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<div>When we look back on 2013, we can see a number of clear trends: the continuing increase in the size of ships, with accompanying rationalization; freight rates under pressure; a fragile recovery in various sectors, but also a commercial climate that is not stable enough; changes in the energy market, and so on. These trends pose a number of immediate challenges for 2014.The increasing size of ships and the consequent rationalization are not without consequences for port companies and the port community. The challenge here is to react quickly and flexibly to these developments. This will require changes in the...

When we look back on 2013, we can see a number of clear trends: the continuing increase in the size of ships, with accompanying rationalization; freight rates under pressure; a fragile recovery in various sectors, but also a commercial climate that is not stable enough; changes in the energy market, and so on. These trends pose a number of immediate challenges for 2014. The increasing size of ships and the consequent rationalization are not without consequences for port companies and the port community. The challenge here is to react quickly and flexibly to these developments. This will require changes in the long-term basis on which an international port such as ours operates. For instance, major infrastructure projects typically require us to look at least 10 years ahead. Such long lead times and the restrictions imposed by red tape and planning procedures often mean that we cannot keep up with the speed of changes in the global economy. It is therefore a challenge for the port community to react quickly enough to changes in the world market. To achieve this will demand creativity and collaboration, out-of-the-box thinking and the development of new IT systems. A second big challenge is posed by the fact that the economy has still not fully recovered and the expectations for next year are still somewhat hazy. The recovery is fragile, and while there are signs that the market will start to pull ahead in 2014, at the same time there are authoritative voices that warn against setting our expectations too high. They see 2015 rather as the year in which we will still have to wait for a real boost to the economy. A third challenge that is just as great, certainly for Europe, is posed by the high energy costs for industry. Energy-intensive sectors such as the chemical industry are losing out to their Chinese and especially American competitors. Innovation, energy saving and greater efficiency in the energy market are therefore the biggest challenges for the industrial complexes, not least those that form part of the port complex. Eddy Bruyninckx is CEO of the Antwerp Port Authority . See all ARO Maritime-related content.

Annual Review & Outlook 2014: Antwerp Port Authority

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper"> Breakbulk and project cargo shippers tapping FTZ and bonded warehouse storage to “tariff engineer.” </div>

Breakbulk and project cargo shippers tapping FTZ and bonded warehouse storage to “tariff engineer.”

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">With importers looking to foreign trade zones (FTZs) as a tariff mitigation strategy, US port facilities are taking steps to expand FTZ programs and warehousing capacity to accommodate additional breakbulk and project cargo activity. However, some facilities that are in the early stages of this process could encounter delays in obtaining federal approvals following the recent US government shutdown. A foreign trade zone is a designated area near a port of entry that is considered legally outside of the authority of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). As a result, cargoes placed at these sites are not subject to duties until they leave the facility and can remain in storage indefinitely. Shippers are also turning to US Customs bonded warehouses — federally operated sites where importers can store goods for up to five years before having to pay duties, which are assessed after the goods enter US commerce. Breakbulk and project cargo accounts for a significant segment of goods stored at FTZ and bonded warehouses. Hans Luetkemeier, president and CEO of New Orleans-based global logistics and storage provider The Dupuy Group, told the Journal of Commerce that most of the recent FTZ inquiries his company has received have included breakbulk commodities such as lumber, copper, machinery and solar panels, as well as project cargo. “Our utilization is certainly higher this year than last year, driven by demand from FTZ and bonded,” he said of the company’s three million square feet of FTZ and bonded warehouse storage across the US. Janine Mansour, director of trade development for the Port of New Orleans, told the Journal of Commerce that FTZ warehouses in the region have been relatively full, and that the port has fielded a significant spike in inquiries for FTZs and government-bonded warehouses since tariffs were first announced last spring. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in demand. The reason why is the flexibility aspect and importers seeking to reduce their exposure to tariffs,” Mansour said, adding that the Port of New Orleans administers the region’s FTZ processing and has 24 active foreign trade zone locations. In October, the Port of New Orleans received federal approval to expand its designated foreign trade zone, FTZ No. 2. The zone already covers Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes; the expanded FTZ now includes St. Tammany Parish, about 50 miles north of the city. “St. Tammany Parish is where we really see a lot of the warehousing and distribution development, as well as future development opportunities,” Mansour said. Foreign trade zone expansion efforts are also under way at the Ports of Indiana, which appointed its first foreign trade and economic development director, global logistics industry veteran Dexter Salenda, in August. Ports of Indiana created the position to grow the ports’ foreign trade zone program and offer new services for companies “dealing with challenges related to international trade and tariffs,” according to a Ports of Indiana news release. For The Dupuy Group, Luetkemeier said plans to expand the company’s footprint have been in the works since before tariffs hit. “We have several warehouse expansion projects in the works that were not initially contemplated for FTZ, but with the uncertainty of tariffs we will be applying for FTZ status at those locations,” he said. Applicants who are filing for FTZ certification could face some setbacks, though. On Nov. 14, the US CPB issued a memo indicating that its review processes will be delayed by 47 days following the US government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 and ended Nov. 12. “It was impossible for Enforcement and Compliance to operate during the shutdown. It was also impossible for Enforcement and Compliance to accelerate its proceedings by the number of days on which the agency was closed — we simply lack the resources,” the memo read. <h3>Hurdles for ‘tariff engineering’ </h3>FTZs give importers of breakbulk and project cargo advantages such as duty deferral, flexible storage options and streamlined customs clearances. “A manufacturing facility, for example, that needs to maintain critical spare parts manufactured overseas could use FTZ status to import that material without having to pay the duty until that critical spare part is needed,” Luetkemeier said. Since duties are not paid until imports formally enter into US commerce, imported cargo stored in federal trade zones can delay tariffs until they leave the zone. Imports placed in an FTZ and then exported without entering the US market may be able to avoid tariffs completely. For project cargo especially, one of the long-standing advantages of foreign trade zones is that shippers could use FTZ sites to assemble imported products, such as modular components for construction projects. Tariffs would then be levied only on the finished product, rather than the imported materials. Some shippers have used this approach strategically in a practice known as “tariff engineering,” in which importers modify materials so they can be reclassified at a lower tariff rate. Those savings are no longer available following a Trump executive order issued in April, stating that any assembly or processing that takes place within an FTZ will not change the original tariff rate assessed on the imported cargo upon entry. Luetkemeier said importers can still take advantage of another significant FTZ cost-savings strategy — entry fee consolidation. Instead of having to pay a merchandise processing fee for each incoming shipment, importers can instead group multiple shipments into a single, weekly customs entry and pay one fee each week. “There are companies that are probably saving millions a year doing that,” he said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at <a href="autumn@autumngiusti.com">autumn@autumngiusti.com</a>. </div>

