<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">For much of the shipping world right now, the skyrocketing price of oil is an enormous and very expe</div>

For much of the shipping world right now, the skyrocketing price of oil is an enormous and very expe

<div>For much of the shipping world right now, the skyrocketing price of oil is an enormous and very expensive game of musical chairs. As long as the music plays, carriers will pass the bloated cost of fuel on to their shippers, and shippers then try to pass it along to their customers or to recover the costs at the negotiating table.What a growing number of players fear, however, is what will happen when the music stops.Click to Enlarge Higher fuel prices are "going to have a devastating impact on our overall economy," said D. Paul Thompson, CEO of freight consultancy...

For much of the shipping world right now, the skyrocketing price of oil is an enormous and very expensive game of musical chairs. As long as the music plays, carriers will pass the bloated cost of fuel on to their shippers, and shippers then try to pass it along to their customers or to recover the costs at the negotiating table. What a growing number of players fear, however, is what will happen when the music stops. Click to Enlarge Higher fuel prices are "going to have a devastating impact on our overall economy," said D. Paul Thompson, CEO of freight consultancy Transportation Insight. Shippers' day-to-day operational worries about the price of diesel are being replaced by generalized anxiety about the future of the economy. "This is the most concern about fuel prices that I've seen since the oil crises of the late 1970s," Thompson said. That concern comes from the highest numbers ever recorded, even adjusted for inflation, for the price of oil and record highs in recent weeks for diesel fuel. Before a sharp pullback last week, the price of oil on world markets pushed past $98 a barrel, capping a sharp run-up in recent weeks that has brought the prospect of $100-a-barrel oil into the limelight and, more immediately for shippers and transport carriers, pushed diesel fuel prices to record levels. Click to Enlarge The national average price of diesel jumped 12.2 cents for the week ending Nov. 12, to $3.425 a gallon, only a week after the price spiked 14.6 cents. The average on the West Coast surpassed $3.60 a gallon and in California it was $3.663 a gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In three months, the average national price of diesel has grown 64 cents, or more than 20 percent, and the price has increased 42 percent since February. Jet fuel prices also have soared to new records, growing some 60 percent this year and pushing past $2.70 a gallon on some world markets at the start of November and fuel surcharges for air transport were hitting record levels this month. Oil, of course, is the grease that makes the wheels of global commerce spin, at the rate of 85 million barrels a day. "Oil is it," said Eric Starks, president of FTR Associates, a research group. Shippers and carriers "are just going to have to deal with it," he said. The price of oil has risen 56 percent this year, and 365 percent over the last decade. "We snickered at $70" per barrel oil, said Jack W. Boisen, vice president of cargo at Continental Airlines Cargo. "We coughed at $80. We gasped at $90." With the huge runup in energy costs this year, you might think shippers and carriers would be pressing for a national energy policy to deal with it, or hedging strategies to anticipate it, or alternative fuels to bypass it. But experts say the rising costs this year haven't yet raised the alarms and actions that came when spiking fuel costs hit transportation three years ago. "By and large, the shippers have been oblivious to really doing any kind of scenario planning," said Michael A. Regan, CEO of TranZact Technologies, a logistics management provider. "People are acting as if (the higher fuel price) is being discussed, when in fact it's a reality now." "We're not seeing the big panic you saw three or four years ago, and the main reason is most shippers have been seeing a pretty healthy reduction in their transportation line haul rates," said Gary Girotti, vice president of the transportation practice at supply chain consultancy Chainalytics. That's because the freight economy has been in recession for more than a year and nearly every mode is scrambling to keep equipment filled and stock rolling. "If we're sitting in this situation six months from now, it's a different story," Girotti said. "People are taking a wait-and-see approach because transportation budgets look pretty flat right now," he said. "If oil remains this high at the end of the first quarter (of 2008), if we continue this trend, then you will see some response." Since the gallon prices of gasoline and diesel don't move in lockstep with the price of oil by the barrel, oil's price is still a relatively abstract measure for many shippers. "The oil prices had been up 30 percent and the diesel prices were up only 18 percent," Girotti said, while noting the spread between oil price hikes and diesel fuel increases has recently narrowed. Most shippers are also better insulated from the direct costs of oil and fuel. Diesel averages about 4 percent of a shipper's total logistics cost, according to Girotti. But shippers say the recent increases are breathtaking. "We've just deadened the senses," said Gary A. Palmer, senior transportation director at hardware tools shipper True Value. "Each year it's another plateau, and we've lost our ability to be shocked by it." With carriers hungry for freight, the surcharge has become the prime battleground between shippers and carriers over who ultimately pays the increased price of fuel. Bigger carriers that pass through fuel costs report the least impact to their businesses. "We have not seen any evidence that the higher fuel prices are impacting our volume to any greater degree than previous," said Jim Butts, vice president of transportation at freight broker and logistics provider C.H. Robinson Worldwide. C.H. Robinson tries to mitigate the impact on its carrier partners and customers by expediting surcharge payments. Others also are looking more closely at operations. John Deris, senior vice president of sales for fleet management solutions at Ryder System, said his company is leaning hard on technologies that monitor driving habits, idle times and onboard diagnostics to optimize vehicle performance. "There are many ways of lowering overall fuel costs other than just price per gallon," Deris said. Big companies such as Target, the $60 billion retailer, continue to rely heavily on their surcharge program to keep a lid on fuel costs. "However," said Steve Carter, Target's director of transportation planning, "we always look to move as much in full truckloads (versus less fuel efficient LTL) whenever we can." For much of the trucking industry, fuel surcharges are a growing point of stress between shippers and carriers as fuel costs look increasingly out of step with pricing and surcharge programs built into contracts. Carriers say with some fuel surcharge programs locked into the single digits even as costs have grown more than 20 percent, the financial health of some carriers is threatened. Steve Hartmann, vice president of Aurora, Ill.