<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">LA-LB container terminals are handling alliance changes and the recent APMT cyber attack with only minor glitches, so truckers are confident they will handle peak-season volumes without significant congestion.</div>

LA-LB container terminals are handling alliance changes and the recent APMT cyber attack with only minor glitches, so truckers are confident they will handle peak-season volumes without significant congestion.

<div>Terminals that won business from the April container shipping alliance restructuring have seen their truck turn times rise.Having weathered one of the more volatile periods of the past two years with only a slight rise in truck turn times, drayage drivers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are optimistic that they will make it through the summer-autumn peak-shipping season without serious congestion issues at marine terminals.“There’s been a willingness to meet with the HTA [Harbor Trucking Association] and figure out where the pinch points are and mitigate the delays,” said Weston LaBar, executive director of the HTA. “The terminals should be commended...

Terminals that won business from the April container shipping alliance restructuring have seen their truck turn times rise. Having weathered one of the more volatile periods of the past two years with only a slight rise in truck turn times, drayage drivers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are optimistic that they will make it through the summer-autumn peak-shipping season without serious congestion issues at marine terminals. “There’s been a willingness to meet with the HTA [Harbor Trucking Association] and figure out where the pinch points are and mitigate the delays,” said Weston LaBar, executive director of the HTA. “The terminals should be commended for that,” he said. Click to enlarge Harbor truckers in the largest US port complex normally approach the August to November peak season with trepidation. As container volumes rise, marine terminals become congested and truck turn times increase. This year the terminals got a dry run on chaos. Shipping lines on April 1 restructured their global vessel-sharing alliances , which directly affected the container terminals because some facilities experienced a big increase in volume while others lost business. Also, Maersk Line and its APM Terminals (APMT) sister company were hit June 27 with a cyber attack throughout their global operations . According to data that are collected via GPS and published each month by the HTA, the average truck visit time at all of the 13 terminals was 84 minutes in May and June. That was up from 80 minutes in April. Although harbor truckers want most truck turn times at an hour or less, they can handle visit times of about 80 minutes, they say. Truck visit time in the first few months of 2017 followed a predictable pattern. The average visit time in January was 81 minutes, but it shot up to 88 minutes in February as the pre- Chinese New Year spike in cargo volume hit the ports. The cargo build up was cleared by March, and the average visit time dropped to 76 minutes. Everything was back to normal in April, when the average visit time returned to 80 minutes. However, the landscape began to change in April with the alliance restructuring, and then the Maersk cyber attack. Also, cargo volumes continued their steady climb higher. According to monthly numbers published on the website of the Pacific Maritime Association, total laden container volumes hit a seasonal low of 868,795 TEU in February, and then increased each month to 1,053,998 TEU in May. Total laden container volumes in the first five months of the year were up 5.6 percent from the same period in 2016. Terminal congestion and truck visit times ebbed and flowed with the various one-off events this spring. The impact of the alliance restructuring, which began in Asia with vessel departures during the first week of April, hit US shores later in the month. “We went through the alliance transition from mid-April through the first week in May. There were a few bumps,” said Alan McCorkle, vice president of Yusen Terminals. “In all of June into July, we’ve been operating fairly consistently,” he said. Click to enlarge Much bigger peaks and valleys were experienced at some of the individual terminals. The Total Terminals International (TTI) facility in Long Beach experienced a large increase in business when a string of 13,000-TEU ships that had been calling at the APMT terminal in Los Angeles shifted to TTI under changes by the 2M alliance. The average visit time at TTI shot up to 139 minutes in May, from 87 minutes in March before the 2M switch took place. Turn times improved somewhat to 114 minutes in June. Conversely, APMT, which lost volume, saw its turn times improve from 91 minutes in March to 73 minutes is May. The Eagle Marine (APL) terminal in Los Angeles also saw a big increase in volume as the CMA CGM acquisition of APL played out at the terminal level. CMA CGM did not have its own terminal in Southern California. As the alliance changes took place, and CMA CGM began began calling at the Eagle Marine-APL terminal, container volumes spiked, and truck visit times at Eagle Marine increased from 82 minutes in March to 99 minutes in May and 112 minutes in June. On the other hand, some terminals did not change their performance much over the past few months. LaBar noted that the more efficient terminals, such as Matson-SSA and LBCT-Pier E, maintained their rapid turn-time performances in the mid-30 to mid-40-minute range. Matson, which operates smaller vessels in the US domestic trades and has one China service, also with smaller ships, is the perennial leader in the harbor. Long Beach Container Terminal’s Middle Harbor facility at Pier E is automated , which promotes rapid truck turn times and more dual transactions, LaBar said. Even the Maersk cyber attack in late June, which slowed down operations at the APMT terminal, did not have a significant impact on truck visit times, LaBar said. Average visit times from late June through last week increased five minutes to 82 minutes, he said. Given the marine terminals’ recent successes in adjusting to recent one-off events and the steady cargo growth so far this year, LaBar said it is apparent that the regular meetings between the terminal operators and truckers have produced actionable suggestions that helps mitigate congestion as it arises. He is therefore confident the terminals are in a good position to handle the increased cargo loads from August to November. Click to enlarge Another reason why the Southern California transportation community is confident it can handle the load is that peak seasons are not what they used to be. “The past couple of years the peaks haven’t been as big as in years past,” said Ed DeNike, chief operating officer at SSA Marine. Rather than spiking sharply for a few months and then dropping off quickly, cargo volumes have been building steadily throughout the year after the Chinese New Year lull, he said. Other industry veterans who have described this phenomenon say the rapid growth of e-commerce is a contributing factor. Therefore, terminal operators will prepare their cargo-handling equipment and labor resources for a continued steady increase in volume, but overall, they will not be making any dramatic marshalling of resources as they used to do in the past, DeNike said. One area where the jury is still out is chassis availability, LaBar said. Although chassis appear to be in sufficient balance right now, carriers, terminal operators, truckers, and intermodal equipment providers must look for red flags that could indicate a sudden disruption is possible, he said. McCorkle added that a possible warning sign is the relatively high number of out-of-service chassis in the pool-of-pool chassis fleet. “The chassis supply right now is good, but the out-of-service chassis are still well above the target,” he said. McCorkle also pointed to intermodal rail glitches as another problem that could grow worse. The problems surfaced shortly after the alliance changes in April. The railroads have made “moderate” improvements since then, but there is still a need for “more consistency in spotting westbound trains and pulling eastbound trains,” he said. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @billmongelluzzo.