With importers looking to foreign trade zones (FTZs) as a tariff mitigation strategy, US port facilities are taking steps to expand FTZ programs and warehousing capacity to accommodate additional breakbulk and project cargo activity. However, some facilities that are in the early stages of this process could encounter delays in obtaining federal approvals following the recent US government shutdown. A foreign trade zone is a designated area near a port of entry that is considered legally outside of the authority of US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). As a result, cargoes placed at these sites are not subject to duties until they leave the facility and can remain in storage indefinitely. Shippers are also turning to US Customs bonded warehouses — federally operated sites where importers can store goods for up to five years before having to pay duties, which are assessed after the goods enter US commerce. Breakbulk and project cargo accounts for a significant segment of goods stored at FTZ and bonded warehouses. Hans Luetkemeier, president and CEO of New Orleans-based global logistics and storage provider The Dupuy Group, told the Journal of Commerce that most of the recent FTZ inquiries his company has received have included breakbulk commodities such as lumber, copper, machinery and solar panels, as well as project cargo. “Our utilization is certainly higher this year than last year, driven by demand from FTZ and bonded,” he said of the company’s three million square feet of FTZ and bonded warehouse storage across the US. Janine Mansour, director of trade development for the Port of New Orleans, told the Journal of Commerce that FTZ warehouses in the region have been relatively full, and that the port has fielded a significant spike in inquiries for FTZs and government-bonded warehouses since tariffs were first announced last spring. “We’ve definitely seen an increase in demand. The reason why is the flexibility aspect and importers seeking to reduce their exposure to tariffs,” Mansour said, adding that the Port of New Orleans administers the region’s FTZ processing and has 24 active foreign trade zone locations. In October, the Port of New Orleans received federal approval to expand its designated foreign trade zone, FTZ No. 2. The zone already covers Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes; the expanded FTZ now includes St. Tammany Parish, about 50 miles north of the city. “St. Tammany Parish is where we really see a lot of the warehousing and distribution development, as well as future development opportunities,” Mansour said. Foreign trade zone expansion efforts are also under way at the Ports of Indiana, which appointed its first foreign trade and economic development director, global logistics industry veteran Dexter Salenda, in August. Ports of Indiana created the position to grow the ports’ foreign trade zone program and offer new services for companies “dealing with challenges related to international trade and tariffs,” according to a Ports of Indiana news release. For The Dupuy Group, Luetkemeier said plans to expand the company’s footprint have been in the works since before tariffs hit. “We have several warehouse expansion projects in the works that were not initially contemplated for FTZ, but with the uncertainty of tariffs we will be applying for FTZ status at those locations,” he said. Applicants who are filing for FTZ certification could face some setbacks, though. On Nov. 14, the US CPB issued a memo indicating that its review processes will be delayed by 47 days following the US government shutdown, which began Oct. 1 and ended Nov. 12. “It was impossible for Enforcement and Compliance to operate during the shutdown. It was also impossible for Enforcement and Compliance to accelerate its proceedings by the number of days on which the agency was closed — we simply lack the resources,” the memo read. Hurdles for ‘tariff engineering’ FTZs give importers of breakbulk and project cargo advantages such as duty deferral, flexible storage options and streamlined customs clearances. “A manufacturing facility, for example, that needs to maintain critical spare parts manufactured overseas could use FTZ status to import that material without having to pay the duty until that critical spare part is needed,” Luetkemeier said. Since duties are not paid until imports formally enter into US commerce, imported cargo stored in federal trade zones can delay tariffs until they leave the zone. Imports placed in an FTZ and then exported without entering the US market may be able to avoid tariffs completely. For project cargo especially, one of the long-standing advantages of foreign trade zones is that shippers could use FTZ sites to assemble imported products, such as modular components for construction projects. Tariffs would then be levied only on the finished product, rather than the imported materials. Some shippers have used this approach strategically in a practice known as “tariff engineering,” in which importers modify materials so they can be reclassified at a lower tariff rate. Those savings are no longer available following a Trump executive order issued in April, stating that any assembly or processing that takes place within an FTZ will not change the original tariff rate assessed on the imported cargo upon entry. Luetkemeier said importers can still take advantage of another significant FTZ cost-savings strategy — entry fee consolidation. Instead of having to pay a merchandise processing fee for each incoming shipment, importers can instead group multiple shipments into a single, weekly customs entry and pay one fee each week. “There are companies that are probably saving millions a year doing that,” he said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at autumn@autumngiusti.com .

US ports seek to expand FTZs for breakbulk cargo

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Not enough terminal investment in Europe has left ports unable to handle the rising demand, and there is no quick fix, according to analysts and carriers.</div>

Not enough terminal investment in Europe has left ports unable to handle the rising demand, and there is no quick fix, according to analysts and carriers.

