<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">How to use:Trade leads are sent to the USDA from U.S. agricultural attaches, counselors and </div>

How to use:Trade leads are sent to the USDA from U.S. agricultural attaches, counselors and

<div>How to use:Trade leads are sent to the USDA from U.S. agricultural attaches, counselors and agricultural trade officers posted overseas. Questions regarding a specific lead should be directed to the foreign buyer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not guarantee the reliability of the overseas inquirer who is requesting U.S. food and agricultural products. While the USDA makes every effort to reproduce the request as accurately as possible, the USDA does not assume responsibility for any erroneous information that may have been supplied.Other information:For additional assistance and information on export services provided by the USDA, contact the AgExport Services Division...

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

AGRICULTURAL TRADE LEADS

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A former DOT deputy assistant secretary in the Biden administration says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create a scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers.</div>

A former DOT deputy assistant secretary in the Biden administration says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create a scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">A new venture launched by a former US Transportation Department official is attempting in a novel way to create an alternative for container shippers and carriers who are forced into the spot market when market conditions disincentivize shipping under signed contracts. Shippers typically get forced into the spot market in tight markets when their actual volume exceeds weekly contracted allocations (minimum quantity commitments, or MQCs), a scenario many would prefer to avoid. Carriers, meanwhile, must turn to the spot market to fill their ships when booked cargo fails to show up at the port, known as downfalls. But Andrew Petrisin, a former DOT deputy assistant secretary for multimodal freight who led the FLOW project under the Biden administration, says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create an alternative scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers. He’s created an online platform called Laneway that attempts to achieve exactly that. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6130493_0.1.jpg"></img></div>For shippers, being able to buy or sell tradable reservations, what Petrisin calls "Allocation Equivalent Units," would enable them to ship under their existing carrier contracts, supporting their carrier relationships without having to direct cargo through third parties in periods when their volumes exceed their weekly contracted allocation. It avoids shippers having to go to the spot market given the uncertain costs and the need to juggle various spot quotes. By using the system, shippers can acquire or dispose of weekly allocations in the frequent scenario when their weekly volume diverges from their weekly allocation due to the vagaries of manufacturing output and other factors. For carriers, the opportunity is to reduce downfalls, which can exceed 30% on certain sailings, while keeping business – and margins – that would otherwise be captured in the spot, or freight-all-kinds (FAK), market. For both shippers and carriers, these outcomes would be the result of guaranteed slot reservations sold by carriers to shippers and then traded freely thereafter, whether among shippers or between shippers and non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOs) for use by the NVOs’ named accounts. “It’s a market that allows the reservation to be tradable,” Petrisin told the Journal of Commerce. “The carrier sets the initial price; the shipper pays at the point of sale, and then after that it trades freely.” <h3>Addressing a core issue </h3>In effect, Laneway is addressing a core issue of risk management in a chaotic container shipping environment, where shippers see their cargo shut out from capacity, jeopardizing revenues and customer relationships. Others are trying to solve the same problem in different ways, such as container freight futures. Under that scenario, the shipper signs an index-linked contract that avoids their rates becoming unappealing to the carrier, and then hedges adverse price movements using container freight futures. Laneway’s tradable reservations, whose price would fluctuate on the free market, are not derivatives like container freight futures but rather the guaranteed right to capacity under shippers’ existing contracts. ”Laneway doesn’t dictate the price, but I imagine the price will fluctuate based on the week of the year, overall market conditions, and other factors,” Petrisin said. While at DOT, Petrisin led development of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW, a well-regarded initiative kept active by the Trump administration that enables players to monitor capacity and enable them to proactively identify and respond to delays. The Laneway idea, by being tied to contracts versus the spot market, contrasts with a number of carrier spot product offerings that offer both quotes and guaranteed space. These include Maersk Spot, Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes Spot, Evergreen’s GreenX, and ONE’s ONE Quote. Other carrier spot products allow for quotes, but without space confirmation. <h3>Could FAK market shrink? </h3>The ability to access guaranteed space in the contract domain has been lacking, Petrisin said. “While some contract products now offer guaranteed space, you can’t flexibly manage that guaranteed space as your volume changes,” he said. According to Petrisin, creating fungible contract allocations through tradable slot capacity, if the concept takes off, could shrink the FAK market. However, as he sees it, this wouldn’t eliminate or threaten the forwarder; while their traditional NVOCC business may decrease, forwarders can facilitate capacity trades for their shippers in their role as order managers and receive a cut of the market commission. Petrisin is building a pipeline of carriers, forwarders and shippers to begin listing and trading reservations, including having shippers reach out to the carriers to indicate their interest in buying this new product. ”This is all about aligning incentives between parties for a positive sum outcome, which is a core lesson I took away from FLOW,” he said. Petrisin said a system of tradable reservations would help reduce no-show rates that can exceed 30% for specific sailings, which force carriers onto the spot market to fill ships at the last minute, or sail underutilized. "Much of the current spot market is 'spillover' from the contract market,” he said. “There will always be a true spot market for shippers who need one-off bookings on a given lane, but by eliminating the 'spillover' market we will cut costs for shippers, increase profits for carriers, and provide forwarders more reliable revenue. ”Carriers care about rate then service, and shippers care about service then rate,” he added. “A tradable reservation enables both parties to hedge what they care about most.” Contact Peter Tirschwell at <a href="mailto:peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com">peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com.</a></div>

