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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The deterioration in truck turn times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach the past six months was due primarily to near-record container volumes at the ports and a dislocation of chassis A truck capacity crunch, labor slowdowns and a half-dozen other events were simply irritants that made the problem worse.</div>

The deterioration in truck turn times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach the past six months was due primarily to near-record container volumes at the ports and a dislocation of chassis A truck capacity crunch, labor slowdowns and a half-dozen other events were simply irritants that made the problem worse.

<div>The deterioration in truck turn times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in the past six months was due primarily to near-record container volumes at the ports and a dislocation of chassis. Truck capacity crunch, labor slowdowns and a half-dozen other events were simply irritants that made the problem worse.“There have been no significant new congestion generators in six months. Record delays are attributable to near-record volume,” said Val Noronha, president of Digital Geographic Research Corp.The troubling message to take away from Noronha’s research for the largest U.S. port complex, and for other large container gateways, is...

The deterioration in truck turn times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in the past six months was due primarily to near-record container volumes at the ports and a dislocation of chassis. Truck capacity crunch, labor slowdowns and a half-dozen other events were simply irritants that made the problem worse. “There have been no significant new congestion generators in six months. Record delays are attributable to near-record volume,” said Val Noronha, president of Digital Geographic Research Corp. The troubling message to take away from Noronha’s research for the largest U.S. port complex, and for other large container gateways, is that growing container volumes carried by bigger ships that discharge their loads in a narrow window of time are forcing ports to their saturation capacity. For some ports, the saturation point could be a reflection of terminal capacity and landside infrastructure, but outdated cargo-handling processes contribute greatly to the problem. “Performance capacity is the issue now,” Noronha said in an interview this week following release of his research paper, “Turn Time — Meltdown or Summer Heat Wave?” The ultimate answer to saturation capacity at the busiest container ports could be automation, Noronha said, because automation allows terminals to temporarily store containers in the yards in stacks that are higher and wider. A denser operation allows the terminal operator to handle more container throughput on an existing land footprint, and to do so more efficiently. Noronha has studied truck turn times in Los Angeles-Long Beach the past several years using GPS technology that updates truck positions every few seconds. His most recent study focused on the current degradation of truck turn times at the marine terminals, but the conditions faced by truckers are also a reflection of the terminals’ reduced productivity of vessels at berth and the overwhelming yard congestion. His numbers show that in October truck turn times hit a new low, with 36 percent of all truck visits lasting more than two hours. Trucking interests consider a one-hour turn time to be adequate for a single transaction, and two hours or longer to be so bad that it prevents truckers from earning an adequate living because they are paid by the trip. Noronha said his research shows that due to the lengthy turn times, the average trucker must now budget four to four and one-half hours per visit to the harbor. That is up from two to three hours in 2010, and explains why many drivers are averaging fewer than two round trips per day. Container volumes at all major U.S. gateways are increasing as the economic recovery gains steam. This is the case in Los Angeles-Long Beach as well, even though some cargo has been diverted to ports in Canada and on the U.S. East Coast since summer. Cargo interests are attempting to escape growing congestion problems at West Coast ports and the uncertainty due to the inability of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to negotiate a new contract by the July 1 deadline. The Los Angeles-Long Beach container volume in September of 1.4 million 20-foot containers was the fourth highest monthly volume ever, Noronha said. The ports went through a five-year lull in volume growth beginning with the economic recession of 2008-09. The incremental growth in volume masked the fact that the ports were edging toward their saturation capacity. Beginning with the brutal winter of 2013-14 in the eastern half of North America, a variety of factors began to contribute to port congestion. Equipment and rail-car shortages that worked their way west, the impact of cargo surges from mega-ships with capacities of 13,000 to 14,000 TEUs, longshore labor actions and trucker strikes created an environment of declining port productivity on the West Coast, especially in Southern California. The knock-out punch came with a surge of container volume in the spring as cargo interests shipped early to beat the July 1 ILWU contract deadline. Strong volume growth has continued. Noronha compared the ports to a freeway at 3 a.m. There is plenty of capacity to handle the traffic. Add weather conditions such as snow or rain, or other incidents such as an accident, and velocity is reduced, but freeway capacity is usually sufficient to handle the traffic. However, if those conditions persist into the morning rush hour, traffic velocity deteriorates rapidly and gridlock results. JOC.com recently identified at least a d ozen factors contributing port congestion in Southern California. Noronha said all of those factors play a role in port congestion and longer truck turn times, but there is no data available to quantify the contribution of each irritant to the mix. Furthermore, many of the factors will be addressed over