<div class="phx-topic">Europe’s ongoing port congestion is exposing the limited buffer capacity both at marine terminals and inland transport networks, raising the need not just for investment but also more usage of smaller, less affected ports. While congestion has shown signs of easing in recent months, major European ports are challenged in their ability to work through the backlogs and the shifting shipping seasons, according to Chantal McRoberts, head of advisory at Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. McRoberts said the core underlying reason for the ongoing congestion was a lack of buffer capacity within the region’s port network that created regular “congestion cycles” that terminals battled to handle. “Ports in Europe have been around for a long time and landslide space is limited, so when there are multiple operational issues, the system quickly gets overwhelmed and congestion builds up,” she told a Journal of Commerce webcast on port congestion this week. It is a view shared by Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc, who told analysts after the carrier’s second quarter earnings that over the past 20 years, European terminal capacity has been added at a slower pace than the market has been growing. “There is a <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/underinvestment-exposes-european-ports-to-systematic-bottlenecks-6062033">general undercapacity in ports in Europe</a> where we're starting to feel more points of congestion that are impeding the networks,” Clerc said in August. “Congestion in European ports is something that is likely to be with us in some shape or form for a few years.” S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence’s Global Port Congestion Analysis of the second quarter shows that half of Northern Europe’s ports reported year-over-year declines in port moves per hour from April through June. Vessels delays have also been erratic, as Portcast’s port harbor congestion index shows.<div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="2210adc9-96bd-4b4b-8aaf-d837826318df"></dynamic-object></div>To address the mismatch in port capacity versus demand, Maersk’s APM Terminals division is expanding its capacity in key locations such as Rotterdam and Croatia, but Clerc acknowledged that it would take time before the additional capacity came online. CMA CGM is also expanding its port infrastructure in Northern Europe via port division CMA Terminals. The carrier earlier this month acquired a 20% stake in the Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg, and is also investing in rail and river connectivity at the Lyon-Édouard Herriot Port in France. Europe’s second-busiest container port of Antwerp-Bruges also highlighted the lack of space in its first-half results in July, noting that <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/strong-h1-volumes-space-crunch-keep-antwerp-terminals-under-pressure-6043917">marine terminals were under “heavy strain”</a> with landside space at critically low levels. <h3>Extending lead times the only effective measure </h3>While terminals and carriers can add capacity, there is very little shippers can do to avoid the congestion, according to McRoberts. “Disruption and congestion have been impossible to avoid the last five years, so shippers have become more used to dealing with it,” she said. “But shippers in our Drewry benchmarking club tell us the main tactic is simply to extend lead times. Other popular strategies are to use diverse provider portfolios based on different ports and use visibility tools and platforms to see the flow of cargo through ports.” Data from Drewry shows the regional average pre-berth waiting time was 1.7 days in week 45 beginning Nov. 3, with some ports around 10% longer. The current worst performer is Egypt’s Port Said at 3.7 days, but most European ports have shown improvement recently. Still, Europe’s three largest import gateways of Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam are all currently assessed as having “heavily disrupted operations” by Kuehne + Nagel’s visibility tool SeaExplorer. The wave of congestion this year was triggered by the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/spot-rates-falling-as-new-ocean-networks-roll-out-sea-intelligence-5935891">restructuring of carrier alliances</a> in February and the emergence of Gemini Cooperation, which McRoberts said was accompanied by service changes and vessel redeployment. ”Later in the year that this was compounded by the fluctuating Rhine River water levels, canceled sailings and various <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/strike-action-piles-new-bottlenecks-on-europes-two-busiest-ports-6094023">labor disruptions across Europe</a>. All of this contributed to increasing port congestion across the region,” she said. Strikes in Rotterdam by container lashing companies and a go-slow of sea pilots in Antwerp created container bottlenecks in October and labor disruption is set to continue later this month in Belgium, Portugal and Italy. Belgium’s rail network will stop as workers walk out from Nov. 23-Nov. 26; strike action by Portugal’s Port Authorities staff will impact all major Portuguese ports from Nov. 21 to Dec. 13, and a national strike will be held in Italy on Nov. 28 and 29. While strikes were major disruptors to European terminal handling operations, McRoberts highlighted structural issues that were contributory factors to the ongoing congestion. “We have seen fewer port calls combined with an increase in average vessel sizes as alliances and services have consolidated in Europe,” she told the Journal of Commerce webcast. “We have also seen longer pre-berth waiting times, often paired with extended terminal stays and driven by larger vessels with higher load factors.” <h3>Seasonal patterns changing </h3>Shifting seasonal patterns are also not doing Europe’s container terminals any favors. "In 2025, peak seasons have been messed about all year,” McRoberts said. “The disruption caused by US tariff announcements [on European imports] created bubbles of volume and surges in demand, which in turn created congestion in peak seasons or periods where we wouldn't normally expect strong demand. If you overlay that with labor disputes and changing river levels in, it's like a domino effect that causes pockets of congestion.” Looming over the Asia-Europe trade is the potential return of carriers to Red Sea and Suez Canal transits. The bunching of vessels as those taking the shorter route through the Suez catch up to vessels sailing around Africa is expected to create significant bottlenecks in Europe and Asia. But McRoberts said there would not be an overnight return to the Red Sea. ”We will see a gradual phase-in period so there will be an opportunity for shippers to think about how to plan their cargo needs with carriers and their inventory carrying costs and their networks,” she said. Analysts expect carriers to operate a dual-route strategy for some time once the Red Sea is deemed safe to transit, keeping both the round-Africa sailings and the Suez Canal route in their schedules. When it comes to finding solutions to Europe’s persistent port congestion, there are no short-term answers, according to McRoberts. She said increasing terminal capacity and expanding operations was one solution, but it was a long-term approach. ”We know there is new capacity coming on stream in Rotterdam and some upgrades underway in Antwerp and Hamburg, but they will take time to implement and will not bring short term relief,” she said. McRoberts said smaller scale capacity gains were coming from investment in productivity improvements or in data sharing, but they were having a minimal impact and did not generate an incremental improvement in buffer capacity. ”That doesn’t help when ports hit those periods of congestion, and that’s the fundamental problem with the European port network — it simply has insufficient buffer capacity,” she said. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Europe’s ongoing port congestion is exposing the limited buffer capacity both at marine terminals and inland transport networks, raising the need not just for investment but also more usage of smaller, less affected ports. While congestion has shown signs of easing in recent months, major European ports are challenged in their ability to work through the backlogs and the shifting shipping seasons, according to Chantal McRoberts, head of advisory at Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. McRoberts said the core underlying reason for the ongoing congestion was a lack of buffer capacity within the region’s port network that created regular “congestion cycles” that terminals battled to handle. “Ports in Europe have been around for a long time and landslide space is limited, so when there are multiple operational issues, the system quickly gets overwhelmed and congestion builds up,” she told a Journal of Commerce webcast on port congestion this week. It is a view shared by Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc, who told analysts after the carrier’s second quarter earnings that over the past 20 years, European terminal capacity has been added at a slower pace than the market has been growing. “There is a general undercapacity in ports in Europe where we're starting to feel more points of congestion that are impeding the networks,” Clerc said in August. “Congestion in European ports is something that is likely to be with us in some shape or form for a few years.” S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Global Port Congestion Analysis of the second quarter shows that half of Northern Europe’s ports reported year-over-year declines in port moves per hour from April through June. Vessels delays have also been erratic, as Portcast’s port harbor congestion index shows. To address the mismatch in port capacity versus demand, Maersk’s APM Terminals division is expanding its capacity in key locations such as Rotterdam and Croatia, but Clerc acknowledged that it would take time before the additional capacity came online. CMA CGM is also expanding its port infrastructure in Northern Europe via port division CMA Terminals. The carrier earlier this month acquired a 20% stake in the Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg, and is also investing in rail and river connectivity at the Lyon-Édouard Herriot Port in France. Europe’s second-busiest container port of Antwerp-Bruges also highlighted the lack of space in its first-half results in July, noting that marine terminals were under “heavy strain” with landside space at critically low levels. Extending lead times the only effective measure While terminals and carriers can add capacity, there is very little shippers can do to avoid the congestion, according to McRoberts. “Disruption and congestion have been impossible to avoid the last five years, so shippers have become more used to dealing with it,” she said. “But shippers in our Drewry benchmarking club tell us the main tactic is simply to extend lead times. Other popular strategies are to use diverse provider portfolios based on different ports and use visibility tools and platforms to see the flow of cargo through ports.” Data from Drewry shows the regional average pre-berth waiting time was 1.7 days in week 45 beginning Nov. 3, with some ports around 10% longer. The current worst performer is Egypt’s Port Said at 3.7 days, but most European ports have shown improvement recently. Still, Europe’s three largest import gateways of Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam are all currently assessed as having “heavily disrupted operations” by Kuehne + Nagel’s visibility tool SeaExplorer. The wave of congestion this year was triggered by the restructuring of carrier alliances in February and the emergence of Gemini Cooperation, which McRoberts said was accompanied by service changes and vessel redeployment. ”Later in the year that this was compounded by the fluctuating Rhine River water levels, canceled sailings and various labor disruptions across Europe . All of this contributed to increasing port congestion across the region,” she said. Strikes in Rotterdam by container lashing companies and a go-slow of sea pilots in Antwerp created container bottlenecks in October and labor disruption is set to continue later this month in Belgium, Portugal and Italy. Belgium’s rail network will stop as workers walk out from Nov. 23-Nov. 26; strike action by Portugal’s Port Authorities staff will impact all major Portuguese ports from Nov. 21 to Dec. 13, and a national strike will be held in Italy on Nov. 28 and 29. While strikes were major disruptors to European terminal handling operations, McRoberts highlighted structural issues that were contributory factors to the ongoing congestion. “We have seen fewer port calls combined with an increase in average vessel sizes as alliances and services have consolidated in Europe,” she told the Journal of Commerce webcast. “We have also seen longer pre-berth waiting times, often paired with extended terminal stays and driven by larger vessels with higher load factors.” Seasonal patterns changing Shifting seasonal patterns are also not doing Europe’s container terminals any favors. "In 2025, peak seasons have been messed about all year,” McRoberts said. “The disruption caused by US tariff announcements [on European imports] created bubbles of volume and surges in demand, which in turn created congestion in peak seasons or periods where we wouldn't normally expect strong demand. If you overlay that with labor disputes and changing river levels in, it's like a domino effect that causes pockets of congestion.” Looming over the Asia-Europe trade is the potential return of carriers to Red Sea and Suez Canal transits. The bunching of vessels as those taking the shorter route through the Suez catch up to vessels sailing around Africa is expected to create significant bottlenecks in Europe and Asia. But McRoberts said there would not be an overnight return to the Red Sea. ”We will see a gradual phase-in period so there will be an opportunity for shippers to think about how to plan their cargo needs with carriers and their inventory carrying costs and their networks,” she said. Analysts expect carriers to operate a dual-route strategy for some time once the Red Sea is deemed safe to transit, keeping both the round-Africa sailings and the Suez Canal route in their schedules. When it comes to finding solutions to Europe’s persistent port congestion, there are no short-term answers, according to McRoberts. She said increasing terminal capacity and expanding operations was one solution, but it was a long-term approach. ”We know there is new capacity coming on stream in Rotterdam and some upgrades underway in Antwerp and Hamburg, but they will take time to implement and will not bring short term relief,” she said. McRoberts said smaller scale capacity gains were coming from investment in productivity improvements or in data sharing, but they were having a minimal impact and did not generate an incremental improvement in buffer capacity. ”That doesn’t help when ports hit those periods of congestion, and that’s the fundamental problem with the European port network — it simply has insufficient buffer capacity,” she said. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Europe ports lack buffer space to handle demand surges