-based LTL carrier Mid-States Express. "At some point," he said, "that's going to cut you out." "Most carriers have a floating surcharge," Hartmann said. "But some (shippers) top out at 8 or 9 percent. At some point, when your revenue is not covering your fixed costs and not covering your variable costs, well, we heard (YRC Worldwide Chairman) Bill Zollars say the other day, YRC is going to have to fire some customers. That's the reality the industry faces." Starks said savvy shippers realized after an earlier run-up in fuel prices in 2004 and 2005 that shopping purely on cost was a fool's game over the long run. "You want to make sure (carriers) are there for you," he said. Hartmann agreed. "When the economy comes roaring back, where shippers had 20 carriers, they are going to have five. And shippers aren't going to know what hit them," he said. But carriers also are under enormous pressure to keep their vehicles moving for cash flow even if the business loses them money longer term. "It's the quick death or the slow death," Hartmann said. "Which one do you want?" Shippers seem to tolerate more transparent truck company surcharges than those from other modes. "The fuel surcharge is better managed in the truckload world," said Harold A. Wilson, president of distribution and transportation services at closeout retailer Big Lots. "With the rail industry and the way it assesses fuel surcharges, we have a much more difficult time understanding the reasonableness and the way it's passed along to us," Wilson said. "In the last two years, we've seen much more of an increase in the fuel surcharges in the rail industry than in the trucking industry." Greg O. Andrews, managing director of the executive masters in international logistics program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said international investigations into surcharge price fixing, involving most recently British Airways and Korean Air in the United States, suggest "fuel surcharges are being used to pad revenues." If there's one player no one so far wants to deny a seat in this game of musical chairs, it's the consumer. "What we're hearing is a strong sentiment from our shipper base that now is not the right time to pass higher fuel prices along to consumers," Butts said. Deris added shippers "are concerned about economic conditions right now. They're all tightening their belts." Instead, shippers are trying to squeeze those last molecules of efficiency out of supply chains that have spent the last decade on a productivity bender. "The marketplace we're in is very mature," said Thompson. "The players are very efficient. There's just not many things meaningfully that can be done. You can put more stuff on rail but you pay on efficiency, especially in the just-in-time world and with customer service demands." Palmer said True Value is looking beyond the efficiency drives of recent years. "If we can move to 6.4 miles per gallon from 6.2, that can provide a major savings," he said. "We were concerned about hours of service and how that would require us to save time on the road," Palmer said. However, an internal study at one site, for instance, "showed drivers that setting a speed of 62 miles per hour turned out to be safer, saved fuel and made very little difference on time of arrivals," he said. And, Palmer said, "We avoid buying diesel on the road, buying retail, and that means driving smarter and planning." Regan said fuel hedging by locking in prices for future supplies was a popular topic of discussion six months ago. Now, after the price began its nine-week autumn run-up to more than $90 a barrel, not so much. "Your timing has to be right," Regan said. The biggest, most sophisticated buyers are the only ones reporting consistent hedging success: Deris said Ryder buys 30 million gallons of fuel a month and can cut deals for major nationwide accounts. But even oil company executives are baffled by the amount of money being shelled out for a gallon of diesel. "The fundamentals don't support where prices are today," said Todd W. Onderdonk, senior energy advisor for ExxonMobil. "Nobody was projecting it would be this high." It's increasingly taken for granted that high fuel costs will eventually exact their inflationary revenge throughout the broader economy. "The higher fuel prices put pressure on everybody who's responsible for supply chain costs," Butts said. Yet Starks argued the ongoing freight recession and excess transportation capacity are more responsible for temporarily switching the balance of power from the carrier - where it was a few years ago when business was booming - to the shipper today. "It's definitely flipped," Starks said. "The fuel situation is not longer a primary driver of whether the industry is profitable or whether the industry will be around." As lousy a mechanism as the surcharge is for catching carriers up to rising fuel costs, the absence of that mechanism put hundreds of carriers out of business during the last freight recession, in 2001 and 2002. "Nobody wins with $100 oil," said Thompson, "at least not in the shipper-carrier community." Associate editors John Gallagher and Michael Fabey contributed to this story.

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Fuel Pumps Up

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Company executives pointed to the rollout of the Trump administration’s tariff policy in April as driving disruption throughout the second quarter. </div>

Company executives pointed to the rollout of the Trump administration’s tariff policy in April as driving disruption throughout the second quarter.