time. Equipment providers are working toward establishing the neutral, or gray chassis concept in the harbor beginning Feb. 1, 2015. The ILWU and PMA will eventually have a contract. Railroads are adding locomotives and rail cars to their fleets, and they are adding tracks in key corridors. However, growing container volumes carried by big ships will continue. Barring another recession, the seasonal spikes in cargo volume before Chinese New Year in the winter, back-to-school shipments in the summer and the fall peak-shipping season will again slam the ports with container volumes that will bring them to their saturation capacity, Noronha said. Terminal operators may hesitate to accept this theory because West Coast ports are generally believed to have excess capacity. The capacity glut is worse in the northern ports of Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma, where cargo volumes are not increasing as rapidly as they are in Southern California. Terminal operators at those ports estimate excess capacity at more than 50 percent. In Los Angeles-Long Beach, the terminals say excess capacity is about 30 percent. Noronha is not so much concerned with the listed or design capacity of the terminals, but their effective capacity, especially during the seasonal cargo spikes. His numbers show that, at least this year, when the monthly volume hit 1.2 million TEUs, the real troubles began. That is what his numbers for degradation of truck turn times this summer and fall showed. “If there’s a surprise, it’s that the numbers weren’t worse,” he said. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, finds merit in Noronha’s theory. Seroka told a conference of West Coast forwarders and customs brokers last month that several of the port’s terminals were operating at 90 percent capacity utilization. The industry rule of thumb is that terminal velocity begins to deteriorate when utilization exceeds 80 percent of the listed capacity. Noronha is concerned about the ability of the ports to handle normal seasonal volume spikes, but also unforeseen irritants such as chassis shortages and weather-related problems that degrade the entire supply chain and reduce service levels at the ports. “The current problems are severe, and the loss of capacity is intolerable,” he said. The congestion problems of the past six months send a clear message to the ports and terminal operators that they do not have year-round excess capacity, so they must focus on their performance capacity to handle cargo, Noronha said. While there is no single answer to the complex issues faced by terminal operators, automation can contribute to a solution, he said. Automating the movement of containers from the foot of the ship-to-shore container crane to the container stacks in the yard, and the movement of containers from the stacks to truck and rail transportation, accomplishes several goals. Automation significantly improves worker safety because the jobs now performed by longshoremen moving containers on tractors within the yard, and lifting the containers into and out of the stacks, are eliminated through the use of automated guided vehicles and automated stacking cranes. Some tasks are shifted to the operating tower. The bottom line, though, is that with the elimination of workers in the cargo-handling areas of the terminal, there are no workers there to get hurt. Automation eliminates some jobs and therefore reduces terminal operating costs. An April study by the Port of Los Angeles on automation being installed at the TraPac terminal concluded that 40 to 50 percent of the longshore jobs will be eliminated. The savings in cargo-handling costs continue year after year and eventually offset the huge cost of implementing automation. Noronha focuses on the enhanced ability of terminals to stack containers in an automated environment. At present, longshoremen operating rubber-tired gantries and other container-handling machines are limited as to the size of the stacks they can build. However, rail-mounted gantry cranes such as those used at European terminals can stack the containers higher and wider. This significantly increases the throughput volume of a terminal. The denser operations will be needed as the annual throughput of busy terminals grows to exceed 1 million TEUs a year. However, automation is a lightning rod for criticism and work slow-downs from longshore unions because they want to preserve the jobs of their workers, and the potential jobs that will be available to the sons and daughters of the current workforce. U.S. terminals to date on both coasts have only moved forward with automation when they calculate that their growing container volumes will be sufficient to produce a return on the massive investment that is required. Automation can also be a factor in pushing the landlord ports on the West Coast to take a more active role in protecting their investments. The ports are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize the terminals and build the landside infrastructure necessary to handle the growing cargo volumes. They recover those investments through the lease rates and other port charges paid by the terminals. In a presentation last month to the annual conference of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, Sam Ruda, chief commercial officer at the Port of Portland, said the existing labor-relations model of the PMA and ILWU is not sustainable . Ruda said the ports should have a role in protecting their assets, but they have not yet found what their role is. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bmongelluzzo@joc.com and follow him on Twitter: @billmongelluzzo

Drayage

Near-record volume is main driver of LA-LB congestion, study finds

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Most of the increases represent a significant premium on current pricing levels, but it remains to be seen how sticky the aspirational rates will be with cargo markets also under pressure from high energy prices. </div>

Most of the increases represent a significant premium on current pricing levels, but it remains to be seen how sticky the aspirational rates will be with cargo markets also under pressure from high energy prices.