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Months of frontloading explain the harsher-than-usual import slowdown in the final months of this year, but uncertain consumer sentiment and ever-changing US tariff policy are keeping retail inventories running lean. </div>

Months of frontloading explain the harsher-than-usual import slowdown in the final months of this year, but uncertain consumer sentiment and ever-changing US tariff policy are keeping retail inventories running lean.

<div class="phx-topic">The end of year in ocean shipping in the US is generally lackluster given that most retailers have already brought their goods into the country and still have a month or two early in the new year to restock. But this end to 2025 and start of 2026 is looking more than just lackluster; it’s a deepening slowdown with no end in sight. The weaker inbound volumes are being felt by transport providers from drayage operators to ocean carriers trying to keep a floor on subdued container spot rates. For at least a year, US importers have been frontloading imports out of fear of higher tariffs, and as American consumers become more cautious, they’re replenishing judiciously. US retailers <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-retailers-throttle-back-on-imports-amid-uncertain-consumer-sentiment-6111471">are forecasting double-digit percentage declines</a> in November and December, and monthly volumes are not expected to exceed 2 million TEUs through March, according to the latest Global Port Tracker (GPT), produced by Hackett Associates and the National Retail Federation (NRF). Months of frontloading explain the harsher-than-usual import slowdown in the final months of this year, but uncertain consumer sentiment and ever-changing US tariff policy are keeping retail inventories running lean. “These conditions make market forecasting highly uncertain,” said Ben Hackett, the consultancy’s founder. “Our trade outlook is for a small decline in imports this year compared with 2024 and a further, larger decline in the first quarter of 2026.” US container volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% year over year, according to Moody’s Ratings. Comparably, volumes are to end this year in the range of no growth to an up to 1% retraction compared with 2024, the ratings agency stated in a research note released Tuesday. Winter holiday sales are anticipated to grow 3.2% this year, a notably slower pace than the 4.8% expansion recorded last year, according to S&amp;P Global. That slowdown comes as consumer prices rise and job gains slow, with unemployment rising from 4.3% in August to 4.4% in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the US economy keeps expanding, with manufacturing activity growing in October to a reading of 52.2 from 52.5 in the prior month as assessed by S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence’s US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index.<div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e303e2ee-5389-46af-85b9-111d4f8c34b5"></dynamic-object></div>“Critically, this downshift in [retail] growth is an untimely reminder of consumers’ precarious position; they have managed to continue spending despite the ebb and flow of prices in recent years, but each time their steps have been more measured,” said Michael Zdinak, who leads US consumer markets services at S&amp;P Global. The US consumer price index (CPI) in September expanded 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis, with annual inflation at 3%, reflecting “modest price pressures continuing to affect household budget,” according to the CPI report. The 43-day US federal government shutdown delayed the October release of the US CPI and contributed to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index falling for the second straight month — and to its lowest reading since May — in November. Retailers have noted the change in consumers. Home Depot, for example, cited concerns over affordability and jobs, lowering its outlook for the rest of its fiscal 2025 year, which ends in January. “The economic uncertainty continues, largely now due to living costs,” Ted Decker, the chair, president and CEO of the home improvement retailer, said during a Nov. 18 third-quarter earnings call. “Affordability is a word that’s being used a lot. Layoffs, increased job concerns, etc. So that’s why we don’t see an uptick in that underlying storm-adjusted demand in the business.” It’s not surprising then that retailers are making sure they have just enough product on hand. US inventory-to-retail sales ratios for retailers have hovered between 1.28 and 1.32, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, suggesting that despite the frontloading of imports in the first half of the year, stocks remain lean. Retailers appear to be extending that strategy into the new year; the GPT report forecasts imports will fall 12.2% year over year to 5.62 million TEUs in the first quarter of 2026. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="0302a4da-1012-4174-970d-3888b1ecc536"></dynamic-object></div><h3>‘A bit of a freefall’ </h3>Laden US imports this year peaked in July at 2.6 million TEUs, before sliding 4.6% year over year between August and October, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. But it’s volumes from Asia that have seen the worst of the drop-off, with inbound shipments, including those from India, falling 5.6% in August–October, according to PIERS. Facing a US tariff rate of approximately 47%, laden imports from China plunged 16.7% year over year in the same three-month period.<div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="b2c4ed98-5885-4436-931d-5f035f537df1"></dynamic-object></div>The weakening Asia trade as of mid-November had dragged so-called bullet rates — prices quoted for specific voyages — from Asia to the US West Coast to below $1,400 per FEU. Spot rates to the West Coast, as measured by various indexes, are down 30% to 60% year over year, depending on the index and trade lane. Ocean carriers’ biweekly attempts to impose general rate increases have failed, lifting pricing for a just few days before they continue their descent. In 10 of 12 weeks from the end of July through mid-October, trans-Pacific spot rates even fell below the average long-term service contract rate of approximately $1,600 per FEU, according to rate benchmarking firm Xeneta.<div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="cb72bd0b-98b7-487c-8228-ec175a90826b"></dynamic-object></div>“Prices, again, are just in a bit of a freefall,” Sanjay Tejwani, CEO of consulting firm 365 Logistics, told the Journal of Commerce. Ocean carriers “have done what they can,” using blank sailings and shifting vessels between trades to try to match demand, “but it’s too little, too late.” Yet, there hasn’t been a notable scramble among cargo owners to reopen service contracts, which typically expire at the end of April. Forwarders have also been increasingly blending spot and contract rates for cargo owners to find a better medium for the market to offer customers. “We’ve not seen any big movements on contracts being open now, since the contracts have been trending down during Q3, and it was not very timely for people to do when they know they have the negotiation coming soon and as long as things are moving their way,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call Nov. 6, adding that customers have generally been meeting their allocated contract volumes. Despite the lower spot rates and weaker outlook, container lines haven’t pulled out services and have blanked capacity at levels similar to past years. In fact, ocean carriers plan to add more capacity from Asia to the US in December, according to maritime intelligence provider eeSea.Contact Mark Szakonyi at <a href="mailto:mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com">mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com</a>. Associate Editor Laura Robb contributed to this report. </div>