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<div class="phx-topic">Ocean and air volumes in CH Robinson’s forwarding business fell in the second quarter amid market volatility caused by US tariff policy. The third-party logistics provider also warned of a slower second half of 2025 as much of the seasonal cargo has already landed in the US and shippers remain cautious in refilling inventories. CH Robinson said late Wednesday that gross profit in its ocean freight business fell 7.5% in the second quarter to $107.9 million, with volumes dropping 4% from a year earlier. Other segments of CH Robinson’s forwarding business grew during the quarter despite tepid volumes. The airfreight business grew 11.5% to $34 million on better pricing, even though volumes fell 12.5%. Gross profit in its customs business grew 31.7% to $26.7 million amid higher profit for each transaction. CH Robinson executives pointed to the rollout of the Trump administration’s tariff policy in April as driving volatility throughout the second quarter. CFO Damon Lee said during the company’s second-quarter conference call that April was the bottom in terms of volume “due to the tariff wars and the level of tariffs in the quarter that we started out with.” While May and June saw a rebound in volumes, “it wasn’t a significant rebound, certainly not enough to offset the pressure that we saw in April,” Lee said. <h3>Frontloading to mute Q3 volumes </h3>Chief Executive David Bozeman said on the call that while some shippers only moved what they needed for back-to-school and other seasonal goods, others decided to frontload as much as they could during the various tariff reprieves. As a result, the traditional third-quarter peak season will likely be muted, Bozeman added. “Although we're approaching the traditional retail peak season for ocean, the industry may not see traditional peak volumes as some retail customers are working through inventories and being highly selective and strategic about bringing in only the essential products they must import,” he said. CH Robinson said volumes in its surface transportation business rose 1% thanks to growth in its less-than-truckload segment; gross profit for each truck shipment increased 2.5%. While the freight recession for the trucking market is ongoing, Michael Castagnetto, CH Robinson’s president of surface transportation, said load-to-truck ratios are higher, “reflecting an exit of capacity that has brought us closer to better balance in the market.” Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Ocean and air volumes in CH Robinson’s forwarding business fell in the second quarter amid market volatility caused by US tariff policy. The third-party logistics provider also warned of a slower second half of 2025 as much of the seasonal cargo has already landed in the US and shippers remain cautious in refilling inventories. CH Robinson said late Wednesday that gross profit in its ocean freight business fell 7.5% in the second quarter to $107.9 million, with volumes dropping 4% from a year earlier. Other segments of CH Robinson’s forwarding business grew during the quarter despite tepid volumes. The airfreight business grew 11.5% to $34 million on better pricing, even though volumes fell 12.5%. Gross profit in its customs business grew 31.7% to $26.7 million amid higher profit for each transaction. CH Robinson executives pointed to the rollout of the Trump administration’s tariff policy in April as driving volatility throughout the second quarter. CFO Damon Lee said during the company’s second-quarter conference call that April was the bottom in terms of volume “due to the tariff wars and the level of tariffs in the quarter that we started out with.” While May and June saw a rebound in volumes, “it wasn’t a significant rebound, certainly not enough to offset the pressure that we saw in April,” Lee said. Frontloading to mute Q3 volumes Chief Executive David Bozeman said on the call that while some shippers only moved what they needed for back-to-school and other seasonal goods, others decided to frontload as much as they could during the various tariff reprieves. As a result, the traditional third-quarter peak season will likely be muted, Bozeman added. “Although we're approaching the traditional retail peak season for ocean, the industry may not see traditional peak volumes as some retail customers are working through inventories and being highly selective and strategic about bringing in only the essential products they must import,” he said. CH Robinson said volumes in its surface transportation business rose 1% thanks to growth in its less-than-truckload segment; gross profit for each truck shipment increased 2.5%. While the freight recession for the trucking market is ongoing, Michael Castagnetto, CH Robinson’s president of surface transportation, said load-to-truck ratios are higher, “reflecting an exit of capacity that has brought us closer to better balance in the market.” Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Surface

Air Cargo Forwarder News

Forwarding

CH Robinson cautious on second-half outlook amid trade volatility

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">DSV will start adding the first few country operations of DB Schenker into its network from Aug. 1 in an integration process expected to be completed by 2028.</div>

DSV will start adding the first few country operations of DB Schenker into its network from Aug. 1 in an integration process expected to be completed by 2028.