A new venture launched by a former US Transportation Department official is attempting in a novel way to create an alternative for container shippers and carriers who are forced into the spot market when market conditions disincentivize shipping under signed contracts. Shippers typically get forced into the spot market in tight markets when their actual volume exceeds weekly contracted allocations (minimum quantity commitments, or MQCs), a scenario many would prefer to avoid. Carriers, meanwhile, must turn to the spot market to fill their ships when booked cargo fails to show up at the port, known as downfalls. But Andrew Petrisin, a former DOT deputy assistant secretary for multimodal freight who led the FLOW project under the Biden administration, says tradable, guaranteed slot reservations would create an alternative scenario enabling greater efficiencies for both shippers and carriers. He’s created an online platform called Laneway that attempts to achieve exactly that. For shippers, being able to buy or sell tradable reservations, what Petrisin calls "Allocation Equivalent Units," would enable them to ship under their existing carrier contracts, supporting their carrier relationships without having to direct cargo through third parties in periods when their volumes exceed their weekly contracted allocation. It avoids shippers having to go to the spot market given the uncertain costs and the need to juggle various spot quotes. By using the system, shippers can acquire or dispose of weekly allocations in the frequent scenario when their weekly volume diverges from their weekly allocation due to the vagaries of manufacturing output and other factors. For carriers, the opportunity is to reduce downfalls, which can exceed 30% on certain sailings, while keeping business – and margins – that would otherwise be captured in the spot, or freight-all-kinds (FAK), market. For both shippers and carriers, these outcomes would be the result of guaranteed slot reservations sold by carriers to shippers and then traded freely thereafter, whether among shippers or between shippers and non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOs) for use by the NVOs’ named accounts. “It’s a market that allows the reservation to be tradable,” Petrisin told the Journal of Commerce. “The carrier sets the initial price; the shipper pays at the point of sale, and then after that it trades freely.” Addressing a core issue In effect, Laneway is addressing a core issue of risk management in a chaotic container shipping environment, where shippers see their cargo shut out from capacity, jeopardizing revenues and customer relationships. Others are trying to solve the same problem in different ways, such as container freight futures. Under that scenario, the shipper signs an index-linked contract that avoids their rates becoming unappealing to the carrier, and then hedges adverse price movements using container freight futures. Laneway’s tradable reservations, whose price would fluctuate on the free market, are not derivatives like container freight futures but rather the guaranteed right to capacity under shippers’ existing contracts. ”Laneway doesn’t dictate the price, but I imagine the price will fluctuate based on the week of the year, overall market conditions, and other factors,” Petrisin said. While at DOT, Petrisin led development of the Freight Logistics Optimization Works, or FLOW, a well-regarded initiative kept active by the Trump administration that enables players to monitor capacity and enable them to proactively identify and respond to delays. The Laneway idea, by being tied to contracts versus the spot market, contrasts with a number of carrier spot product offerings that offer both quotes and guaranteed space. These include Maersk Spot, Hapag-Lloyd’s Quick Quotes Spot, Evergreen’s GreenX, and ONE’s ONE Quote. Other carrier spot products allow for quotes, but without space confirmation. Could FAK market shrink? The ability to access guaranteed space in the contract domain has been lacking, Petrisin said. “While some contract products now offer guaranteed space, you can’t flexibly manage that guaranteed space as your volume changes,” he said. According to Petrisin, creating fungible contract allocations through tradable slot capacity, if the concept takes off, could shrink the FAK market. However, as he sees it, this wouldn’t eliminate or threaten the forwarder; while their traditional NVOCC business may decrease, forwarders can facilitate capacity trades for their shippers in their role as order managers and receive a cut of the market commission. Petrisin is building a pipeline of carriers, forwarders and shippers to begin listing and trading reservations, including having shippers reach out to the carriers to indicate their interest in buying this new product. ”This is all about aligning incentives between parties for a positive sum outcome, which is a core lesson I took away from FLOW,” he said. Petrisin said a system of tradable reservations would help reduce no-show rates that can exceed 30% for specific sailings, which force carriers onto the spot market to fill ships at the last minute, or sail underutilized. "Much of the current spot market is 'spillover' from the contract market,” he said. “There will always be a true spot market for shippers who need one-off bookings on a given lane, but by eliminating the 'spillover' market we will cut costs for shippers, increase profits for carriers, and provide forwarders more reliable revenue. ”Carriers care about rate then service, and shippers care about service then rate,” he added. “A tradable reservation enables both parties to hedge what they care about most.” Contact Peter Tirschwell at peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com.