The end of year in ocean shipping in the US is generally lackluster given that most retailers have already brought their goods into the country and still have a month or two early in the new year to restock. But this end to 2025 and start of 2026 is looking more than just lackluster; it’s a deepening slowdown with no end in sight. The weaker inbound volumes are being felt by transport providers from drayage operators to ocean carriers trying to keep a floor on subdued container spot rates. For at least a year, US importers have been frontloading imports out of fear of higher tariffs, and as American consumers become more cautious, they’re replenishing judiciously. US retailers are forecasting double-digit percentage declines in November and December, and monthly volumes are not expected to exceed 2 million TEUs through March, according to the latest Global Port Tracker (GPT), produced by Hackett Associates and the National Retail Federation (NRF). Months of frontloading explain the harsher-than-usual import slowdown in the final months of this year, but uncertain consumer sentiment and ever-changing US tariff policy are keeping retail inventories running lean. “These conditions make market forecasting highly uncertain,” said Ben Hackett, the consultancy’s founder. “Our trade outlook is for a small decline in imports this year compared with 2024 and a further, larger decline in the first quarter of 2026.” US container volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% year over year, according to Moody’s Ratings. Comparably, volumes are to end this year in the range of no growth to an up to 1% retraction compared with 2024, the ratings agency stated in a research note released Tuesday. Winter holiday sales are anticipated to grow 3.2% this year, a notably slower pace than the 4.8% expansion recorded last year, according to S&P Global. That slowdown comes as consumer prices rise and job gains slow, with unemployment rising from 4.3% in August to 4.4% in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the US economy keeps expanding, with manufacturing activity growing in October to a reading of 52.2 from 52.5 in the prior month as assessed by S&P Global Market Intelligence’s US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index. “Critically, this downshift in [retail] growth is an untimely reminder of consumers’ precarious position; they have managed to continue spending despite the ebb and flow of prices in recent years, but each time their steps have been more measured,” said Michael Zdinak, who leads US consumer markets services at S&P Global. The US consumer price index (CPI) in September expanded 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis, with annual inflation at 3%, reflecting “modest price pressures continuing to affect household budget,” according to the CPI report. The 43-day US federal government shutdown delayed the October release of the US CPI and contributed to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index falling for the second straight month — and to its lowest reading since May — in November. Retailers have noted the change in consumers. Home Depot, for example, cited concerns over affordability and jobs, lowering its outlook for the rest of its fiscal 2025 year, which ends in January. “The economic uncertainty continues, largely now due to living costs,” Ted Decker, the chair, president and CEO of the home improvement retailer, said during a Nov. 18 third-quarter earnings call. “Affordability is a word that’s being used a lot. Layoffs, increased job concerns, etc. So that’s why we don’t see an uptick in that underlying storm-adjusted demand in the business.” It’s not surprising then that retailers are making sure they have just enough product on hand. US inventory-to-retail sales ratios for retailers have hovered between 1.28 and 1.32, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, suggesting that despite the frontloading of imports in the first half of the year, stocks remain lean. Retailers appear to be extending that strategy into the new year; the GPT report forecasts imports will fall 12.2% year over year to 5.62 million TEUs in the first quarter of 2026. ‘A bit of a freefall’ Laden US imports this year peaked in July at 2.6 million TEUs, before sliding 4.6% year over year between August and October, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. But it’s volumes from Asia that have seen the worst of the drop-off, with inbound shipments, including those from India, falling 5.6% in August–October, according to PIERS. Facing a US tariff rate of approximately 47%, laden imports from China plunged 16.7% year over year in the same three-month period. The weakening Asia trade as of mid-November had dragged so-called bullet rates — prices quoted for specific voyages — from Asia to the US West Coast to below $1,400 per FEU. Spot rates to the West Coast, as measured by various indexes, are down 30% to 60% year over year, depending on the index and trade lane. Ocean carriers’ biweekly attempts to impose general rate increases have failed, lifting pricing for a just few days before they continue their descent. In 10 of 12 weeks from the end of July through mid-October, trans-Pacific spot rates even fell below the average long-term service contract rate of approximately $1,600 per FEU, according to rate benchmarking firm Xeneta. “Prices, again, are just in a bit of a freefall,” Sanjay Tejwani, CEO of consulting firm 365 Logistics, told the Journal of Commerce. Ocean carriers “have done what they can,” using blank sailings and shifting vessels between trades to try to match demand, “but it’s too little, too late.” Yet, there hasn’t been a notable scramble among cargo owners to reopen service contracts, which typically expire at the end of April. Forwarders have also been increasingly blending spot and contract rates for cargo owners to find a better medium for the market to offer customers. “We’ve not seen any big movements on contracts being open now, since the contracts have been trending down during Q3, and it was not very timely for people to do when they know they have the negotiation coming soon and as long as things are moving their way,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call Nov. 6, adding that customers have generally been meeting their allocated contract volumes. Despite the lower spot rates and weaker outlook, container lines haven’t pulled out services and have blanked capacity at levels similar to past years. In fact, ocean carriers plan to add more capacity from Asia to the US in December, according to maritime intelligence provider eeSea. Contact Mark Szakonyi at  mark.szakonyi@spglobal.com . Associate Editor Laura Robb contributed to this report.

Slump of US imports from Asia deepening

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The ocean carrier said it still needs approvals from insurers and others, but the ceasefire in Gaza appears to be holding. </div>

The ocean carrier said it still needs approvals from insurers and others, but the ceasefire in Gaza appears to be holding.

