
Trucking companies will already be aware of the difficulties of recruiting reliable staff and according to Jackfruit Systems those difficulties will get worseover the coming decade. So the development of Fleet Operate will help match available drivers to cargo ready for transportation.