Container lines

Forwarding

Container Shipping News

Maritime

New product allows shippers to flex MQC volumes on a weekly basis

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority’s scheduling system is aimed at helping marine terminals better prepare labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. </div>

The Vancouver-Fraser Port Authority’s scheduling system is aimed at helping marine terminals better prepare labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges.

<div class="phx-topic">The completion of a centralized scheduling system at the Port of Vancouver will provide marine terminals with at least four days of advance notice of container ship arrivals, allowing for better labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. The system, launched two years ago by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, helps coordinate the five different types of vessels, ranging from bulk to cruise ships, that call on some 29 marine terminals in three different districts. The port also presents unique navigational challenges, from confined waters to changing river flow conditions, said Capt. Gord Cooper, chair of the Fraser River Pilots Committee. Through the centralized scheduling system, the nearly 450 port stakeholders now have a “port-wide view” of vessel arrivals, said Sean Baxter, the port’s harbor master and director of marine operations. Similar to other North American West Coast ports, Vancouver experiences seasonal container cargo surges tied to the pre-Lunar New Year and holiday shipping seasons. Baxter said the centralized scheduling system will allow vessel operators to optimize vessel speeds when moving to berth or anchorage, terminal operators will have greater visibility to vessel arrivals and Canadian National Railway (CN) will be better able to handle CN trains run over the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, which must be raised regularly to allow vessels to pass underneath. “This helps us to meet the moment,” he said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The completion of a centralized scheduling system at the Port of Vancouver will provide marine terminals with at least four days of advance notice of container ship arrivals, allowing for better labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges. The system, launched two years ago by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, helps coordinate the five different types of vessels, ranging from bulk to cruise ships, that call on some 29 marine terminals in three different districts. The port also presents unique navigational challenges, from confined waters to changing river flow conditions, said Capt. Gord Cooper, chair of the Fraser River Pilots Committee. Through the centralized scheduling system, the nearly 450 port stakeholders now have a “port-wide view” of vessel arrivals, said Sean Baxter, the port’s harbor master and director of marine operations. Similar to other North American West Coast ports, Vancouver experiences seasonal container cargo surges tied to the pre-Lunar New Year and holiday shipping seasons. Baxter said the centralized scheduling system will allow vessel operators to optimize vessel speeds when moving to berth or anchorage, terminal operators will have greater visibility to vessel arrivals and Canadian National Railway (CN) will be better able to handle CN trains run over the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, which must be raised regularly to allow vessels to pass underneath. “This helps us to meet the moment,” he said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Port News

Logistics Technology News

Trans-Pacific

Vancouver’s new scheduling system gives 96-hour advance notice of vessel arrivals

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The import gateways have faced ongoing congestion this year amid strong demand on the Asia-Europe trade and limited buffer capacity at ports will be quickly overwhelmed. </div>

The import gateways have faced ongoing congestion this year amid strong demand on the Asia-Europe trade and limited buffer capacity at ports will be quickly overwhelmed.