Trucking News

Drayage

Marine terminals

LA-LB truckers expect few peak season bumps

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The South Korean electronics conglomerate said it should not be held liable for more than $1 million in charges resulting from container delays that Wan Hai-contracted truckers experienced between 2020 and 2022.</div>

The South Korean electronics conglomerate said it should not be held liable for more than $1 million in charges resulting from container delays that Wan Hai-contracted truckers experienced between 2020 and 2022.

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<div class="phx-topic">Samsung Electronics has filed a complaint with US shipping regulators over more than $1 million in fees Wan Hai charged the conglomerate on delayed container pickups under the ocean carrier’s control, marking Samsung’s latest salvo against ocean carriers over pandemic-era delays and resulting financial penalties. Samsung’s complaint, reported on Monday by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), alleged that Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines violated US shipping law by charging demurrage and detention on hundreds of containers between 2020 and 2022 where Wan Hai was responsible for the inland move under carrier haulage, or so-called “store door” terms. “In store door shipments, costs and charges relating to delays in the timely removal of containers from terminals (generally known as “demurrage” charges) should be borne by Wan Hai, not a consignee,” Samsung’s complaint said. In addition to $1.2 million in direct charges, Samsung said it also bore other costs related to the transportation of its containers. It is asking the FMC to determine what restitution will be appropriate. Samsung, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/journal-of-commerce-top-100-us-importers-and-exporters-in-2025-6210438">the 15th-largest US importer by volume</a>, has filed five other FMC complaints against ocean carriers, including <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/fmc-complaint-from-samsung-is-latest-salvo-against-cosco-for-dd-billing-5199869">Cosco Shipping</a>, Orient Overseas Container Line, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/samsung-fmc-complaint-alleges-thousands-of-inaccurate-fees-assessed-by-hmm-5244232">HMM</a>, Zim Shipping, and SM Line over container late fees charged during the pandemic. So far, only the complaint against Zim <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/fmc-judge-awards-samsung-37-million-from-zim-in-billing-dispute-5990789">resulted in damages being awarded to Samsung</a>, with the other cases expected to be decided later in 2026 and 2027. Similar to its other complaints, Samsung alleged that Wan Hai began “repeatedly failing” to deliver Samsung’s containers from marine terminals in 2021 in a timely manner “due to chassis shortages and heavy terminal congestion.” Despite those matters being outside of Samsung’s control, the company alleged Wan Hai would charge Samsung demurrage on over 550 delayed container retrievals and detention on over 150 container returns. Samsung also claimed it faced over 800 other instances of associated charges due to the delays. Samsung’s complaint said Wan Hai’s late charges contradict the FMC’s “<a href="https://www.joc.com/article/stakeholders-say-us-cargo-flow-would-be-undermined-by-proposed-fmc-billing-rule-5245716">incentive principle</a>,” which justifies such charges for prompting the timely removal of containers from terminals. Samsung said the container moves were totally under the control of Wan Hai, and that the carrier continued to accept Samsung’s containers even though it could not promptly move them to Samsung warehouses. “Wan Hai’s foregoing practices and procedures related to the assessment of demurrage and detention charges are unjust and unreasonable as applied because they did not serve their intended primary purpose to incentivize freight fluidity,” the complaint said. Wan Hai did not respond to a request for comment. <h3>‘Beat you up on rates’ </h3>The president of a New Jersey-based motor carrier told the Journal of Commerce his general experience with carrier haulage moves through ocean carriers has been fraught. While his company, which has over just over 40 trucks, will occasionally handle store-door moves if the shipper asks for a specific motor carrier, contracting haulage directly from an ocean carrier usually means very short notice of when a container will reach a port, usually four or five days in advance. That leaves motor carriers less time to allocate drivers and chassis. The source’s direct shipper customers, though, will provide ongoing forecasts of how many containers to expect and when, so planning goes more smoothly. While ocean carriers will generally provide a no-cost chassis to a shipper for a store-door move, motor carriers are still typically forced to use a chassis pool rather than their own chassis. “The ocean carriers can promise you a lot of business because they have the customer relationship, but they can beat you up on rates,” the source said.  Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Samsung Electronics has filed a complaint with US shipping regulators over more than $1 million in fees Wan Hai charged the conglomerate on delayed container pickups under the ocean carrier’s control, marking Samsung’s latest salvo against ocean carriers over pandemic-era delays and resulting financial penalties. Samsung’s complaint, reported on Monday by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), alleged that Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines violated US shipping law by charging demurrage and detention on hundreds of containers between 2020 and 2022 where Wan Hai was responsible for the inland move under carrier haulage, or so-called “store door” terms. “In store door shipments, costs and charges relating to delays in the timely removal of containers from terminals (generally known as “demurrage” charges) should be borne by Wan Hai, not a consignee,” Samsung’s complaint said. In addition to $1.2 million in direct charges, Samsung said it also bore other costs related to the transportation of its containers. It is asking the FMC to determine what restitution will be appropriate. Samsung, the 15th-largest US importer by volume , has filed five other FMC complaints against ocean carriers, including Cosco Shipping , Orient Overseas Container Line, HMM , Zim Shipping, and SM Line over container late fees charged during the pandemic. So far, only the complaint against Zim resulted in damages being awarded to Samsung , with the other cases expected to be decided later in 2026 and 2027. Similar to its other complaints, Samsung alleged that Wan Hai began “repeatedly failing” to deliver Samsung’s containers from marine terminals in 2021 in a timely manner “due to chassis shortages and heavy terminal congestion.” Despite those matters being outside of Samsung’s control, the company alleged Wan Hai would charge Samsung demurrage on over 550 delayed container retrievals and detention on over 150 container returns. Samsung also claimed it faced over 800 other instances of associated charges due to the delays. Samsung’s complaint said Wan Hai’s late charges contradict the FMC’s “ incentive principle ,” which justifies such charges for prompting the timely removal of containers from terminals. Samsung said the container moves were totally under the control of Wan Hai, and that the carrier continued to accept Samsung’s containers even though it could not promptly move them to Samsung warehouses. “Wan Hai’s foregoing practices and procedures related to the assessment of demurrage and detention charges are unjust and unreasonable as applied because they did not serve their intended primary purpose to incentivize freight fluidity,” the complaint said. Wan Hai did not respond to a request for comment. ‘Beat you up on rates’ The president of a New Jersey-based motor carrier told the Journal of Commerce his general experience with carrier haulage moves through ocean carriers has been fraught. While his company, which has over just over 40 trucks, will occasionally handle store-door moves if the shipper asks for a specific motor carrier, contracting haulage directly from an ocean carrier usually means very short notice of when a container will reach a port, usually four or five days in advance. That leaves motor carriers less time to allocate drivers and chassis. The source’s direct shipper customers, though, will provide ongoing forecasts of how many containers to expect and when, so planning goes more smoothly. While ocean carriers will generally provide a no-cost chassis to a shipper for a store-door move, motor carriers are still typically forced to use a chassis pool rather than their own chassis. “The ocean carriers can promise you a lot of business because they have the customer relationship, but they can beat you up on rates,” the source said.  Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Maritime

Samsung levels D&D complaint against Wan Hai with FMC

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Costs rose sharply following the start of the war, and although emergency fuel surcharges were quickly levied on spot shipments, cargo under contract was locked into quarterly BAFs.</div>

Costs rose sharply following the start of the war, and although emergency fuel surcharges were quickly levied on spot shipments, cargo under contract was locked into quarterly BAFs.