<div class="phx-topic">Zim Integrated Shipping Services is preparing to route its ships through the Suez Canal, possibly as soon as 2026. The ocean carrier added that a return to Red Sea transits will further weaken freight rates, with Zim planning to return some chartered ships to reduce its fleet size. Chief Executive Eli Glickman said that the Israel-based Zim still needs the approval of its insurers and the owners of chartered vessels for a return to Suez routings. But “the current cease fire in Gaza is encouraging progress,” he said Thursday during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call. Zim reported a 90% plunge in profits on weaker freight pricing. “We believe that a return to the Suez Canal in the near future now appears increasingly likely,” Glickman said. “We are preparing an operational plan to support this transition once the security situation has stabilized.” The Houthi rebels operating in Yemen earlier this month <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/houthi-pause-on-shipping-attacks-lowers-tensions-but-risk-remains-6114790">signaled they will pause attacks</a> on Israel and commercial shipping, but would resume attacks in the Red Sea if the Gaza ceasefire ended.Glickman added that while the shorter route through the Suez Canal will mean lower operating costs, “it will also increase effective vessel supply currently tied up by longer routes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding pressure on freight rates.” Zim, which charters most of its 115 container ships from other owners, is reducing its fleet size in response to further rate pressure. The company returned 22 chartered ships so far in 2025, reducing its fleet capacity by some 80,000 TEUs. Another three charters are ending this year, while another 17 are up for renewal next year, amounting to another 80,000 TEUs of capacity Zim could shed. Chief Financial Officer Xavier Destriau said Zim used short-term charters on smaller Panamax ships to supplement its capacity throughout 2021 and 2022. Going forward, Destriau said Zim will lean more on its “core” fleet of 46 long-term chartered ships and 16-owned ships, which are primarily in the 8,000- to 11,500-TEU range. “I think 2025 was clearly a downward trend in terms of operated tonnage,” he said. “We need to acknowledge that <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/strong-secondhand-container-ship-demand-defies-deteriorating-market-6077759">the charter market is still elevated</a>. So, it’s expensive to reach out the tonnage at a time when the revenue per TEU carried is under pressure.” <h3>Latin America, Southeast Asia trades in focus </h3>Zim reported third-quarter earnings of $1.02 per share, which was in line with analyst estimates but a 90% drop from the year-earlier quarter. The company largely stuck to its original full-year 2025 profit forecast. Third-quarter volumes decreased 4.5% from a year earlier to 926,000 TEUs. Its trans-Pacific volume was down slightly to 414,000 TEUs for the quarter. But its trans-Atlantic and intra-Mediterranean saw bigger respective drops of 27,000 TEUs and 21,000 TEUs for the quarter. <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/zim-signals-changes-to-med-network-amid-apparent-turkish-port-ban-6069871">Zim redirected intra-Mediterranean services away from Turkey</a> in August due to that country’s ban on Israeli-linked shipping. The average rate Zim saw during the quarter was $1,602 per forty-foot equivalent unit, a 35% drop from a year earlier. While the current trade truce between the US and China could benefit volumes, Glickman said the long-term trend of decoupling between the two countries will shape its network decisions. In place of the US-China trade, Glickman said Zim will direct its capacity at Southeast Asia and Latin America. For the first nine months of 2025, Zim saw its Latin America container volumes grow 10% while its intra-Asia volumes grew 8%. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Zim Integrated Shipping Services is preparing to route its ships through the Suez Canal, possibly as soon as 2026. The ocean carrier added that a return to Red Sea transits will further weaken freight rates, with Zim planning to return some chartered ships to reduce its fleet size. Chief Executive Eli Glickman said that the Israel-based Zim still needs the approval of its insurers and the owners of chartered vessels for a return to Suez routings. But “the current cease fire in Gaza is encouraging progress,” he said Thursday during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call. Zim reported a 90% plunge in profits on weaker freight pricing. “We believe that a return to the Suez Canal in the near future now appears increasingly likely,” Glickman said. “We are preparing an operational plan to support this transition once the security situation has stabilized.” The Houthi rebels operating in Yemen earlier this month signaled they will pause attacks on Israel and commercial shipping, but would resume attacks in the Red Sea if the Gaza ceasefire ended. Glickman added that while the shorter route through the Suez Canal will mean lower operating costs, “it will also increase effective vessel supply currently tied up by longer routes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding pressure on freight rates.” Zim, which charters most of its 115 container ships from other owners, is reducing its fleet size in response to further rate pressure. The company returned 22 chartered ships so far in 2025, reducing its fleet capacity by some 80,000 TEUs. Another three charters are ending this year, while another 17 are up for renewal next year, amounting to another 80,000 TEUs of capacity Zim could shed. Chief Financial Officer Xavier Destriau said Zim used short-term charters on smaller Panamax ships to supplement its capacity throughout 2021 and 2022. Going forward, Destriau said Zim will lean more on its “core” fleet of 46 long-term chartered ships and 16-owned ships, which are primarily in the 8,000- to 11,500-TEU range. “I think 2025 was clearly a downward trend in terms of operated tonnage,” he said. “We need to acknowledge that the charter market is still elevated . So, it’s expensive to reach out the tonnage at a time when the revenue per TEU carried is under pressure.” Latin America, Southeast Asia trades in focus Zim reported third-quarter earnings of $1.02 per share, which was in line with analyst estimates but a 90% drop from the year-earlier quarter. The company largely stuck to its original full-year 2025 profit forecast. Third-quarter volumes decreased 4.5% from a year earlier to 926,000 TEUs. Its trans-Pacific volume was down slightly to 414,000 TEUs for the quarter. But its trans-Atlantic and intra-Mediterranean saw bigger respective drops of 27,000 TEUs and 21,000 TEUs for the quarter. Zim redirected intra-Mediterranean services away from Turkey in August due to that country’s ban on Israeli-linked shipping. The average rate Zim saw during the quarter was $1,602 per forty-foot equivalent unit, a 35% drop from a year earlier. While the current trade truce between the US and China could benefit volumes, Glickman said the long-term trend of decoupling between the two countries will shape its network decisions. In place of the US-China trade, Glickman said Zim will direct its capacity at Southeast Asia and Latin America. For the first nine months of 2025, Zim saw its Latin America container volumes grow 10% while its intra-Asia volumes grew 8%. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Zim CEO sees ‘likely’ return to Suez Canal transits soon

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Key cost elements for brokers are the amount of time they spend assembling bid responses and the lack of coordination between pricing analysts and sales teams that interact with shippers.</div>

Key cost elements for brokers are the amount of time they spend assembling bid responses and the lack of coordination between pricing analysts and sales teams that interact with shippers.