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<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carriers have unveiled a raft of rate increases and emergency fuel surcharges on multiple trade lanes as high bunker prices push up operating costs across shipping networks. Most of the increases represent a significant premium on current pricing levels, but it remains to be seen how sticky the aspirational rates will be with cargo markets also under pressure from high energy prices. Carriers have been pushing general rate increases (GRIs) on Asia-US trade lanes to lift prices on the trans-Pacific. As of April 9, Asia-US East Coast rates of $3,525/FEU were up 20% compared to levels before the April 1 GRIs, with Asia-West Coast up 24% at $2,525/FEU, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) will increase its Asia-North America emergency fuel surcharge (EFS) on May 1, with the Asia-North America West Coast EFS rising 70% to $467/FEU and the East Coast levy up 50% at $644/FEU. On Asia-North Europe, rates eased this week despite Maersk announcing freight-all-kinds (FAK) prices that set higher rate levels ranging from $3,500 to $3,900/FEU depending on destination ports. Data from rate benchmarking platform Xeneta shows Asia-North Europe rates unchanged this week around $2,854/FEU. Other upcoming increases announced this week include CMA CGM planning an April 16 FAK rate of $4,300/FEU from Northwest India and Pakistan to North Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, more than 70% higher than the current rate, while Hapag-Lloyd will be adding $1,000/FEU on the Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East to the US and Canada. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="d915cdd3-263b-4835-b993-5efb9468dc03"></dynamic-object></div>Hapag-Lloyd's EFS of $160/TEU, in effect since mid-March on routes not regulated by the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), was implemented on US trades this week. The FMC requires <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/fmc-rejects-requests-by-carriers-to-waive-waiting-period-for-middle-east-surcharges-6191881">a 30-day notice period from carriers</a> before they can implement rate increases and surcharges on US routes. Ocean Network Express on April 2 implemented an inland fuel surcharge for carrier haulage in Latin America and across all non-FMC regulated trade routes and services and will extend that to FMC-regulated routes on May 2. “The evolving security situation in the Middle East continues to pose significant challenges, affecting logistics operations and customer supply chains,” ONE said in its surcharge announcement this week. ”Many refineries are also operating at reduced capacity, limiting export volumes and causing substantial disruptions in global fuel supply chains,” the carrier added. <h3>Shipping reluctant to pass through Hormuz </h3>The Strait of Hormuz that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman is a key energy transport route with around 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies passing through the waterway. It has been effectively closed since the war started on Feb. 28 and despite <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ocean-carriers-wait-for-clarity-on-safe-hormuz-passage-after-us-iran-ceasefire-6201132">the two-week US-Iran ceasefire agreed to earlier this week</a>, shipping remains reluctant to pass through the strait until safety can be guaranteed. Jan Christensen, senior director of fuel purchasing at Hapag-Lloyd, highlighted the impact high prices and supply disruptions from the Hormuz blockade were having on bunkering operations. “Higher crude oil prices directly translate into higher bunker prices, which are the fuel costs for our vessels,” Christensen said in a recent interview. “Fuel is one of the largest cost components in container shipping, so these developments have a significant financial impact for all carriers. When oil prices move sharply upward, bunker costs follow very quickly, which increases operational expenses across the entire fleet.” <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/singapore-bunker-supply-continues-to-run-down-as-middle-east-war-drags-on-6198359">Fuel availability continues to tighten</a>, particularly in the Asian bunkering hubs in Singapore and South Korea. “Some suppliers are already signalling that they cannot fully guarantee contracted volumes, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure bunker contracts for April and May,” Christensen said. <h3>Lingering Europe port congestion </h3>On top of the rising fuel costs, carriers are also facing delays when calling at gateway ports in North Europe and the Mediterranean. Yard density is high with the lingering effects of severe storms in early March continuing to be felt. Kuehne + Nagel’s visibility tool SeaExplorer noted “heavily disrupted operations” at Antwerp, Hamburg and Felixstowe, with seven-day average vessel wait times of more than two days. “It’s been reported that yard density has reached over 75% at ports like Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam in the past few weeks and much of that was due to the berthing delays from storms in February and early March and their lingering impacts,” said Destine Ozuygur, senior market analyst at Xeneta. Another challenge for shippers on the Asia-North Europe trade lane is on-time performance. While schedule reliability in March of 32% into Northern Europe was a significant improvement on the 18% in February and 22% in January, Ozuygur noted it was barely above the average 29% on-time performance through 2025. “Any gains we’ve seen on this trade have been short-lived over the past 12 months,” she said, adding that only in March and May of last year did schedule reliability ever pass 40%. From a deployed capacity perspective, the Asia-Mediterranean trade lane has seen an 8% increase from April to May, with carriers adding 69,000 TEUs to the corridor to serve rerouted Persian Gulf cargo, Xeneta data shows. Planned capacity on Asia-Mediterranean routes of 844,862 TEUs in April is an increase of 25% compared to March and will jump to 913,285 TEUs in May. “The Far East-Med is being used to route Gulf Cooperation Council-bound cargo through Jeddah, King Abdullah and Mersin,” Ozuygur said. “The challenges that could potentially bring to other Mediterranean ports if this becomes a long-term routing option that gains favor over Khor Fakkan, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, etc. is one worth noting.