<div class="phx-topic">DB Schenker made its first appearance on the financial results of DSV since its $16.25 billion acquisition by the Danish forwarder <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/dsv-embarks-on-mammoth-test-as-db-schenker-integration-begins-ceo-5994493">was finalized on May 1</a>, with CEO Jens Lund on Thursday hailing the positive start to the multi-year integration process. DSV will start adding the first few country operations of DB Schenker into its network from Aug. 1 and expects 50% of the integration to be completed by the end of 2026, 75% by the end of 2027 and full integration by 2028, Lund told analysts in a second-quarter earnings call. ”I don’t think we could have hoped to be in a better position than where we are,” Lund said. “It means that the real integration in the business kicks off now and we can start to deliver on synergies as well.” The total costs of integrating Schenker will be as high as $1.6 billion by the time the process is completed, with this year’s integration costs expected to reach $380 million. DSV expects total synergies to be around $1.3 billion, with DB Schenker this year generating synergies of $76 million to $92 million. For a second quarter Lund described as both “extraordinary” and “unpredictable,” DSV reported revenue of $9.5 billion, down 1.1% year over year as integration costs and foreign exchange headwinds, mainly in the air and sea division, impacted the top line. Q2 gross profit of $2.6 billion was up 2.4%, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell 4.6% to $722 million and net profit was down 13% at $360 million. Gross profit in the air division was up 8.8% in the second quarter at $656 million, with overall volume up 46% year over year as Schenker contributed 168,000 tons of air freight to DSV’s 341,000 tons. In the sea division, Q2 gross profit rose 9.5% to $641 million, boosted by Schenker’s contribution of $143 million, while volume improved 43% to 950,000 tons. Schenker business generated 271,000 TEUs in May and June. Road division business was heavily impacted by the weak automotive sector, with revenue of $3.1 billion down 4.1%, gross profit falling 7.5% to $650 million and EBIT plunging 29% to $80 million. While Schenker contributed positively to the division’s earnings, the performance was negatively affected by the overall low activity level and weak market conditions within some markets in Europe and the US. The contract logistics unit had a similarly dismal quarter as the low utilization of capacity and an increasing cost base related to new warehouses dragged down revenue and profit. Revenue was down 15% at $1.5 billion, gross profit fell 3.7% to $707 million and EBIT was down 41.6% at $110 million. DSV’s outlook for the full year remained unchanged, with EBIT forecast to be between $2.9 billion and $3.93 billion. “The current uncertainties related to trade tariffs, the geopolitical landscape, including the Red Sea situation, and macroeconomic factors, which all can impact the global trading environment and activity level, remain uncertain, and unforeseen changes may impact our financial expectations,” DSV said in its earnings statement. <h3>Little business overlap </h3>In an interview with the Journal of Commerce Thursday, DSV CFO Michael Ebbe said as the integration process moved forward, there was surprisingly little business overlap found between the two forwarders. “We had heard there were some customers on both sides but found that it was rather limited compared to what we initially expected,” Ebbe said. ”There are only a few customers where there is truly an overlap, and we’ve not yet had any of those saying we have too large a share of wallet,” he added. “So that means that we can mitigate that risk quite easily.” Ebbe said that although there was not a loss of many customers during the acquisition process, there was significant “downtrading” in verticals such as consumer and automotive. “You can argue that we lose volume, but most of that is due to the market and how it has developed,” he said, noting that DB Schenker was far more exposed to the automotive market than DSV. “If we had BMW as a customer, we would not have lost it, but given that they sell fewer cars, they would be downtrading, and that has an impact,” Ebbe said. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

DB Schenker made its first appearance on the financial results of DSV since its $16.25 billion acquisition by the Danish forwarder was finalized on May 1 , with CEO Jens Lund on Thursday hailing the positive start to the multi-year integration process. DSV will start adding the first few country operations of DB Schenker into its network from Aug. 1 and expects 50% of the integration to be completed by the end of 2026, 75% by the end of 2027 and full integration by 2028, Lund told analysts in a second-quarter earnings call. ”I don’t think we could have hoped to be in a better position than where we are,” Lund said. “It means that the real integration in the business kicks off now and we can start to deliver on synergies as well.” The total costs of integrating Schenker will be as high as $1.6 billion by the time the process is completed, with this year’s integration costs expected to reach $380 million. DSV expects total synergies to be around $1.3 billion, with DB Schenker this year generating synergies of $76 million to $92 million. For a second quarter Lund described as both “extraordinary” and “unpredictable,” DSV reported revenue of $9.5 billion, down 1.1% year over year as integration costs and foreign exchange headwinds, mainly in the air and sea division, impacted the top line. Q2 gross profit of $2.6 billion was up 2.4%, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell 4.6% to $722 million and net profit was down 13% at $360 million. Gross profit in the air division was up 8.8% in the second quarter at $656 million, with overall volume up 46% year over year as Schenker contributed 168,000 tons of air freight to DSV’s 341,000 tons. In the sea division, Q2 gross profit rose 9.5% to $641 million, boosted by Schenker’s contribution of $143 million, while volume improved 43% to 950,000 tons. Schenker business generated 271,000 TEUs in May and June. Road division business was heavily impacted by the weak automotive sector, with revenue of $3.1 billion down 4.1%, gross profit falling 7.5% to $650 million and EBIT plunging 29% to $80 million. While Schenker contributed positively to the division’s earnings, the performance was negatively affected by the overall low activity level and weak market conditions within some markets in Europe and the US. The contract logistics unit had a similarly dismal quarter as the low utilization of capacity and an increasing cost base related to new warehouses dragged down revenue and profit. Revenue was down 15% at $1.5 billion, gross profit fell 3.7% to $707 million and EBIT was down 41.6% at $110 million. DSV’s outlook for the full year remained unchanged, with EBIT forecast to be between $2.9 billion and $3.93 billion. “The current uncertainties related to trade tariffs, the geopolitical landscape, including the Red Sea situation, and macroeconomic factors, which all can impact the global trading environment and activity level, remain uncertain, and unforeseen changes may impact our financial expectations,” DSV said in its earnings statement. Little business overlap In an interview with the Journal of Commerce Thursday, DSV CFO Michael Ebbe said as the integration process moved forward, there was surprisingly little business overlap found between the two forwarders. “We had heard there were some customers on both sides but found that it was rather limited compared to what we initially expected,” Ebbe said. ”There are only a few customers where there is truly an overlap, and we’ve not yet had any of those saying we have too large a share of wallet,” he added. “So that means that we can mitigate that risk quite easily.” Ebbe said that although there was not a loss of many customers during the acquisition process, there was significant “downtrading” in verticals such as consumer and automotive. “You can argue that we lose volume, but most of that is due to the market and how it has developed,” he said, noting that DB Schenker was far more exposed to the automotive market than DSV. “If we had BMW as a customer, we would not have lost it, but given that they sell fewer cars, they would be downtrading, and that has an impact,” Ebbe said. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Supply chain