<div class="phx-topic">The wave of inbound volume driven by a potential return of container shipping to Red Sea transits in 2026 would hit a European port network already struggling with maxed out capacity following a year of solid volume growth. It’s a hypothetical scenario forwarders say is increasingly possible, pointing to how the bottlenecks will take months to unravel and trigger equipment shortages in Asia while inbound volume from ships sailing around Africa and others cutting through Suez will fill yards and warehousing space. Although container lines have been reluctant to lay out a timeline for their return, industry optimism for a significant rerouting of major carriers to the waterway next year has grown since the fragile Gaza ceasefire was reached in October. Nearly two years ago when diversions away from the Red Sea began due to Houthi rebel attacks, import volumes from Asia to Europe were modest and the likes of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg were able to avoid severe vessel bunching. Things are different now. “Demand growth in Asia-Europe this year is up between 10% and 14%, depending on the market,” said Michael Aldwell, executive vice president of sea logistics at Kuehne + Nagel. “We haven't seen growth like that on the Far East westbound trade since before the global financial crisis.” <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="0460c499-cb7d-49c5-a239-5ff3853ede32"></dynamic-object></div>There is <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/europe-ports-lack-buffer-space-to-handle-demand-surges-6121393">limited buffer capacity in Europe’s terminals</a> to handle existing demand and a sudden surge in import containers will quickly lead to cargo backing up. “There is not a lot of idle capacity in facilities, and you better be ready for that,” Aldwell told the Journal of Commerce. “If everything’s full, when [Red Sea transits return] you will have a problem.” Some carriers have been testing the Red Sea waters recently by sending ships on their eastbound backhaul legs to India, the Middle East and Asia through the Suez Canal. Although a large scale return to the Red Sea is not imminent, “at some point, this is going to end,” Evangelos Chatzis, CFO at Danaos Corporation, told a Capital Link webcast Tuesday. “By ‘at some point,’ I’m not referring to the distant future. I believe that in 2026, the Suez will normalize,” Chatzis added. <h3>Safety of crew, ships paramount </h3>That point might be a little closer with news this week that CMA CGM’s Indamex service will transit the Suez on both front- and backhaul voyages between India/Pakistan and the US East Coast. “Until now, these transits via Suez Canal have been on a case-by-case basis, diverting voyages originally scheduled to sail around Cape of Good Hope,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, noted in a market update Friday. “CMA CGM’s announcement this week is important because it is a structural change with a service proforma to transit Suez Canal on every sailing,” he said. Despite the positive signs, there remains no clarity on when the mainline Asia-Europe services will resume voyages through the Suez. Carriers are assessing the risk profile of returning to the Red Sea, which revolves around the safety of the crew, ship and cargo, Aldwell noted. “There are clear statements from the industry that this is about safe passage and not about passage no matter what,” he said, pointing to a Maersk missive issued in November that swiftly corrected an announcement by the Suez Canal Authority that the carrier was returning to the route this month. Maersk said transits through the Red Sea would only normalize "as soon as conditions allow, with safety of our crew as the top priority.” Aldwell said once safe passage was assured, and once multiple carriers transited the route with larger capacity, “that will quickly give way to the majority of services running back through Suez, and that is going to have an impact.” Andy Gillespie, senior logistics advisor at supply chain managers WOWL, said the real story was not the shorter transit times that will result from a return to the Red Sea, but the chaos that will accompany the switchover. “For a few months we’ll have Suez and Cape routes running side by side, ships suddenly gaining back 12-18 days and waves of vessels hitting Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and parts of the US East Coast in the same arrival windows,” he noted <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/7401449611854323712">in a LinkedIn post</a> this week. <h3>Potential equipment shortages </h3>Aldwell said the delays at terminals in Europe will impact carrier schedules and take time to normalize, which could spell trouble for capacity and equipment availability in Asia. “There will be a metering out of capacity that has to go back to Asia, which means for a time there will likely be a shortage of equipment and a shortage of capacity in Asia until the shipping system gets back into a normal rotation,” he said. While North Europe ports will battle to handle the additional volume on top of ongoing congestion challenges, Helge Neuman-Lezius, global head of full container loads (FCL) at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, said a mass move back to Suez will have significant implications for Mediterranean trade flows, particularly at ports handling transshipment cargo. “From a congestion perspective, you are a bit better off in the Mediterranean because there are so many small ports compared to the large ones in the north, but when it comes to transshipment ports, that is different,” he told the Journal of Commerce. When the Houthi attacks forced ships to divert around Africa two years ago, carriers moved their Asia–Mediterranean transshipment calls away from the eastern Mediterranean hubs of Port Said in Egypt, Piraeus in Greece and Ambarli in Turkey to ports in the west, such as Morocco’s Tanger Med and Algeciras in Spain. “Egyptian transshipment is nearly gone with no one transshipping in Egypt and Piraeus has lost a lot of transsshipment in cargo,” Neuman-Lezius told the Journal of Commerce. “But when the Red Sea route returns, carriers will move transshipment port calls from the west to the east, basically reverting to where we were two years ago. “When that shift happens there will be a lot of disruption, because it is not just one or two carriers that will be moving; it is all carriers and all alliances and the entire service offering that has been bypassing the Red Sea,” he noted. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The wave of inbound volume driven by a potential return of container shipping to Red Sea transits in 2026 would hit a European port network already struggling with maxed out capacity following a year of solid volume growth. It’s a hypothetical scenario forwarders say is increasingly possible, pointing to how the bottlenecks will take months to unravel and trigger equipment shortages in Asia while inbound volume from ships sailing around Africa and others cutting through Suez will fill yards and warehousing space. Although container lines have been reluctant to lay out a timeline for their return, industry optimism for a significant rerouting of major carriers to the waterway next year has grown since the fragile Gaza ceasefire was reached in October. Nearly two years ago when diversions away from the Red Sea began due to Houthi rebel attacks, import volumes from Asia to Europe were modest and the likes of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg were able to avoid severe vessel bunching. Things are different now. “Demand growth in Asia-Europe this year is up between 10% and 14%, depending on the market,” said Michael Aldwell, executive vice president of sea logistics at Kuehne + Nagel. “We haven't seen growth like that on the Far East westbound trade since before the global financial crisis.” There is limited buffer capacity in Europe’s terminals to handle existing demand and a sudden surge in import containers will quickly lead to cargo backing up. “There is not a lot of idle capacity in facilities, and you better be ready for that,” Aldwell told the Journal of Commerce. “If everything’s full, when [Red Sea transits return] you will have a problem.” Some carriers have been testing the Red Sea waters recently by sending ships on their eastbound backhaul legs to India, the Middle East and Asia through the Suez Canal. Although a large scale return to the Red Sea is not imminent, “at some point, this is going to end,” Evangelos Chatzis, CFO at Danaos Corporation, told a Capital Link webcast Tuesday. “By ‘at some point,’ I’m not referring to the distant future. I believe that in 2026, the Suez will normalize,” Chatzis added. Safety of crew, ships paramount That point might be a little closer with news this week that CMA CGM’s Indamex service will transit the Suez on both front- and backhaul voyages between India/Pakistan and the US East Coast. “Until now, these transits via Suez Canal have been on a case-by-case basis, diverting voyages originally scheduled to sail around Cape of Good Hope,” Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, noted in a market update Friday. “CMA CGM’s announcement this week is important because it is a structural change with a service proforma to transit Suez Canal on every sailing,” he said. Despite the positive signs, there remains no clarity on when the mainline Asia-Europe services will resume voyages through the Suez. Carriers are assessing the risk profile of returning to the Red Sea, which revolves around the safety of the crew, ship and cargo, Aldwell noted. “There are clear statements from the industry that this is about safe passage and not about passage no matter what,” he said, pointing to a Maersk missive issued in November that swiftly corrected an announcement by the Suez Canal Authority that the carrier was returning to the route this month. Maersk said transits through the Red Sea would only normalize "as soon as conditions allow, with safety of our crew as the top priority.” Aldwell said once safe passage was assured, and once multiple carriers transited the route with larger capacity, “that will quickly give way to the majority of services running back through Suez, and that is going to have an impact.” Andy Gillespie, senior logistics advisor at supply chain managers WOWL, said the real story was not the shorter transit times that will result from a return to the Red Sea, but the chaos that will accompany the switchover. “For a few months we’ll have Suez and Cape routes running side by side, ships suddenly gaining back 12-18 days and waves of vessels hitting Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa and parts of the US East Coast in the same arrival windows,” he noted in a LinkedIn post this week. Potential equipment shortages Aldwell said the delays at terminals in Europe will impact carrier schedules and take time to normalize, which could spell trouble for capacity and equipment availability in Asia. “There will be a metering out of capacity that has to go back to Asia, which means for a time there will likely be a shortage of equipment and a shortage of capacity in Asia until the shipping system gets back into a normal rotation,” he said. While North Europe ports will battle to handle the additional volume on top of ongoing congestion challenges, Helge Neuman-Lezius, global head of full container loads (FCL) at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, said a mass move back to Suez will have significant implications for Mediterranean trade flows, particularly at ports handling transshipment cargo. “From a congestion perspective, you are a bit better off in the Mediterranean because there are so many small ports compared to the large ones in the north, but when it comes to transshipment ports, that is different,” he told the Journal of Commerce. When the Houthi attacks forced ships to divert around Africa two years ago, carriers moved their Asia–Mediterranean transshipment calls away from the eastern Mediterranean hubs of Port Said in Egypt, Piraeus in Greece and Ambarli in Turkey to ports in the west, such as Morocco’s Tanger Med and Algeciras in Spain. “Egyptian transshipment is nearly gone with no one transshipping in Egypt and Piraeus has lost a lot of transsshipment in cargo,” Neuman-Lezius told the Journal of Commerce. “But when the Red Sea route returns, carriers will move transshipment port calls from the west to the east, basically reverting to where we were two years ago. “When that shift happens there will be a lot of disruption, because it is not just one or two carriers that will be moving; it is all carriers and all alliances and the entire service offering that has been bypassing the Red Sea,” he noted. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Asia-Europe