<div class="phx-topic">Fuel prices that rocketed higher since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28 have so far added $5.5 billion to the bunker costs of container lines, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis. Ocean carriers have rolled out emergency fuel surcharges in an urgent bid to recover that increase in operating costs, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/war-adding-40-50-million-per-week-to-hapag-lloyds-costs-ceo-6193532">estimated at up to $50 million a week by Hapag-Lloyd</a>. “It is clear that if the (Strait of) Hormuz crisis persists, and hence fuel prices remain elevated, the industry would become clearly loss-making, unless the added fuel costs translate into higher freight rates,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, wrote in his weekly Sunday Spotlight newsletter. “Spot rates have indeed been on the rise these past couple of weeks, especially on the Asia-Europe trade, implying that the process of passing on the added fuel costs is under way,” Murphy added. Bunker costs rose sharply following the start of the war, and although emergency fuel surcharges were quickly levied on spot shipments, cargo under contract was locked into quarterly bunker adjustment factors (BAFs). <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/demand-rising-on-asia-europe-ocean-trade-as-july-bunker-hike-looms-6225813">Those costs will be passed on to shippers in the third quarter</a> beginning July 1. Murphy put the scale of the additional fuel costs for the three-month period through May in context, noting that the first-quarter financial results for 2026 implied combined industry-wide revenue of $61 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $2.7 billion. <h3>Peace prospects spark oil price drop</h3>While oil prices have fallen to a two-week low amid hopes that Washington and Tehran were close to a peace deal, the fragility of the current ceasefire was illustrated Monday by renewed US strikes and return fire from Iranian positions. Very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) was trading at $782 per metric ton (mt) Monday, down 11% since a mid-May high, according to Ship &amp; Bunker. High-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) is trading at a substantial discount to VLSFO at $628/mt, down 13% since mid-May. To arrive at a daily added fuel cost per-container for the industry from the Middle East war, Sea-Intelligence used an estimated fuel use of 70 million tons per year, with 47.2 million TEUs shipped in the first three months of 2026, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS). “The CTS data period is not quite the same as the fuel premium period,” Murphy acknowledged. “However, as a ballpark estimate, this implies an added fuel cost on average of $117/TEU.” Whether a vessel was equipped with an exhaust scrubber or not would also influence the cost per container. “Vessels equipped with a scrubber can use the lower-priced (HSFO), whereas vessels without a scrubber need to purchase the more expensive VLSFO,” Murphy said. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Fuel prices that rocketed higher since the war with Iran began on Feb. 28 have so far added $5.5 billion to the bunker costs of container lines, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis. Ocean carriers have rolled out emergency fuel surcharges in an urgent bid to recover that increase in operating costs, estimated at up to $50 million a week by Hapag-Lloyd . “It is clear that if the (Strait of) Hormuz crisis persists, and hence fuel prices remain elevated, the industry would become clearly loss-making, unless the added fuel costs translate into higher freight rates,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, wrote in his weekly Sunday Spotlight newsletter. “Spot rates have indeed been on the rise these past couple of weeks, especially on the Asia-Europe trade, implying that the process of passing on the added fuel costs is under way,” Murphy added. Bunker costs rose sharply following the start of the war, and although emergency fuel surcharges were quickly levied on spot shipments, cargo under contract was locked into quarterly bunker adjustment factors (BAFs). Those costs will be passed on to shippers in the third quarter beginning July 1. Murphy put the scale of the additional fuel costs for the three-month period through May in context, noting that the first-quarter financial results for 2026 implied combined industry-wide revenue of $61 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $2.7 billion. Peace prospects spark oil price drop While oil prices have fallen to a two-week low amid hopes that Washington and Tehran were close to a peace deal, the fragility of the current ceasefire was illustrated Monday by renewed US strikes and return fire from Iranian positions. Very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) was trading at $782 per metric ton (mt) Monday, down 11% since a mid-May high, according to Ship & Bunker. High-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) is trading at a substantial discount to VLSFO at $628/mt, down 13% since mid-May. To arrive at a daily added fuel cost per-container for the industry from the Middle East war, Sea-Intelligence used an estimated fuel use of 70 million tons per year, with 47.2 million TEUs shipped in the first three months of 2026, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS). “The CTS data period is not quite the same as the fuel premium period,” Murphy acknowledged. “However, as a ballpark estimate, this implies an added fuel cost on average of $117/TEU.” Whether a vessel was equipped with an exhaust scrubber or not would also influence the cost per container. “Vessels equipped with a scrubber can use the lower-priced (HSFO), whereas vessels without a scrubber need to purchase the more expensive VLSFO,” Murphy said. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Asia-Europe

Container Shipping News

Middle East war adds $5.5 billion to ocean carriers' bunker costs: Sea-Intelligence

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Ag exporters have always faced logistical challenges because their crops are grown in the interior US and shipped through ports located hundreds of miles away; those challenges seem to be growing, the AgTC conference heard this week. </div>

Ag exporters have always faced logistical challenges because their crops are grown in the interior US and shipped through ports located hundreds of miles away; those challenges seem to be growing, the AgTC conference heard this week.