DB Schenker adds to DSV coffers as multi-year integration begins

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Development of the new terminal comes as gains in transshipment volumes are outpacing the increase in gateway cargo at Busan, where transshipment business has been bolstered by the launch of the Gemini Cooperation earlier this year. </div>

Development of the new terminal comes as gains in transshipment volumes are outpacing the increase in gateway cargo at Busan, where transshipment business has been bolstered by the launch of the Gemini Cooperation earlier this year.

<div class="phx-topic">The South Korean port of Busan will strengthen its position as North Asia’s transshipment hub with two initiatives involving development of a $573 million feeder terminal and the launch of a real-time, data-sharing portal, maritime officials said. The terminal, which will have annual capacity of about 1.5 million TEUs, will be developed by Busan Newport One-stop Terminal Company after it was chosen by South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to enter exclusive talks to develop the 4 million-square-foot complex, due to open by 2030. The facility will have two 2,000-TEU feeder berths and a 30,000-deadweight-metric-ton (DWT) breakbulk and general cargo berth that will be built adjacent to Busan New Port South Container Terminal. Kim Seong-beom, deputy minister of Oceans and Fisheries, said the new terminal will “enhance the transshipment competitiveness of Busan.” Lee Eung-hyuk, Busan Port Authority’s (BPA’s) director of international logistics, said the state-owned agency is also developing Port-i, a real-time data-sharing portal to improve the movement and monitoring of transshipment containers for inbound cargo and inter-terminal transfers. Highlighting the potential for Port-i to increase transshipment volumes, Lee pointed out that Mediterranean Shipping Co. handled 4 million TEUs through Busan last year, 80% of which was transshipment with Busan being the last or first port call. “Many other carriers would follow suit if we simplified transshipment monitoring systems,” Lee told the Journal of Commerce. BPA hopes to complete the current trial stage by the end of this year, Lee said, adding BPA will own and manage the port community system to overcome the reluctance of shippers and carriers to file sensitive information with commercial ventures. “Most port community systems fail because many stakeholders like carriers, shippers and terminal operators normally do not want to share information,” he said. Meanwhile, development of the new terminal comes as growth in transshipment volumes is outpacing the increase in gateway cargo at Busan. Lee said transshipment volumes surged 9% last year to 13.5 million TEUs to account for 55% of Busan’s total volumes of 24.4 million TEUs, while gateway volumes rose just 1.5%. Lee pointed out the launch of Gemini Cooperation last February has bolstered Busan’s transshipment growth ambitions by reducing transit times for Asia-Europe cargo for shippers in North Asia. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

The South Korean port of Busan will strengthen its position as North Asia’s transshipment hub with two initiatives involving development of a $573 million feeder terminal and the launch of a real-time, data-sharing portal, maritime officials said. The terminal, which will have annual capacity of about 1.5 million TEUs, will be developed by Busan Newport One-stop Terminal Company after it was chosen by South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to enter exclusive talks to develop the 4 million-square-foot complex, due to open by 2030. The facility will have two 2,000-TEU feeder berths and a 30,000-deadweight-metric-ton (DWT) breakbulk and general cargo berth that will be built adjacent to Busan New Port South Container Terminal. Kim Seong-beom, deputy minister of Oceans and Fisheries, said the new terminal will “enhance the transshipment competitiveness of Busan.” Lee Eung-hyuk, Busan Port Authority’s (BPA’s) director of international logistics, said the state-owned agency is also developing Port-i, a real-time data-sharing portal to improve the movement and monitoring of transshipment containers for inbound cargo and inter-terminal transfers. Highlighting the potential for Port-i to increase transshipment volumes, Lee pointed out that Mediterranean Shipping Co. handled 4 million TEUs through Busan last year, 80% of which was transshipment with Busan being the last or first port call. “Many other carriers would follow suit if we simplified transshipment monitoring systems,” Lee told the Journal of Commerce. BPA hopes to complete the current trial stage by the end of this year, Lee said, adding BPA will own and manage the port community system to overcome the reluctance of shippers and carriers to file sensitive information with commercial ventures. “Most port community systems fail because many stakeholders like carriers, shippers and terminal operators normally do not want to share information,” he said. Meanwhile, development of the new terminal comes as growth in transshipment volumes is outpacing the increase in gateway cargo at Busan. Lee said transshipment volumes surged 9% last year to 13.5 million TEUs to account for 55% of Busan’s total volumes of 24.4 million TEUs, while gateway volumes rose just 1.5%. Lee pointed out the launch of Gemini Cooperation last February has bolstered Busan’s transshipment growth ambitions by reducing transit times for Asia-Europe cargo for shippers in North Asia. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Maritime