<div class="phx-topic">A potentially perilous truckload market for carriers and brokers is raising questions on whether the traditional request for proposal (RFP) process that shippers use to secure contract rates from brokers and carriers is overly cumbersome. Dry van rates on new contracts are, on average, 1% to 2% lower than the rates they are replacing, Chris Caplice, chief scientist at DAT Freight &amp; Analytics, said in a market update Tuesday. And Journal of Commerce truckload pricing data shows that current broker-to-shipper dry van spot rates are 3% lower than contract rates. That places even more pressure on brokers, in particular, to maintain margin on their sell prices to shippers, given 90% of truckload volume nominally moves on contract rates. Key cost elements for brokers are the amount of time they spend assembling bid responses and the lack of coordination between pricing analysts and sales teams that interact with shippers, Eric Williams, CEO of truckload sales support software vendor Beagl, said on the Nov. 14 episode of TPM Today. Williams, a former executive with Target, DAT and XPO Logistics, said the average top 100 brokerage can spend 3,000 to 4,000 hours a year responding to bids from shippers. “RFPs take a long time to put together and respond to,” he said. “And sales is selling a rate on a page because pricing analysts don’t have enough time to put together a true value prop. I knew that because I had priced a lot of bids [during his time as a broker at XPO]. And then at Target I recognized all the disjointed processes that go on at a broker. I felt that as a shipper.” <h3>Disjointed process </h3>Williams’ contention is that brokers don’t gather enough information from their current and prospective customers to make informed decisions on the breadth of a shipper’s bid, and that shippers generally lack information about their capacity providers’ networks. So both go in relatively blind to the RFP production and response process. Beagl’s main goal is to help brokers and for-hire carriers get more organized to respond to those bids. “The broker can sit in front of the customer and go lane by lane and say, ‘here are the lanes I want feedback on,’ versus the normal approach of ‘there are 4,000 lanes on your bid, I’m green on 300 of them, how much freight are you going to give me?’” Williams said. “The brokerage community is generally ‘we’ll take whatever we can get.’” That approach is hindering the brokerage industry, Dave Broering, former president of integrated logistics at NFI and now an advisor to a range of logistics technology companies, told the Journal of Commerce. “Most brokers are just lobbing their rates back over the fence and not adding a lot of context to what they want or where they feel they can add value,” he said. “This is a huge issue for the industry and the general ‘blanket approach’ to quoting everything and not articulating value is something that hangs over all the providers in the industry where the many are making it tough for the few who really do try to be prescriptive in their approach.” Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT, said much the same in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Friday. “The biggest misconception I see in freight brokerage pricing is that you’re competing against the most sophisticated competition to win shipper bids,” he wrote. “In reality, you’re competing against your dumbest competitors who either don’t know or don’t care about market dynamics and will bail as soon as the market moves against them. Outside of driving the truck, pricing freight as a broker is the most difficult job in logistics.” <h3>Prediction assistance </h3>Technology won’t necessarily help brokers avoid the part of the cycle where their fixed sell rate drops below the spot buy rate, a scenario that squeezes margins and can theoretically spell the end of the broker. But it can help them predict when that will happen. “So they can look at their capacity solution and peek out in front and say, ‘OK, I’ve got all these shipments out of the Pacific Northwest,’” he said. “‘Those are going to be more difficult to cover in November and December, but I have core carriers to cover those. Or, if I don’t, I know I have some work to do.’” Williams said the RFP represents “the single greatest revenue opportunity for each individual broker, but the processes are incredibly disjointed.” Those 3,000 to 4,000 hours spent annually responding to bids, which equates to 1.5 to two full-time employees, goes up for brokers “doing it right” and not just responding to bids with stale rate sheets. On the high end of the spectrum, a top five broker is likely employing 15 to 20 pricing analysts in a bid to get their pricing right on each lane, he said. Broering said NFI had a process that enabled the broker to respond to bids quickly “and without a ton of effort,” but that most brokers outside of the top 100 find the process “highly challenging as it’s a manual and bespoke process.” <h3>Normalization headache </h3>“The biggest time suck in these is the ‘normalization’ of the pricing template,” he said. “Most bids are a different format, but the pricing tools that people use have a standard template. So a ton of time is used to get that data out of the shipper-specific template and into the format where the broker can use it.” He added that “very few things [anger] a shipper faster than [screwing] up their internal analysis because you transposed data wrong, but I’m not sure there is much that can be done on the shipper side here because of the number of RFPs that are handled internally and in Excel.” Broering said it’s unclear whether most shippers even care if the broker is able to target relevant parts of a shipper’s business because their bid process, and lack of focus on data quality, doesn’t support the idea they do. “If they actually did [care], they would create a process that allows for brokers to express that via the RFP,” he said. “Many [shippers] require brokers to fill out the whole bid to participate. Why? What’s the goal of that? How does that help this industry break out of that? Another way to do it would be for shippers to actually work hard to cleanse the data they are putting in the RFPs and have it represent some decent amount of what they can actually award. If I had $1 for every lane I had been awarded but never received, I could buy us both very nice homes in the Caribbean.” Williams said his time at Target informed how shippers view the bid process, and where Beagl could help brokers and asset providers. Of Beagl’s initial 25 customers, about 80% are brokers and the rest are carriers. “One of the difficult things about RFPs as a shipper is you don’t necessarily have a great view into your partners’ networks,” he said. “At Target we went after that.” That included asking carriers to specify their “power lanes,” at which point Williams said he found out that a 300-truck fleet might only have four or five so-called power lanes. “And then I wanted to know at the origin point, were they deficit or surplus?” he said. “I wanted to partner with them where they were surplus because if I got them back into a deficit market, it was a match made in heaven. You could make the rate work, and the service was going to be there because they had surplus capacity and they needed to get back to service another customer and so they would prioritize you.” Williams said Beagl is far from the only technology player taking aim at the RFP process. Transfix, the former digital broker that sold its brokerage business to NFI and now sells technology to brokers, is another such example. “There are other great tools out there,” he said. “As brokers get more organized, that should translate into a little bit more smoothing of strategy and helping improve things.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

A potentially perilous truckload market for carriers and brokers is raising questions on whether the traditional request for proposal (RFP) process that shippers use to secure contract rates from brokers and carriers is overly cumbersome. Dry van rates on new contracts are, on average, 1% to 2% lower than the rates they are replacing, Chris Caplice, chief scientist at DAT Freight & Analytics, said in a market update Tuesday. And Journal of Commerce truckload pricing data shows that current broker-to-shipper dry van spot rates are 3% lower than contract rates. That places even more pressure on brokers, in particular, to maintain margin on their sell prices to shippers, given 90% of truckload volume nominally moves on contract rates. Key cost elements for brokers are the amount of time they spend assembling bid responses and the lack of coordination between pricing analysts and sales teams that interact with shippers, Eric Williams, CEO of truckload sales support software vendor Beagl, said on the Nov. 14 episode of TPM Today. Williams, a former executive with Target, DAT and XPO Logistics, said the average top 100 brokerage can spend 3,000 to 4,000 hours a year responding to bids from shippers. “RFPs take a long time to put together and respond to,” he said. “And sales is selling a rate on a page because pricing analysts don’t have enough time to put together a true value prop. I knew that because I had priced a lot of bids [during his time as a broker at XPO]. And then at Target I recognized all the disjointed processes that go on at a broker. I felt that as a shipper.” Disjointed process Williams’ contention is that brokers don’t gather enough information from their current and prospective customers to make informed decisions on the breadth of a shipper’s bid, and that shippers generally lack information about their capacity providers’ networks. So both go in relatively blind to the RFP production and response process. Beagl’s main goal is to help brokers and for-hire carriers get more organized to respond to those bids. “The broker can sit in front of the customer and go lane by lane and say, ‘here are the lanes I want feedback on,’ versus the normal approach of ‘there are 4,000 lanes on your bid, I’m green on 300 of them, how much freight are you going to give me?’” Williams said. “The brokerage community is generally ‘we’ll take whatever we can get.’” That approach is hindering the brokerage industry, Dave Broering, former president of integrated logistics at NFI and now an advisor to a range of logistics technology companies, told the Journal of Commerce. “Most brokers are just lobbing their rates back over the fence and not adding a lot of context to what they want or where they feel they can add value,” he said. “This is a huge issue for the industry and the general ‘blanket approach’ to quoting everything and not articulating value is something that hangs over all the providers in the industry where the many are making it tough for the few who really do try to be prescriptive in their approach.” Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT, said much the same in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Friday. “The biggest misconception I see in freight brokerage pricing is that you’re competing against the most sophisticated competition to win shipper bids,” he wrote. “In reality, you’re competing against your dumbest competitors who either don’t know or don’t care about market dynamics and will bail as soon as the market moves against them. Outside of driving the truck, pricing freight as a broker is the most difficult job in logistics.” Prediction assistance Technology won’t necessarily help brokers avoid the part of the cycle where their fixed sell rate drops below the spot buy rate, a scenario that squeezes margins and can theoretically spell the end of the broker. But it can help them predict when that will happen. “So they can look at their capacity solution and peek out in front and say, ‘OK, I’ve got all these shipments out of the Pacific Northwest,’” he said. “‘Those are going to be more difficult to cover in November and December, but I have core carriers to cover those. Or, if I don’t, I know I have some work to do.’” Williams said the RFP represents “the single greatest revenue opportunity for each individual broker, but the processes are incredibly disjointed.” Those 3,000 to 4,000 hours spent annually responding to bids, which equates to 1.5 to two full-time employees, goes up for brokers “doing it right” and not just responding to bids with stale rate sheets. On the high end of the spectrum, a top five broker is likely employing 15 to 20 pricing analysts in a bid to get their pricing right on each lane, he said. Broering said NFI had a process that enabled the broker to respond to bids quickly “and without a ton of effort,” but that most brokers outside of the top 100 find the process “highly challenging as it’s a manual and bespoke process.” Normalization headache “The biggest time suck in these is the ‘normalization’ of the pricing template,” he said. “Most bids are a different format, but the pricing tools that people use have a standard template. So a ton of time is used to get that data out of the shipper-specific template and into the format where the broker can use it.” He added that “very few things [anger] a shipper faster than [screwing] up their internal analysis because you transposed data wrong, but I’m not sure there is much that can be done on the shipper side here because of the number of RFPs that are handled internally and in Excel.” Broering said it’s unclear whether most shippers even care if the broker is able to target relevant parts of a shipper’s business because their bid process, and lack of focus on data quality, doesn’t support the idea they do. “If they actually did [care], they would create a process that allows for brokers to express that via the RFP,” he said. “Many [shippers] require brokers to fill out the whole bid to participate. Why? What’s the goal of that? How does that help this industry break out of that? Another way to do it would be for shippers to actually work hard to cleanse the data they are putting in the RFPs and have it represent some decent amount of what they can actually award. If I had $1 for every lane I had been awarded but never received, I could buy us both very nice homes in the Caribbean.” Williams said his time at Target informed how shippers view the bid process, and where Beagl could help brokers and asset providers. Of Beagl’s initial 25 customers, about 80% are brokers and the rest are carriers. “One of the difficult things about RFPs as a shipper is you don’t necessarily have a great view into your partners’ networks,” he said. “At Target we went after that.” That included asking carriers to specify their “power lanes,” at which point Williams said he found out that a 300-truck fleet might only have four or five so-called power lanes. “And then I wanted to know at the origin point, were they deficit or surplus?” he said. “I wanted to partner with them where they were surplus because if I got them back into a deficit market, it was a match made in heaven. You could make the rate work, and the service was going to be there because they had surplus capacity and they needed to get back to service another customer and so they would prioritize you.” Williams said Beagl is far from the only technology player taking aim at the RFP process. Transfix, the former digital broker that sold its brokerage business to NFI and now sells technology to brokers, is another such example. “There are other great tools out there,” he said. “As brokers get more organized, that should translate into a little bit more smoothing of strategy and helping improve things.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Low truckload rates putting pressure on traditional RFP process