<div class="phx-topic">US agricultural shippers are facing increasing and costly challenges in getting their goods to global markets as the war in the Middle East and schedule changes by ocean carriers upset the cadence of their operations. “Container availability, schedule changes, rail delays from the interior of the country; these things can combine and create sort of a monster for us,” Christopher Jennum, global manager of export logistics and marketing at the Dairy Farmers of America, told the annual Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) conference this week in Tacoma. Ag exporters have always faced logistical challenges because their crops are grown in the interior US and shipped through ports located hundreds of miles away. This makes it difficult for exporters to secure empty containers, plan their rail moves to the ports, and meet marine terminal requirements for the on-time delivery of their boxes. Shippers must commit to delivery of their containers weeks ahead of time. “They’re committing to an export window that hasn’t formed,” said Vijay Harrell, CEO of logistics provider Tradelanes. Additionally, ag exporters are operating in a transportation environment designed decades ago and not equipped to handle modern day disruptions such as the pandemic and now the war in the Middle East. “I think the system that has carried us this far is starting to show some wear and tear,” Ken O’Brien, CEO of Gemini Shippers Association, told AgTC. “The disruption we face has somehow fundamentally changed our industry.” That wear and tear has affected the reliability of service, while communication between carriers and their customers has been compromised and the ability to accurately forecast supply and demand has been degraded, he said. “Both (carriers and customers) have to do a better job as to how we forecast demand,” O’Brien said. The fact that ag exports originate across a vast heartland and are shipped through a number of gateways makes it difficult for ocean carriers to consistently provide the equipment and services their customers demand and need, said Patrick “PJ” McGrath, senior vice president for commercial at Hapag-Lloyd in North America. If all imports and exports went through either Los Angeles-Long Beach or New York-New Jersey, serving shippers in the interior would be easy and much less costly for the ocean carriers. They’re not, but there is a strategy, McGrath said. “So how do I look at each individual piece? It boils down to communication (between the parties),” he said. <h3>Communication among parties is crucial </h3>Carriers must do a better job of communicating disruptions in vessel scheduling and services, as well as the fuel surcharges they are implementing due to the war in the Middle East, said Irina Brown, cotton export specialist at Dunavant Global Logistics Group. “The biggest problem is managing communication during disruptions, but it is super hard when you have trouble receiving responses from carriers, especially during the past year,” Brown told AgTC. “We get responses from carriers that make no sense.” Rapidly rising fuel costs and accompanying surcharges, which vary from carrier to carrier, have become a huge cost burden for shippers, said Cynthia Tathwell, supply chain logistics specialist at Columbia Grain. “I’ve seen unjustified rises in rates and billing practices outside of published tariffs,” Tathwell said. “It’s a pattern across the industry.” She added that she has challenged these charges, which has its own set of problems, noting that disputes “equal time and money for both sides.” <h3>FMC ‘has teeth’ </h3>Ag exporters also face ongoing problems with transportation providers in the levying of detention fees for the late return of equipment to the marine terminal or railyard and demurrage charges for containers remaining at a marine terminal or railyard after free storage time has expired. Laura DiBella, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), told the ag shippers the agency is aware of these practices and will move to stop any unfair implementation of detention and demurrage fees. “You are going to see plenty more on that,” DiBella told AgTc. “We’re definitely taking a more aggressive stance.” Whether it’s addressing unfair detention and demurrage fees or fuel surcharge issues, the FMC has various investigatory and enforcement powers it will use to move against unfair practices, she said. “The FMC has teeth,” DiBella said. “It has very big teeth.” Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