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Ocean carriers have unveiled a raft of rate increases and emergency fuel surcharges on multiple trade lanes as high bunker prices push up operating costs across shipping networks. Most of the increases represent a significant premium on current pricing levels, but it remains to be seen how sticky the aspirational rates will be with cargo markets also under pressure from high energy prices. Carriers have been pushing general rate increases (GRIs) on Asia-US trade lanes to lift prices on the trans-Pacific. As of April 9, Asia-US East Coast rates of $3,525/FEU were up 20% compared to levels before the April 1 GRIs, with Asia-West Coast up 24% at $2,525/FEU, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) will increase its Asia-North America emergency fuel surcharge (EFS) on May 1, with the Asia-North America West Coast EFS rising 70% to $467/FEU and the East Coast levy up 50% at $644/FEU. On Asia-North Europe, rates eased this week despite Maersk announcing freight-all-kinds (FAK) prices that set higher rate levels ranging from $3,500 to $3,900/FEU depending on destination ports. Data from rate benchmarking platform Xeneta shows Asia-North Europe rates unchanged this week around $2,854/FEU. Other upcoming increases announced this week include CMA CGM planning an April 16 FAK rate of $4,300/FEU from Northwest India and Pakistan to North Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa, more than 70% higher than the current rate, while Hapag-Lloyd will be adding $1,000/FEU on the Indian Subcontinent, Pakistan and Middle East to the US and Canada. Hapag-Lloyd's EFS of $160/TEU, in effect since mid-March on routes not regulated by the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), was implemented on US trades this week. The FMC requires a 30-day notice period from carriers before they can implement rate increases and surcharges on US routes. Ocean Network Express on April 2 implemented an inland fuel surcharge for carrier haulage in Latin America and across all non-FMC regulated trade routes and services and will extend that to FMC-regulated routes on May 2. “The evolving security situation in the Middle East continues to pose significant challenges, affecting logistics operations and customer supply chains,” ONE said in its surcharge announcement this week. ”Many refineries are also operating at reduced capacity, limiting export volumes and causing substantial disruptions in global fuel supply chains,” the carrier added. Shipping reluctant to pass through Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman is a key energy transport route with around 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies passing through the waterway. It has been effectively closed since the war started on Feb. 28 and despite the two-week US-Iran ceasefire agreed to earlier this week , shipping remains reluctant to pass through the strait until safety can be guaranteed. Jan Christensen, senior director of fuel purchasing at Hapag-Lloyd, highlighted the impact high prices and supply disruptions from the Hormuz blockade were having on bunkering operations. “Higher crude oil prices directly translate into higher bunker prices, which are the fuel costs for our vessels,” Christensen said in a recent interview. “Fuel is one of the largest cost components in container shipping, so these developments have a significant financial impact for all carriers. When oil prices move sharply upward, bunker costs follow very quickly, which increases operational expenses across the entire fleet.” Fuel availability continues to tighten , particularly in the Asian bunkering hubs in Singapore and South Korea. “Some suppliers are already signalling that they cannot fully guarantee contracted volumes, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure bunker contracts for April and May,” Christensen said. Lingering Europe port congestion On top of the rising fuel costs, carriers are also facing delays when calling at gateway ports in North Europe and the Mediterranean. Yard density is high with the lingering effects of severe storms in early March continuing to be felt. Kuehne + Nagel’s visibility tool SeaExplorer noted “heavily disrupted operations” at Antwerp, Hamburg and Felixstowe, with seven-day average vessel wait times of more than two days. “It’s been reported that yard density has reached over 75% at ports like Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam in the past few weeks and much of that was due to the berthing delays from storms in February and early March and their lingering impacts,” said Destine Ozuygur, senior market analyst at Xeneta. Another challenge for shippers on the Asia-North Europe trade lane is on-time performance. While schedule reliability in March of 32% into Northern Europe was a significant improvement on the 18% in February and 22% in January, Ozuygur noted it was barely above the average 29% on-time performance through 2025. “Any gains we’ve seen on this trade have been short-lived over the past 12 months,” she said, adding that only in March and May of last year did schedule reliability ever pass 40%. From a deployed capacity perspective, the Asia-Mediterranean trade lane has seen an 8% increase from April to May, with carriers adding 69,000 TEUs to the corridor to serve rerouted Persian Gulf cargo, Xeneta data shows. Planned capacity on Asia-Mediterranean routes of 844,862 TEUs in April is an increase of 25% compared to March and will jump to 913,285 TEUs in May. “The Far East-Med is being used to route Gulf Cooperation Council-bound cargo through Jeddah, King Abdullah and Mersin,” Ozuygur said. “The challenges that could potentially bring to other Mediterranean ports if this becomes a long-term routing option that gains favor over Khor Fakkan, Mundra, Nhava Sheva, etc. is one worth noting.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Asia-Europe