Port News

Container lines

Port infrastructure

Marine terminals

International ports

Busan aims to boost transshipment volumes with new $573 million feeder terminal

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Well-financed LTL trucking companies are investing in network expansion despite flat revenues and falling shipment counts as shippers demand more speed. </div>

Well-financed LTL trucking companies are investing in network expansion despite flat revenues and falling shipment counts as shippers demand more speed.

<div class="phx-topic">A long-term realignment of the US less-than-truckload (LTL) sector is continuing as LTL carriers expand their networks despite weak demand for palletized freight. Former Yellow-owned facilities continue to be brought back online, by both long-haul and regional carriers, two years after Yellow’s bankruptcy closed more than 200 terminals. Regional and long-haul LTL companies alike are not just adding terminals, but lanes and services as well as the battle to win a diminishing amount of daily shipments intensifies. “Freight is not seeking carriers, so carriers need to seek freight,” Chris Jamroz, executive chairman and CEO of Roadrunner, told the Journal of Commerce. Freight volumes may be low, but the speed of the LTL business is picking up, he noted. “We see a significant migration away from a time-deferred market,” Jamroz said. “Shippers cannot tolerate delays, and people are looking for more time-definite guarantees.” Roadrunner, based in the Chicago area, added 100 new lanes to its network this month — many of them shorter-haul lanes connecting the Midwest to other regions. It also opened a hub in Kansas City, Missouri. “We added 20% to our existing portfolio of guaranteed [on-time delivery] lanes,” Jamroz said. “We continue to expand geographically. We opened a lot of new lanes that are shorter in mileage than our average lane,” especially with the Midwest. Roadrunner isn’t the only LTL carrier focusing on the Midwest, where the collapse of Yellow brought down regional Midwestern LTL provider Holland, creating a gap still unfilled. Northeast regional carrier A. Duie Pyle this month opened terminals in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, strengthening next-day LTL service between Ohio and the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. “We’ll open [a terminal in] Cincinnati probably in late September or early October,” said John Luciani, COO of LTL Solutions for Pyle. “I feel bullish about that. That will complete full state coverage in Ohio.” But it’s the speed that counts for Pyle, as much as the coverage. Previously, West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Pyle partnered with Midwestern carrier Dayton Freight Lines to move freight from Ohio to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, Luciani said. “The best service we were going to provide through partnership was two days and competition was overnight” from the Midwest to East Coast, he said. Based on data from SMC3, Luciani estimates only 44% of the shipments moved daily from Ohio to the “Mid-Atlantic Corridor” are delivered the next day. “We see that as an opportunity,” he said. “We have customers who said if we expanded into Columbus or Toledo they would reward us with business.” <h3>Waiting for wheels to turn </h3>More business is what LTL carriers want. Public and privately-owned carriers alike say freight volumes are down year over year, and there’s no immediate sign they will rise. “We’ve had a few head fakes from an economic standpoint,” Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) CFO Adam Satterfield told analysts during a second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Daily shipments at ODFL, the largest US LTL provider after FedEx Freight, dropped 7.3% in the quarter from a year earlier. “I’d love for revenue to be higher, and I’d love for this cycle to turn,” Satterfield said. “There have been a couple of times that we felt like it was turning.” Manufacturing may be a cause for some optimism. The S&amp;P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for US manufacturing rose from 52 in May to 52.9 in June, signaling stronger expansion. Manufacturing output increased for the first time since February. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI remains in contraction, although it improved from a reading of 48.5 in May to 49 in June. The threat of higher US tariffs has been a drag on industrial production and freight, Satterfield said. “It’s hard if you’re a manufacturer, for example, to figure out what the cost structure is going to be when you don’t really know what the final tariff cost might be,” he said. “I think that’s something that we’ve had a lot of customers trying to figure out.” Satterfield said he feels the US economy is closer to improvement, “but we want to turn that feeling into true freight and see it coming on board.” XPO, the fourth-largest US LTL provider, opened large terminals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Greensboro, North Carolina, in the first half of 2025 despite a decline in volume. XPO’s daily shipment count dropped 5.1% year over year to 50,782 in the second quarter. The Carlisle terminal has 281 doors, while the Greensboro facility, located in Kernersville between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, has 333 doors. Both were among the 28 terminals XPO acquired from bankrupt Yellow. XPO also added almost 500 tractors to its fleet in the second quarter as it reduced outsourced transportation to 6.8% of total fleet mileage. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based carrier added more than 5,000 small business customers in the first half of 2025. Expansion during a downcycle is not a luxury but a necessity, XPO CEO Mario Harik said. “You cannot invest in your network when the upcycle starts, it will be too late,” Harik told the Journal of Commerce. “Capacity right now is about 95% of what it was when Yellow was in operation,” he said. “If the upcycle starts next year, there will be less capacity than the market will need. That will be the tailwind of all tailwinds for LTL.” Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