US agricultural shippers are facing increasing and costly challenges in getting their goods to global markets as the war in the Middle East and schedule changes by ocean carriers upset the cadence of their operations. “Container availability, schedule changes, rail delays from the interior of the country; these things can combine and create sort of a monster for us,” Christopher Jennum, global manager of export logistics and marketing at the Dairy Farmers of America, told the annual Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) conference this week in Tacoma. Ag exporters have always faced logistical challenges because their crops are grown in the interior US and shipped through ports located hundreds of miles away. This makes it difficult for exporters to secure empty containers, plan their rail moves to the ports, and meet marine terminal requirements for the on-time delivery of their boxes. Shippers must commit to delivery of their containers weeks ahead of time. “They’re committing to an export window that hasn’t formed,” said Vijay Harrell, CEO of logistics provider Tradelanes. Additionally, ag exporters are operating in a transportation environment designed decades ago and not equipped to handle modern day disruptions such as the pandemic and now the war in the Middle East. “I think the system that has carried us this far is starting to show some wear and tear,” Ken O’Brien, CEO of Gemini Shippers Association, told AgTC. “The disruption we face has somehow fundamentally changed our industry.” That wear and tear has affected the reliability of service, while communication between carriers and their customers has been compromised and the ability to accurately forecast supply and demand has been degraded, he said. “Both (carriers and customers) have to do a better job as to how we forecast demand,” O’Brien said. The fact that ag exports originate across a vast heartland and are shipped through a number of gateways makes it difficult for ocean carriers to consistently provide the equipment and services their customers demand and need, said Patrick “PJ” McGrath, senior vice president for commercial at Hapag-Lloyd in North America. If all imports and exports went through either Los Angeles-Long Beach or New York-New Jersey, serving shippers in the interior would be easy and much less costly for the ocean carriers. They’re not, but there is a strategy, McGrath said. “So how do I look at each individual piece? It boils down to communication (between the parties),” he said. Communication among parties is crucial Carriers must do a better job of communicating disruptions in vessel scheduling and services, as well as the fuel surcharges they are implementing due to the war in the Middle East, said Irina Brown, cotton export specialist at Dunavant Global Logistics Group. “The biggest problem is managing communication during disruptions, but it is super hard when you have trouble receiving responses from carriers, especially during the past year,” Brown told AgTC. “We get responses from carriers that make no sense.” Rapidly rising fuel costs and accompanying surcharges, which vary from carrier to carrier, have become a huge cost burden for shippers, said Cynthia Tathwell, supply chain logistics specialist at Columbia Grain. “I’ve seen unjustified rises in rates and billing practices outside of published tariffs,” Tathwell said. “It’s a pattern across the industry.” She added that she has challenged these charges, which has its own set of problems, noting that disputes “equal time and money for both sides.” FMC ‘has teeth’ Ag exporters also face ongoing problems with transportation providers in the levying of detention fees for the late return of equipment to the marine terminal or railyard and demurrage charges for containers remaining at a marine terminal or railyard after free storage time has expired. Laura DiBella, chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), told the ag shippers the agency is aware of these practices and will move to stop any unfair implementation of detention and demurrage fees. “You are going to see plenty more on that,” DiBella told AgTc. “We’re definitely taking a more aggressive stance.” Whether it’s addressing unfair detention and demurrage fees or fuel surcharge issues, the FMC has various investigatory and enforcement powers it will use to move against unfair practices, she said. “The FMC has teeth,” DiBella said. “It has very big teeth.” Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at  bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Supply chain

US ag shippers navigate creaky supply chain not built for modern disruption

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Rising fuel costs, reliable service and higher rates amid the end of the four-year recession in trucking are helping convert more freight to rail in the eastern US. </div>

Rising fuel costs, reliable service and higher rates amid the end of the four-year recession in trucking are helping convert more freight to rail in the eastern US.

<div class="phx-topic">US domestic intermodal demand has rebounded sharply since the war with Iran began, with the growth coming, surprisingly, on lanes east of the Mississippi River rather than the long-haul West Coast corridors that typically offer the biggest fuel advantage over trucking. Intermodal providers have historically struggled to compete with trucking in the eastern US because the shorter lengths of haul mean less cost savings than transcontinental moves. But railroads and intermodal marketing companies (IMCs) say rising fuel costs, higher rates amid the end of the four-year recession in the trucking industry, and reliable service are helping convert more freight to rail in the east. Combined domestic container traffic in March and April was up 9% over the same period in 2025, according to the International Association of North America (IANA), a surge not seen since the pandemic-related lockdowns six years ago. Freight originating in the Northeast, South-Central and Southeast US have all jumped more than 10% year over year. “You’re finally seeing us coming out of ... the worst trucking cycle that we’ve witnessed — at least the worst one certainly that I’ve seen,” Kevin Boone, CFO of CSX Transportation, said at the Bank of America Annual Industrials Conference on May 13. “We’re seeing [freight] start to convert over to rail and with our service product, we’re pretty optimistic that can continue here.” The strongest gains have been concentrated in eastern corridors. Traffic from the Northeast to the Southeast jumped 17.7% year over year in March and April, according to IANA, while Southeast-to-Northeast traffic on the same corridor rose 16%. Midwest-to-Northeast volume increased 17.6%. Those are three routes where CSX will be able to better compete after beginning double-stack intermodal service through the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/soaring-truck-rates-power-major-rebound-in-domestic-intermodal-volume-6208736">earlier this month</a>. The upgrade allows CSX to compete better against Norfolk Southern (NS) on freight between Atlanta and Newark and cuts about a day from transit times between Chicago and Newark. That gives CSX a chance to capture more of the eastern demand upswing, along with private-asset intermodal partners such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services. J.B. Hunt executives are signaling the same strong demand pattern in the east, with shippers beginning to save more money on freight in the region. “The discount has grown from 15% to 20% in the last six to eight weeks,” Darren Field, the company’s president of intermodal, said this week at Wolfe Research’s Annual Global Transportation and Industrials Conference. “I don’t know that we can close that 20% discount gap back to 15% in just this cycle, but I would anticipate certainly our intermodal pricing opportunity to start to improve [in the 2027 bid cycle].” <h3>Rebound tied to diesel prices? </h3>The Journal of Commerce <a href="https://www.joc.com/resources/special-reports/intermodal-savings-index">Intermodal Savings Index</a> also showed the steepest increases in rail savings sequentially compared with truckload in March occurred in the eastern US. Even so, Norfolk Southern cautioned that the rebound may be tied more to higher diesel prices than to a structural change, meaning it could fade if energy markets ease. “If the war ends in the next couple of weeks and fuel prices start going back down over the next few months, does that dynamic persist or does it reverse back to where it was? Hard to say,” NS CEO Mark George said at the Wolfe Research conference. Service will help determine whether intermodal keeps gaining share from trucking on the East Coast. CSX’s intermodal train speed was 7.2% faster from March through the first week of May than during the same period last year, while Norfolk Southern’s speeds were 1.1% slower over the same span, according to the Association of American Railroads. A disruption at CSX’s Fairburn intermodal terminal in Atlanta in April sharply increased truck turn times, in some cases forcing drivers to wait hours and pushing deliveries to the next day. The issue has since been resolved. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