Container Shipping News

Cost-hit ocean carriers roll out series of rate increases, fuel surcharges

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Rising fuel prices and memory costs may force buyers to re-think, or at least delay, purchases of pricey electronics this year. </div>

Rising fuel prices and memory costs may force buyers to re-think, or at least delay, purchases of pricey electronics this year.

<div class="phx-topic">(The following story appears in the Top 100 Importers and Exporters issue of the Journal of Commerce magazine to be published May 4, 2026.) Importers of consumer electronics affected by rising costs on US households in 2025 are facing dual threats to growth prospects in the year ahead: the impact of increased fuel costs on consumer discretionary spending and the skyrocketing price of memory due to demand from data center construction. That means there might be little respite for consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers after they saw containerized imports of those products dip 2.2% in 2025, according to data from PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. “Energy prices and gas prices, that’s going to be a headline budgetary impact on the average household,” Paul Gagnon, vice president of consumer technology at market research firm Circana, told the Journal of Commerce. “We were already expecting consumer demand to not be great this year and that tariffs would have an impact. But food and other necessary purchases will delay demand for discretionary purchases.” A potentially bigger headwind for consumer electronics sales is the impact of memory prices. Gagnon said pricing for memory is up 400% year over year in the last few months. “Data centers use huge amounts of high bandwidth memory and the generators of that memory don’t have bandwidth to supply data centers and lower value memory that goes into consumer products,” he said. The impact of that dynamic won’t be isolated to the types of products most associated with memory, like laptops and tablets, but will be more widespread since virtually every consumer electronic good now has a memory component. “Any product that uses a lot of memory will be susceptible,” Gagnon said. “Even things that use memory indirectly, prices will go up.” Sony, during its fiscal third-quarter earnings call in February, noted the memory cost issue. “We are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year,” Sony Group CFO Lin Tao said. “Going forward, we intend to further negotiate with various suppliers to secure enough [memory] supply to meet the demand of our customers.” The way these trends manifest into container volume is not entirely clear, but Gagnon cautioned that with prices likely to increase due to the memory cost issue, retailers might see sales stay steady or rise, but on a lower volume of units. That would, in turn, hit import volume. “It will definitely have a negative impact on volumes,” he said. “Retailers don’t care about volume as much as revenues. And it might be a situation where their revenues hold up because people are willing to pay more or need something and end up having to pay more.” <h3>Sourcing shift </h3>Another sectoral trend affecting volume is changes in sourcing patterns of consumer electronics tied to the size of a product and the composition of parts needed, Gagnon explained. For instance, television supply chains had long ago shifted production to Mexico, but during 2025 saw even more concentration in that market. “What had left China had gone to Southeast Asia but even that had moved to Mexico,” Gagnon said. "But the shift to Mexico didn’t happen broadly outside of large physical size products. For smaller products, there’s not a big benefit to have it more local.” He also said Mexico is suitable to television production because the some of the major component parts — metals and plastics — are not as sophisticated as those needed in other consumer product categories. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="df66d4d5-06ca-41b6-986e-bdb3b6d0346d"></dynamic-object></div>Meanwhile, historical behavior in the electronics sector suggests that when prices rise, consumers will either put off purchases, whether new or replacement, or they will engage in what Gagnon called “trade down behavior,” choosing a less expensive option if they need to buy. The forecast for consumer electronics manufacturing is not much better. S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence in late February revised its projection for global production of consumer electronics downward from 5.5% to 4.4%. The forecast noted that consumer electronics production tends to correlate loosely with global GDP. “Historically, the industry overperformed the global economy by 1.6 percentage points,” the report said. “Over the last 10 years, the gap between industry and global growth even got wider. The industry grew 5.2% on average per year, over-performing GDP growth by 2.4 percentage points.” So a tick down from the average growth rate over the past decade would indicate a slowing sector in a slowing economy. US imports of consumer electronics have lost ground three of the last four years, with 2024 being the outlier, according to PIERS data, adding weight to the slowdown theory not being an isolated trend. While China dominates the supply chain for consumer electronics — it accounted for 53% of global production in 2025 — S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence said the next 10 years will see supply concentration decrease. PIERS data shows that process already occurring, with Vietnam growing its share of US consumer electronic imports from 10.1% in 2020 to 18.1% in 2025, while China’s share decreased from 56.6% to 40.7% in the same period. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