A long-term realignment of the US less-than-truckload (LTL) sector is continuing as LTL carriers expand their networks despite weak demand for palletized freight. Former Yellow-owned facilities continue to be brought back online, by both long-haul and regional carriers, two years after Yellow’s bankruptcy closed more than 200 terminals. Regional and long-haul LTL companies alike are not just adding terminals, but lanes and services as well as the battle to win a diminishing amount of daily shipments intensifies. “Freight is not seeking carriers, so carriers need to seek freight,” Chris Jamroz, executive chairman and CEO of Roadrunner, told the Journal of Commerce. Freight volumes may be low, but the speed of the LTL business is picking up, he noted. “We see a significant migration away from a time-deferred market,” Jamroz said. “Shippers cannot tolerate delays, and people are looking for more time-definite guarantees.” Roadrunner, based in the Chicago area, added 100 new lanes to its network this month — many of them shorter-haul lanes connecting the Midwest to other regions. It also opened a hub in Kansas City, Missouri. “We added 20% to our existing portfolio of guaranteed [on-time delivery] lanes,” Jamroz said. “We continue to expand geographically. We opened a lot of new lanes that are shorter in mileage than our average lane,” especially with the Midwest. Roadrunner isn’t the only LTL carrier focusing on the Midwest, where the collapse of Yellow brought down regional Midwestern LTL provider Holland, creating a gap still unfilled. Northeast regional carrier A. Duie Pyle this month opened terminals in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, strengthening next-day LTL service between Ohio and the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. “We’ll open [a terminal in] Cincinnati probably in late September or early October,” said John Luciani, COO of LTL Solutions for Pyle. “I feel bullish about that. That will complete full state coverage in Ohio.” But it’s the speed that counts for Pyle, as much as the coverage. Previously, West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Pyle partnered with Midwestern carrier Dayton Freight Lines to move freight from Ohio to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, Luciani said. “The best service we were going to provide through partnership was two days and competition was overnight” from the Midwest to East Coast, he said. Based on data from SMC3, Luciani estimates only 44% of the shipments moved daily from Ohio to the “Mid-Atlantic Corridor” are delivered the next day. “We see that as an opportunity,” he said. “We have customers who said if we expanded into Columbus or Toledo they would reward us with business.” Waiting for wheels to turn More business is what LTL carriers want. Public and privately-owned carriers alike say freight volumes are down year over year, and there’s no immediate sign they will rise. “We’ve had a few head fakes from an economic standpoint,” Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) CFO Adam Satterfield told analysts during a second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. Daily shipments at ODFL, the largest US LTL provider after FedEx Freight, dropped 7.3% in the quarter from a year earlier. “I’d love for revenue to be higher, and I’d love for this cycle to turn,” Satterfield said. “There have been a couple of times that we felt like it was turning.” Manufacturing may be a cause for some optimism. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for US manufacturing rose from 52 in May to 52.9 in June, signaling stronger expansion. Manufacturing output increased for the first time since February. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI remains in contraction, although it improved from a reading of 48.5 in May to 49 in June. The threat of higher US tariffs has been a drag on industrial production and freight, Satterfield said. “It’s hard if you’re a manufacturer, for example, to figure out what the cost structure is going to be when you don’t really know what the final tariff cost might be,” he said. “I think that’s something that we’ve had a lot of customers trying to figure out.” Satterfield said he feels the US economy is closer to improvement, “but we want to turn that feeling into true freight and see it coming on board.” XPO, the fourth-largest US LTL provider, opened large terminals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Greensboro, North Carolina, in the first half of 2025 despite a decline in volume. XPO’s daily shipment count dropped 5.1% year over year to 50,782 in the second quarter. The Carlisle terminal has 281 doors, while the Greensboro facility, located in Kernersville between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, has 333 doors. Both were among the 28 terminals XPO acquired from bankrupt Yellow. XPO also added almost 500 tractors to its fleet in the second quarter as it reduced outsourced transportation to 6.8% of total fleet mileage. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based carrier added more than 5,000 small business customers in the first half of 2025. Expansion during a downcycle is not a luxury but a necessity, XPO CEO Mario Harik said. “You cannot invest in your network when the upcycle starts, it will be too late,” Harik told the Journal of Commerce. “Capacity right now is about 95% of what it was when Yellow was in operation,” he said. “If the upcycle starts next year, there will be less capacity than the market will need. That will be the tailwind of all tailwinds for LTL.” Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Trucking News

LTL carriers expanding US networks despite low freight demand

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Local liner sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce signaled that carriers would cancel increase notices scheduled for Aug. 1 and instead extend existing prices through the first half of the month.</div>

Local liner sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce signaled that carriers would cancel increase notices scheduled for Aug. 1 and instead extend existing prices through the first half of the month.