International ports

Stretched logistics capacity in Europe threatened by Red Sea return

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">High-value megaproject activity in the US is propping up heavy-lift cargo volumes, while also generating breakbulk shipments.</div>

High-value megaproject activity in the US is propping up heavy-lift cargo volumes, while also generating breakbulk shipments.

<div class="phx-topic">Data center megaprojects are driving a surge of non-residential and industrial construction in the US, mounting a wave of breakbulk and project cargo activity to come as those projects advance. Total construction starts in the US rose by 21.1% in October to $1.53 trillion over the previous month, according to Dodge Construction Network (DCN), an industry data provider. Non-residential construction, which includes offices and data centers, rose by 17.9%, while non-building construction — defined as projects that are not buildings, such as infrastructure and utility projects — expanded 59.4% in that period. For the 12 months ending October 2025, total construction starts were up 8.1% from the previous year, while non-building construction grew 22.9% and non-residential projects starts increased 7.5% over the same period, according to DCN. Construction growth has been propped up by “high-value megaproject activity,” said Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network. “Specifically, 10 projects valued at $1 billion and over broke ground, largely within data center, manufacturing and LNG construction,” Martin said of October construction activity in a Nov. 21 report. The largest non-building projects to break ground in October included the $15.1 billion first phase of Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and pipeline in southwest Louisiana and the $9 billion second phase of the Rio Grande LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas. Meanwhile, one of the largest non-residential building projects to break ground in October was a $7.5 billion segment of the Meta Hyperion Data Center in northeast Louisiana. <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/increased-capital-investment-to-accelerate-project-cargo-demand-6111274">The development of LNG facilities</a> has emerged as a potential opportunity to provide natural gas to fuel power-hungry data centers amid the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). North America continues to progress with a multibillion-dollar round of LNG terminal construction, including the Calcasieu Pass project. Janine Mansour, director of trade development for the Port of New Orleans, told the Journal of Commerce that the CP2 LNG terminal, projected to cost $28 billion overall, is the single-largest project bringing heavy-lift cargo to the port, while also generating breakbulk shipments such as bagged cement. “Venture Global dominates the conversation in terms of LNG and driving cargo opportunities,” she said. The port has also been moving significant amounts of cargo for the $27 billion, 4 million-square-foot Meta campus project, set to become the largest data center in the Western Hemisphere upon its targeted completion in 2030. Mansour said the port has been moving more project cargo related to power generation, as well as working with companies that are exploring ways to provide resources for these facilities. “Projects like the data center create opportunities for the creation of new inland yards or infrastructure near the project,” she said. <h3>Data centers trigger plant projects </h3>Key project cargo shippers have been taking steps to support data center development while also reaping bottom-line benefits from the boom. For the first nine months of 2025, data center revenues shot up 140% to $331 million for oilfield services major SLB, formerly Schlumberger Ltd., compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the company’s Oct. 17 earnings results. Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar, considered a bellwether global manufacturer of high-and-heavy cargo, is planning a $725 million expansion of its large-engine facility in Lafayette, Indiana, to increase production of power generators for data centers. And Air Liquide, one of the world’s largest industrial gas suppliers, is investing over $50 million in the US semiconductor industry by building an ultra-pure gas production plant in the southeastern US on the site of the world’s largest manufacturer for advanced chip design. With data centers requiring tremendous amounts of energy, water and resources such as semiconductor chips, the rapid development of these facilities will rely on the extensive buildout of infrastructure such as utility plants and manufacturing facilities. On Dec. 1, Louisiana utility Entergy broke ground on a pair of gas-fired power plants to power the Meta Hyperion data center. Global investments in data center infrastructure are on pace to reach over $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to projections by consultant McKinsey. “Semiconductor chip facilities clearly classify as mega projects,” said Kristin Homsi, Bechtel Manufacturing &amp; Technology’s supply chain manager. “Think the world’s largest airports, a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors, and landmarks like the Hoover Dam or the Channel Tunnel” linking Great Britain and mainland Europe. “Semiconductor projects have recently grown in scale to the level of signature projects” Bechtel has historically taken on, she said. John Lu, global sector head of semiconductor fabrications for the industrial projects unit of DHL Global Forwarding, told the Journal of Commerce that buildouts of chip fabrication facilities, or fabs, will require more end-to-end support from specialized service providers such as logistics companies. “That means every part of this value chain that it takes to construct a fab or data center — moving equipment, warehousing, consulting, customs clearance, anything. It’s going to put a lot more stress on us to perform for our customers, but I think we’re well positioned to do that,” he said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at <a href="mailto:autumn@autumngiusti.com">autumn@autumngiusti.com</a>. </div>