(The following story appears in the Top 100 Importers and Exporters issue of the Journal of Commerce magazine to be published May 4, 2026.) Importers of consumer electronics affected by rising costs on US households in 2025 are facing dual threats to growth prospects in the year ahead: the impact of increased fuel costs on consumer discretionary spending and the skyrocketing price of memory due to demand from data center construction. That means there might be little respite for consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers after they saw containerized imports of those products dip 2.2% in 2025, according to data from PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. “Energy prices and gas prices, that’s going to be a headline budgetary impact on the average household,” Paul Gagnon, vice president of consumer technology at market research firm Circana, told the Journal of Commerce. “We were already expecting consumer demand to not be great this year and that tariffs would have an impact. But food and other necessary purchases will delay demand for discretionary purchases.” A potentially bigger headwind for consumer electronics sales is the impact of memory prices. Gagnon said pricing for memory is up 400% year over year in the last few months. “Data centers use huge amounts of high bandwidth memory and the generators of that memory don’t have bandwidth to supply data centers and lower value memory that goes into consumer products,” he said. The impact of that dynamic won’t be isolated to the types of products most associated with memory, like laptops and tablets, but will be more widespread since virtually every consumer electronic good now has a memory component. “Any product that uses a lot of memory will be susceptible,” Gagnon said. “Even things that use memory indirectly, prices will go up.” Sony, during its fiscal third-quarter earnings call in February, noted the memory cost issue. “We are already in a position to secure the minimum quantity necessary to manage the year-end selling season of next fiscal year,” Sony Group CFO Lin Tao said. “Going forward, we intend to further negotiate with various suppliers to secure enough [memory] supply to meet the demand of our customers.” The way these trends manifest into container volume is not entirely clear, but Gagnon cautioned that with prices likely to increase due to the memory cost issue, retailers might see sales stay steady or rise, but on a lower volume of units. That would, in turn, hit import volume. “It will definitely have a negative impact on volumes,” he said. “Retailers don’t care about volume as much as revenues. And it might be a situation where their revenues hold up because people are willing to pay more or need something and end up having to pay more.” Sourcing shift Another sectoral trend affecting volume is changes in sourcing patterns of consumer electronics tied to the size of a product and the composition of parts needed, Gagnon explained. For instance, television supply chains had long ago shifted production to Mexico, but during 2025 saw even more concentration in that market. “What had left China had gone to Southeast Asia but even that had moved to Mexico,” Gagnon said. "But the shift to Mexico didn’t happen broadly outside of large physical size products. For smaller products, there’s not a big benefit to have it more local.” He also said Mexico is suitable to television production because the some of the major component parts — metals and plastics — are not as sophisticated as those needed in other consumer product categories. Meanwhile, historical behavior in the electronics sector suggests that when prices rise, consumers will either put off purchases, whether new or replacement, or they will engage in what Gagnon called “trade down behavior,” choosing a less expensive option if they need to buy. The forecast for consumer electronics manufacturing is not much better. S&P Global Market Intelligence in late February revised its projection for global production of consumer electronics downward from 5.5% to 4.4%. The forecast noted that consumer electronics production tends to correlate loosely with global GDP. “Historically, the industry overperformed the global economy by 1.6 percentage points,” the report said. “Over the last 10 years, the gap between industry and global growth even got wider. The industry grew 5.2% on average per year, over-performing GDP growth by 2.4 percentage points.” So a tick down from the average growth rate over the past decade would indicate a slowing sector in a slowing economy. US imports of consumer electronics have lost ground three of the last four years, with 2024 being the outlier, according to PIERS data, adding weight to the slowdown theory not being an isolated trend. While China dominates the supply chain for consumer electronics — it accounted for 53% of global production in 2025 — S&P Global Market Intelligence said the next 10 years will see supply concentration decrease. PIERS data shows that process already occurring, with Vietnam growing its share of US consumer electronic imports from 10.1% in 2020 to 18.1% in 2025, while China’s share decreased from 56.6% to 40.7% in the same period. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

US imports of consumer electronics face threats to growth plans

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The repair and rebuilding of oil, gas and petrochemical facilities in the Middle East will provide project cargoes for the specialist fleet at least through the end of the decade, observers say. </div>

The repair and rebuilding of oil, gas and petrochemical facilities in the Middle East will provide project cargoes for the specialist fleet at least through the end of the decade, observers say.