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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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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

In 1995, we began operations with a clear vision: to grow alongside Mexico and connect the world through our terminals. Our priority has always been to deliver excellence in service, foster economic development, and strengthen our communities. We firmly believe that progress is not only measured in tons of cargo moved, but in the opportunities we create. _______________________________________________________________ This year marks a significant milestone: SSA Marine Mexico celebrates 30 years of presence in the country, having established itself from day one as the leading port operator nationwide. Over the past three decades, we have built a legacy of reliability, innovation, and commitment to Mexico’s growth. Our journey has been defined by continuous evolution and a steadfast dedication to our mission. SSA Marine México currently operates in six of the country’s most important ports: Cozumel, Lazaro Cardenas, Manzanillo, Progreso, Tuxpan, and Veracruz. Additionally, we have signed a concession to operate a new multipurpose terminal in Guaymas, Sonora, expanding our footprint to the north of the country. We serve a wide range of segments including containers, general cargo, automobiles, cruise ships, hydrocarbons, and asphalt. As part of this ongoing commitment, SSA Marine Mexico continues to strengthen its infrastructure and capabilities. International trade remains a key driver of global economic growth, and we are proud to support this momentum. Through our continuous improvement strategy, we invest in cutting-edge technology and equipment to deliver more efficient and competitive services, contributing to the success of Mexican businesses. •	Manzanillo, Colima- Specialized Container Terminal I: On October 13, we celebrated the arrival of two new STS (Ship To Shore) Super Post Panamax dockside cranes. This $21.2 million USD investment significantly boosts our operational capacity, streamlining cargo reception and delivery processes. In line with our modernization efforts, we will also retire four of our oldest cranes, paving the way for a more sustainable and technologically advanced fleet that meets the evolving demands of international trade. With these upgrades, SSA Marine México now operates a total of 16 cranes along our 1,350-meter dock, reaffirming our position as a national benchmark in port <span class="joc_admin__inline-image joc_admin__inline-image-aspect-ratio-4_3 joc_admin__inline-image-position-left joc_admin__inline-image-size-large" data-figure-size="large" data-figure-position="left" data-figure-aspect-ratio="4:3"><img src="/content-assets/1760982635607_Manzanillo.jpg" alt="Image provided by SSA Marine" class="joc_admin__inline-image-inherit"> •	As for the Multipurpose Terminal and Specialized Facility, also in Manzanillo, Colima, improvement and conditioning works are planned, along with the acquisition of four E-RTG (Electric Rubber-Tyred Gantry) cranes to enhance operational efficiency and sustainability. •	At our Automobile and General Cargo Terminal in the port of Veracruz, we continue to lead with specialized value-added services that support our clients’ growth. Recent investments include a new washing cabin and a general cargo warehouse, increasing indoor storage capacity by 67%. •	Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan – Specialized Automobile Terminal: we are working on the development of an additional 4-hectare storage space within our bonded area and a 10-hectare Vehicle Distribution Center (VDC). These enhancements, along with ongoing personnel and system improvements, will reinforce our leadership in automotive handling across the Mexican Pacific coast.<span class="joc_admin__inline-image joc_admin__inline-image-aspect-ratio-4_3 joc_admin__inline-image-position-left joc_admin__inline-image-size-large" data-figure-size="large" data-figure-position="left" data-figure-aspect-ratio="4:3"><img src="/content-assets/1760982742240_Lazaro.jpg" alt="Image provided by SSA Marine" class="joc_admin__inline-image-inherit"> Through these strategic investments, SSA Marine Mexico reaffirms its commitment to the sustained growth of Mexico’s foreign trade. By expanding capacity, modernizing infrastructure, and diversifying services, we continue to strengthen the country’s competitiveness in global logistics. Today, we celebrate three decades of dedication, innovation, and leadership, with deep gratitude to our employees, clients, and partners for being part of this incredible journey. LINK: https://www.ssamarine.mx/<span class="joc_admin__inline-image joc_admin__inline-image-aspect-ratio-16_9 joc_admin__inline-image-position-left joc_admin__inline-image-size-small" data-figure-size="small" data-figure-position="left" data-figure-aspect-ratio="16:9"><img src="/content-assets/1760982787360_SSA%20Marine%20Mexico%20logo%20150pxW.png" alt="" class="joc_admin__inline-image-inherit">

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SSA Marine Mexico: 30 years growing together.

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