Data center megaprojects are driving a surge of non-residential and industrial construction in the US, mounting a wave of breakbulk and project cargo activity to come as those projects advance. Total construction starts in the US rose by 21.1% in October to $1.53 trillion over the previous month, according to Dodge Construction Network (DCN), an industry data provider. Non-residential construction, which includes offices and data centers, rose by 17.9%, while non-building construction — defined as projects that are not buildings, such as infrastructure and utility projects — expanded 59.4% in that period. For the 12 months ending October 2025, total construction starts were up 8.1% from the previous year, while non-building construction grew 22.9% and non-residential projects starts increased 7.5% over the same period, according to DCN. Construction growth has been propped up by “high-value megaproject activity,” said Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network. “Specifically, 10 projects valued at $1 billion and over broke ground, largely within data center, manufacturing and LNG construction,” Martin said of October construction activity in a Nov. 21 report. The largest non-building projects to break ground in October included the $15.1 billion first phase of Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2) liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and pipeline in southwest Louisiana and the $9 billion second phase of the Rio Grande LNG facility in Brownsville, Texas. Meanwhile, one of the largest non-residential building projects to break ground in October was a $7.5 billion segment of the Meta Hyperion Data Center in northeast Louisiana. The development of LNG facilities has emerged as a potential opportunity to provide natural gas to fuel power-hungry data centers amid the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). North America continues to progress with a multibillion-dollar round of LNG terminal construction, including the Calcasieu Pass project. Janine Mansour, director of trade development for the Port of New Orleans, told the Journal of Commerce that the CP2 LNG terminal, projected to cost $28 billion overall, is the single-largest project bringing heavy-lift cargo to the port, while also generating breakbulk shipments such as bagged cement. “Venture Global dominates the conversation in terms of LNG and driving cargo opportunities,” she said. The port has also been moving significant amounts of cargo for the $27 billion, 4 million-square-foot Meta campus project, set to become the largest data center in the Western Hemisphere upon its targeted completion in 2030. Mansour said the port has been moving more project cargo related to power generation, as well as working with companies that are exploring ways to provide resources for these facilities. “Projects like the data center create opportunities for the creation of new inland yards or infrastructure near the project,” she said. Data centers trigger plant projects Key project cargo shippers have been taking steps to support data center development while also reaping bottom-line benefits from the boom. For the first nine months of 2025, data center revenues shot up 140% to $331 million for oilfield services major SLB, formerly Schlumberger Ltd., compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the company’s Oct. 17 earnings results. Construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar, considered a bellwether global manufacturer of high-and-heavy cargo, is planning a $725 million expansion of its large-engine facility in Lafayette, Indiana, to increase production of power generators for data centers. And Air Liquide, one of the world’s largest industrial gas suppliers, is investing over $50 million in the US semiconductor industry by building an ultra-pure gas production plant in the southeastern US on the site of the world’s largest manufacturer for advanced chip design. With data centers requiring tremendous amounts of energy, water and resources such as semiconductor chips, the rapid development of these facilities will rely on the extensive buildout of infrastructure such as utility plants and manufacturing facilities. On Dec. 1, Louisiana utility Entergy broke ground on a pair of gas-fired power plants to power the Meta Hyperion data center. Global investments in data center infrastructure are on pace to reach over $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to projections by consultant McKinsey. “Semiconductor chip facilities clearly classify as mega projects,” said Kristin Homsi, Bechtel Manufacturing & Technology’s supply chain manager. “Think the world’s largest airports, a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors, and landmarks like the Hoover Dam or the Channel Tunnel” linking Great Britain and mainland Europe. “Semiconductor projects have recently grown in scale to the level of signature projects” Bechtel has historically taken on, she said. John Lu, global sector head of semiconductor fabrications for the industrial projects unit of DHL Global Forwarding, told the Journal of Commerce that buildouts of chip fabrication facilities, or fabs, will require more end-to-end support from specialized service providers such as logistics companies. “That means every part of this value chain that it takes to construct a fab or data center — moving equipment, warehousing, consulting, customs clearance, anything. It’s going to put a lot more stress on us to perform for our customers, but I think we’re well positioned to do that,” he said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at autumn@autumngiusti.com .