<div class="phx-topic">Rebuilding energy, petrochemical and other critical infrastructure in the Middle East that has been damaged during the war will drive a surge in cargo demand and freight rates in the multipurpose vessel (MPV) and deck carrier markets when the conflict ends, industry executives say. “Reconstruction needs across the region will be considerable,” said Marco Poisler, chief operating officer for global energy and capital projects at project cargo logistics company UTC Overseas. “The pent-up demand wave will hit a market that is not ready for it. And that, historically, is when freight rates for MPV project cargo move most sharply,” Poisler told the Journal of Commerce. The fragile ceasefire in the region after six weeks of air and sea attacks means demand for MPV-related cargo into the region “is likely to increase substantially above pre-conflict baselines,” he said. That comes as Tehran pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as part of the two-week truce agreed to with the US and Israel Tuesday. But Iran maintains effective operational control of the crucial waterway and has said it will charge vessel transit fees of up to $2 million for passage, with the proceeds used to finance post-war reconstruction in the country. <h3>Freight rates holding firm despite conflict </h3>The conflict has had little impact on MPV rates so far, with the April Toepfer Transport Multipurpose Vessel Index (TMI) remaining virtually unchanged at $12,683 per day, down just 0.53% from March. Six-month rates are projected to be 0.27% higher than current levels, and rising 1% in the 12-month forecast, according to executives polled by Toepfer. “The growing concerns about disruptions and high bunker prices due to the war in the Middle East are not currently reflected in the TMI,” Toepfer said in a commentary this week. “This may be due to the fact that the majority of cargoes not destined for the Middle East are still being shipped, as expected, and thus fleet utilization remains high.” The ceasefire was agreed to as damage to energy infrastructure across the region was already estimated to cost more than $25 billion to repair, according to an initial assessment by Rystad Energy in late March. “Spending is likely to be driven primarily by engineering and construction, followed by equipment and materials, the Norway-headquartered energy consultancy said in a commentary.   <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="c421e66c-3cd4-4d1c-8095-6a37bbeeb1cb"></dynamic-object></div>Iranian missile and drone attacks caused extensive damage to refineries and gas and petrochemical plants in neighboring countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Similarly, US and Israeli bombing missions targeted Iran’s energy and chemicals industry, especially the country’s South Pars gas field and Kharg Island oil export complex. Anurag Kumar, senior research analyst/MPV at Drewry Maritime Research, said the SAMRAF refinery and Al-Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi’s Al Hosn gas field, and Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant were among the facilities targeted. “They will require repair, replacement, and in some cases [a] complete rebuild,” Kumar told the Journal of Commerce. “The structural steel, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, turbine components and heavy fabricated packages that constitute the core of this reconstruction cargo are precisely the cargo class served by the MPV sector,” Kumar added. Larger components and modules are likely to be transported on deck carriers, providing a lift for that sector. In Qatar, reconstruction of two LNG production trains at Ras Laffan destroyed by Iran will require deck carriers and MPVs to transport heavy and oversized cargoes including LNG modules, compressors, pipelines and structural steel, according to Kumar and Poisler. The attacks took out 17% of Ras Laffan’s LNG production capacity. <h3>MPV demand through 2030 </h3>Rebuilding work is also likely to take place over the long term, potentially supporting the MPV and deck carrier markets until the end of the decade. Poisler said the Ras Laffan plant could take up to five years to become fully operational again. “This is because the large-frame gas turbines required to power LNG main refrigeration compressors are supplied by only three original equipment manufacturers globally, all of which entered 2026 with production backlogs of around two to four years,” he said. Qatar’s Pearl gas-to-liquids facility also sustained damage during aerial attacks on March 20 that is expected to take about a year to repair. Drewry’s Kumar said the outages at Ras Laffan alone are estimated to cost QatarEnergy some $20 billion per year in lost revenue. He said reconstruction work across the region will also drive the need for better port handling capabilities and integrated logistics to handle MPV and deck carrier cargoes. “As projects become more complex, EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contractors, shipping lines and port operators will likely need to work together more closely,” he said. “In the medium to long term, ongoing expansion and upgrades to Qatar’s energy facilities should keep breakbulk volumes high.” Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