US domestic intermodal demand has rebounded sharply since the war with Iran began, with the growth coming, surprisingly, on lanes east of the Mississippi River rather than the long-haul West Coast corridors that typically offer the biggest fuel advantage over trucking. Intermodal providers have historically struggled to compete with trucking in the eastern US because the shorter lengths of haul mean less cost savings than transcontinental moves. But railroads and intermodal marketing companies (IMCs) say rising fuel costs, higher rates amid the end of the four-year recession in the trucking industry, and reliable service are helping convert more freight to rail in the east. Combined domestic container traffic in March and April was up 9% over the same period in 2025, according to the International Association of North America (IANA), a surge not seen since the pandemic-related lockdowns six years ago. Freight originating in the Northeast, South-Central and Southeast US have all jumped more than 10% year over year. “You’re finally seeing us coming out of ... the worst trucking cycle that we’ve witnessed — at least the worst one certainly that I’ve seen,” Kevin Boone, CFO of CSX Transportation, said at the Bank of America Annual Industrials Conference on May 13. “We’re seeing [freight] start to convert over to rail and with our service product, we’re pretty optimistic that can continue here.” The strongest gains have been concentrated in eastern corridors. Traffic from the Northeast to the Southeast jumped 17.7% year over year in March and April, according to IANA, while Southeast-to-Northeast traffic on the same corridor rose 16%. Midwest-to-Northeast volume increased 17.6%. Those are three routes where CSX will be able to better compete after beginning double-stack intermodal service through the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore earlier this month . The upgrade allows CSX to compete better against Norfolk Southern (NS) on freight between Atlanta and Newark and cuts about a day from transit times between Chicago and Newark. That gives CSX a chance to capture more of the eastern demand upswing, along with private-asset intermodal partners such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services. J.B. Hunt executives are signaling the same strong demand pattern in the east, with shippers beginning to save more money on freight in the region. “The discount has grown from 15% to 20% in the last six to eight weeks,” Darren Field, the company’s president of intermodal, said this week at Wolfe Research’s Annual Global Transportation and Industrials Conference. “I don’t know that we can close that 20% discount gap back to 15% in just this cycle, but I would anticipate certainly our intermodal pricing opportunity to start to improve [in the 2027 bid cycle].” Rebound tied to diesel prices? The Journal of Commerce Intermodal Savings Index also showed the steepest increases in rail savings sequentially compared with truckload in March occurred in the eastern US. Even so, Norfolk Southern cautioned that the rebound may be tied more to higher diesel prices than to a structural change, meaning it could fade if energy markets ease. “If the war ends in the next couple of weeks and fuel prices start going back down over the next few months, does that dynamic persist or does it reverse back to where it was? Hard to say,” NS CEO Mark George said at the Wolfe Research conference. Service will help determine whether intermodal keeps gaining share from trucking on the East Coast. CSX’s intermodal train speed was 7.2% faster from March through the first week of May than during the same period last year, while Norfolk Southern’s speeds were 1.1% slower over the same span, according to the Association of American Railroads. A disruption at CSX’s Fairburn intermodal terminal in Atlanta in April sharply increased truck turn times, in some cases forcing drivers to wait hours and pushing deliveries to the next day. The issue has since been resolved. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