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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Transportation Intermediaries Association launched a hotline that its members can use to report suspected occurrences of cargo fraud and theft, regardless of the dollar value involved. </div>

The Transportation Intermediaries Association launched a hotline that its members can use to report suspected occurrences of cargo fraud and theft, regardless of the dollar value involved.

<div class="phx-topic">The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) has established a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to aggregate truckload cargo theft and fraud incident information from its nearly 2,000 members. TIA this week launched a hotline that its members — freight brokers and other domestic intermediaries — can use to report suspected occurrences of cargo fraud and theft, regardless of the dollar value involved. The hotline is meant to give members a direct channel to report incidents in situations where a broker doesn’t know whom to contact at a local, state or federal level. TIA President and CEO Chris Burroughs told the Journal of Commerce Thursday that the association has long worked with the six-person cargo theft team at the FBI’s Philadelphia field office to combat theft and fraud. But after discovering that members lacked clarity about where to turn, TIA leadership decided it could take a role in aggregating incident report data on behalf of federal law enforcement. “We get calls on a daily basis from members with situations,” Burroughs said. “We’re not going to have 2,000 companies calling [the FBI field office]. Let us be the intermediary for that information.” TIA will use the hotline to field calls and gather 15 data points the FBI told TIA it needs to build cases against alleged criminal actors. Burroughs emphasized that an incident need not rise to a specific dollar amount to be reported to the hotline, a common roadblock that prevents brokers, carriers and shippers from reporting suspected theft or fraud. “The FBI is building a RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] case, and so they don’t care about the dollar amount,” he said. “In aggregate, it’s billions of dollars.” <h3>Combating a rising threat </h3>The FBI’s cargo theft information website lists data-sharing platforms CargoNet and the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) as partners in its battle against rising levels of fraud, much of which is coordinated by entities outside the US. Private sector freight marketplaces, notably DAT Freight &amp; Analytics and Truckstop.com, have made it a recent priority to eliminate fraud and theft facilitated on their platforms. And software providers built to vet truckload carriers, such as Highway, have focused intently on the issue. In addition, brokers and shippers can use risk management tools, such as Overhaul, to identify theft and report it directly to law enforcement. Burroughs said the broad threat of lost freight has hurt brokers as a whole, with shippers on their advisory board saying as much. Some shippers have told the Journal of Commerce that they are avoiding the use of brokers until the fraud and theft problems are under control. “We see this as a huge threat, which is why we’re spending so much time on this,” Burroughs said. “This is something keeping us up at night.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) has established a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to aggregate truckload cargo theft and fraud incident information from its nearly 2,000 members. TIA this week launched a hotline that its members — freight brokers and other domestic intermediaries — can use to report suspected occurrences of cargo fraud and theft, regardless of the dollar value involved. The hotline is meant to give members a direct channel to report incidents in situations where a broker doesn’t know whom to contact at a local, state or federal level. TIA President and CEO Chris Burroughs told the Journal of Commerce Thursday that the association has long worked with the six-person cargo theft team at the FBI’s Philadelphia field office to combat theft and fraud. But after discovering that members lacked clarity about where to turn, TIA leadership decided it could take a role in aggregating incident report data on behalf of federal law enforcement. “We get calls on a daily basis from members with situations,” Burroughs said. “We’re not going to have 2,000 companies calling [the FBI field office]. Let us be the intermediary for that information.” TIA will use the hotline to field calls and gather 15 data points the FBI told TIA it needs to build cases against alleged criminal actors. Burroughs emphasized that an incident need not rise to a specific dollar amount to be reported to the hotline, a common roadblock that prevents brokers, carriers and shippers from reporting suspected theft or fraud. “The FBI is building a RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] case, and so they don’t care about the dollar amount,” he said. “In aggregate, it’s billions of dollars.” Combating a rising threat The FBI’s cargo theft information website lists data-sharing platforms CargoNet and the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) as partners in its battle against rising levels of fraud, much of which is coordinated by entities outside the US. Private sector freight marketplaces, notably DAT Freight & Analytics and Truckstop.com, have made it a recent priority to eliminate fraud and theft facilitated on their platforms. And software providers built to vet truckload carriers, such as Highway, have focused intently on the issue. In addition, brokers and shippers can use risk management tools, such as Overhaul, to identify theft and report it directly to law enforcement. Burroughs said the broad threat of lost freight has hurt brokers as a whole, with shippers on their advisory board saying as much. Some shippers have told the Journal of Commerce that they are avoiding the use of brokers until the fraud and theft problems are under control. “We see this as a huge threat, which is why we’re spending so much time on this,” Burroughs said. “This is something keeping us up at night.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

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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

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