<div class="phx-topic">Container carriers covering Indian westbound trades to the US are reconsidering the rate increases they had lined up for August because of an uncertain market environment stemming from the new tariffs that will hit the market. Local liner sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce signaled that carriers would cancel increase notices scheduled for Aug. 1 and instead extend existing prices through the first half of the month after no noticeable volume gains were seen in the early days of peak shipping season. “There is just no room to push rates higher in the near term,” said a sales executive at a European carrier who asked not to be identified. “At best, we might be able to hold current rates somewhat firm for now.” Sources said that a significant cut in capacity from multiple blank sailings — reportedly six void calls across three India-US East Coast connections in July — has effectively helped carriers fill vessels to their full allocations in recent weeks. But with no major schedule disruptions reported for August, barring just two anticipated skips on Ocean Network Express’ (ONE’s) WIN loop, lead carriers remain skeptical about their ability to reach allocation targets without downward rate corrections. Asian carriers, mainly Cosco Shipping and subsidiary OOCL, have already dropped spot rates on the trade lane — down to between $2,000 and $2,100 per FEU versus the $2,500 to $2,800 price range held by their European peers, sources say. Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global, pegged India-US East Coast spot rates at $2,633 per FEU as of July 30. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="56199e2b-5df4-468f-a149-b18ae7c32e51"></dynamic-object></div>Meanwhile, a 25% US tariff on Indian-origin goods that begins Aug. 1, plus an unspecified penalty for trading with Russia, has amplified those trade concerns. Tariff stability, now key to India-US trade expansion, hinges on a new bilateral trade deal both sides have been negotiating over the past few months, with breakthroughs ostensibly stalled by certain market access differences. Another round of talks is now scheduled for late August. Amid lingering uncertainty, many US buyers are said to be holding back on lifting Indian shipments already on order and/or placing new procurement plans. Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), believes the higher scale of US tariffs could significantly hurt Indian export flows, primarily pharmaceuticals, seafood and textiles and apparel. “The situation is being closely watched by the trade, including carriers,” he said. Other industry sources echoed that sentiment. “Indian exporters and US importers are now unable to accurately calculate landed costs or plan how to absorb the elevated tariff burden,” said Ajay Sahai, director-general at the Federation of Indian Exports Organization. “This lack of predictability is disrupting supply chain planning and pricing decisions.” Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

Container carriers covering Indian westbound trades to the US are reconsidering the rate increases they had lined up for August because of an uncertain market environment stemming from the new tariffs that will hit the market. Local liner sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce signaled that carriers would cancel increase notices scheduled for Aug. 1 and instead extend existing prices through the first half of the month after no noticeable volume gains were seen in the early days of peak shipping season. “There is just no room to push rates higher in the near term,” said a sales executive at a European carrier who asked not to be identified. “At best, we might be able to hold current rates somewhat firm for now.” Sources said that a significant cut in capacity from multiple blank sailings — reportedly six void calls across three India-US East Coast connections in July — has effectively helped carriers fill vessels to their full allocations in recent weeks. But with no major schedule disruptions reported for August, barring just two anticipated skips on Ocean Network Express’ (ONE’s) WIN loop, lead carriers remain skeptical about their ability to reach allocation targets without downward rate corrections. Asian carriers, mainly Cosco Shipping and subsidiary OOCL, have already dropped spot rates on the trade lane — down to between $2,000 and $2,100 per FEU versus the $2,500 to $2,800 price range held by their European peers, sources say. Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global, pegged India-US East Coast spot rates at $2,633 per FEU as of July 30. Meanwhile, a 25% US tariff on Indian-origin goods that begins Aug. 1, plus an unspecified penalty for trading with Russia, has amplified those trade concerns. Tariff stability, now key to India-US trade expansion, hinges on a new bilateral trade deal both sides have been negotiating over the past few months, with breakthroughs ostensibly stalled by certain market access differences. Another round of talks is now scheduled for late August. Amid lingering uncertainty, many US buyers are said to be holding back on lifting Indian shipments already on order and/or placing new procurement plans. Sunil Vaswani, executive director of the Container Shipping Lines Association (India), believes the higher scale of US tariffs could significantly hurt Indian export flows, primarily pharmaceuticals, seafood and textiles and apparel. “The situation is being closely watched by the trade, including carriers,” he said. Other industry sources echoed that sentiment. “Indian exporters and US importers are now unable to accurately calculate landed costs or plan how to absorb the elevated tariff burden,” said Ajay Sahai, director-general at the Federation of Indian Exports Organization. “This lack of predictability is disrupting supply chain planning and pricing decisions.” Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

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India-US carriers likely to kill August rate hikes amid new tariff uncertainty

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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

SMC3rates_shutterstock_5247046.jpg

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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