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Local East Coast freight leading charge on intermodal rebound

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The carrier’s first-quarter financials, which included a sharp drop in net profit, were generated in a market roiled by ongoing tensions in the Middle East, rising oil prices and increasing operating costs.</div>

The carrier’s first-quarter financials, which included a sharp drop in net profit, were generated in a market roiled by ongoing tensions in the Middle East, rising oil prices and increasing operating costs.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM on Friday said its first-quarter net profit fell sharply in a volatile container shipping environment marked by persistent geopolitical tensions. The French carrier said it booked net profit of $250 million in the January–March period, down from $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) fell almost 32% to $2.1 billion. First-quarter revenue of $13.2 billion was up a marginal 0.2% year over year. Despite the sharp decline in net profit and EBITDA, Group CEO Rodolphe Saadé described the performance as “resilient” and one that was generated in a market roiled by ongoing tensions in the Middle East, rising oil prices and increasing operating costs. “While tensions in the Middle East and disruptions across global supply chains continued to weigh on the industry, we adjusted our network, implemented alternative logistics corridors and maintained reliable service for our customers,” Saadé said in a statement. For context, Maersk <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-passing-500-million-monthly-fuel-bill-to-customers-in-full-ceo-6216319">reported first-quarter revenue of $13 billion</a> and a net profit of $100 million. <h3>Revenue per TEU drops sharply </h3>In the group’s container shipping segment, volume in the first quarter was up 1.5% year over year at 5.93 million TEUs, while revenue was down 8.5% to $8 billion. Average revenue per TEU declined almost 10%, which was reflected in the shipping division’s EBITDA that fell 41.3% to $1.49 billion despite a rebound in spot rates at the end of the quarter. First-quarter logistics revenue of $4.6 billion was up 6.6% year over year, while the segment’s EBITDA fell 17.2% to $330 million as a deteriorating market environment and ongoing challenges affecting the automotive sector kept earnings under pressure. The major container shipping companies have now reported their first-quarter results with two carriers — Zim Integrated Shipping Services and its soon-to-be-owner Hapag-Lloyd — posting losses. But there is more financial pain to come, warned Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Consulting. “Anyone with floating bunker surcharges will see the impact in Q3,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7463177368476545024/">Jensen said in a LinkedIn post</a>, using Wan Hai’s recent third-quarter bunker surcharge announcement as an example. The carrier’s Asia to Mediterranean fuel surcharge will rise from $220/TEU to $605/TEU, with Asia-Red Sea moving from $160/TEU to $440/TEU. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM on Friday said its first-quarter net profit fell sharply in a volatile container shipping environment marked by persistent geopolitical tensions. The French carrier said it booked net profit of $250 million in the January–March period, down from $1.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Earnings before interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation (EBITDA) fell almost 32% to $2.1 billion. First-quarter revenue of $13.2 billion was up a marginal 0.2% year over year. Despite the sharp decline in net profit and EBITDA, Group CEO Rodolphe Saadé described the performance as “resilient” and one that was generated in a market roiled by ongoing tensions in the Middle East, rising oil prices and increasing operating costs. “While tensions in the Middle East and disruptions across global supply chains continued to weigh on the industry, we adjusted our network, implemented alternative logistics corridors and maintained reliable service for our customers,” Saadé said in a statement. For context, Maersk reported first-quarter revenue of $13 billion and a net profit of $100 million. Revenue per TEU drops sharply In the group’s container shipping segment, volume in the first quarter was up 1.5% year over year at 5.93 million TEUs, while revenue was down 8.5% to $8 billion. Average revenue per TEU declined almost 10%, which was reflected in the shipping division’s EBITDA that fell 41.3% to $1.49 billion despite a rebound in spot rates at the end of the quarter. First-quarter logistics revenue of $4.6 billion was up 6.6% year over year, while the segment’s EBITDA fell 17.2% to $330 million as a deteriorating market environment and ongoing challenges affecting the automotive sector kept earnings under pressure. The major container shipping companies have now reported their first-quarter results with two carriers — Zim Integrated Shipping Services and its soon-to-be-owner Hapag-Lloyd — posting losses. But there is more financial pain to come, warned Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Consulting. “Anyone with floating bunker surcharges will see the impact in Q3,” Jensen said in a LinkedIn post , using Wan Hai’s recent third-quarter bunker surcharge announcement as an example. The carrier’s Asia to Mediterranean fuel surcharge will rise from $220/TEU to $605/TEU, with Asia-Red Sea moving from $160/TEU to $440/TEU. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

CMA CGM posts Q1 earnings decline amid volatile ocean trade

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