Rebuilding energy, petrochemical and other critical infrastructure in the Middle East that has been damaged during the war will drive a surge in cargo demand and freight rates in the multipurpose vessel (MPV) and deck carrier markets when the conflict ends, industry executives say. “Reconstruction needs across the region will be considerable,” said Marco Poisler, chief operating officer for global energy and capital projects at project cargo logistics company UTC Overseas. “The pent-up demand wave will hit a market that is not ready for it. And that, historically, is when freight rates for MPV project cargo move most sharply,” Poisler told the Journal of Commerce. The fragile ceasefire in the region after six weeks of air and sea attacks means demand for MPV-related cargo into the region “is likely to increase substantially above pre-conflict baselines,” he said. That comes as Tehran pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as part of the two-week truce agreed to with the US and Israel Tuesday. But Iran maintains effective operational control of the crucial waterway and has said it will charge vessel transit fees of up to $2 million for passage, with the proceeds used to finance post-war reconstruction in the country. Freight rates holding firm despite conflict The conflict has had little impact on MPV rates so far, with the April Toepfer Transport Multipurpose Vessel Index (TMI) remaining virtually unchanged at $12,683 per day, down just 0.53% from March. Six-month rates are projected to be 0.27% higher than current levels, and rising 1% in the 12-month forecast, according to executives polled by Toepfer. “The growing concerns about disruptions and high bunker prices due to the war in the Middle East are not currently reflected in the TMI,” Toepfer said in a commentary this week. “This may be due to the fact that the majority of cargoes not destined for the Middle East are still being shipped, as expected, and thus fleet utilization remains high.” The ceasefire was agreed to as damage to energy infrastructure across the region was already estimated to cost more than $25 billion to repair, according to an initial assessment by Rystad Energy in late March. “Spending is likely to be driven primarily by engineering and construction, followed by equipment and materials, the Norway-headquartered energy consultancy said in a commentary.   Iranian missile and drone attacks caused extensive damage to refineries and gas and petrochemical plants in neighboring countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Similarly, US and Israeli bombing missions targeted Iran’s energy and chemicals industry, especially the country’s South Pars gas field and Kharg Island oil export complex. Anurag Kumar, senior research analyst/MPV at Drewry Maritime Research, said the SAMRAF refinery and Al-Jubail petrochemical complex in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi’s Al Hosn gas field, and Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant were among the facilities targeted. “They will require repair, replacement, and in some cases [a] complete rebuild,” Kumar told the Journal of Commerce. “The structural steel, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, turbine components and heavy fabricated packages that constitute the core of this reconstruction cargo are precisely the cargo class served by the MPV sector,” Kumar added. Larger components and modules are likely to be transported on deck carriers, providing a lift for that sector. In Qatar, reconstruction of two LNG production trains at Ras Laffan destroyed by Iran will require deck carriers and MPVs to transport heavy and oversized cargoes including LNG modules, compressors, pipelines and structural steel, according to Kumar and Poisler. The attacks took out 17% of Ras Laffan’s LNG production capacity. MPV demand through 2030 Rebuilding work is also likely to take place over the long term, potentially supporting the MPV and deck carrier markets until the end of the decade. Poisler said the Ras Laffan plant could take up to five years to become fully operational again. “This is because the large-frame gas turbines required to power LNG main refrigeration compressors are supplied by only three original equipment manufacturers globally, all of which entered 2026 with production backlogs of around two to four years,” he said. Qatar’s Pearl gas-to-liquids facility also sustained damage during aerial attacks on March 20 that is expected to take about a year to repair. Drewry’s Kumar said the outages at Ras Laffan alone are estimated to cost QatarEnergy some $20 billion per year in lost revenue. He said reconstruction work across the region will also drive the need for better port handling capabilities and integrated logistics to handle MPV and deck carrier cargoes. “As projects become more complex, EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] contractors, shipping lines and port operators will likely need to work together more closely,” he said. “In the medium to long term, ongoing expansion and upgrades to Qatar’s energy facilities should keep breakbulk volumes high.” Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

MPV, deck carrier operators eye cargo demand surge from Iran war reconstruction

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">While the ceasefire marks the first diplomatic shift in the 40-day conflict, it is being regarded by transport operators as more of a controlled easing rather than an operational reset. </div>

While the ceasefire marks the first diplomatic shift in the 40-day conflict, it is being regarded by transport operators as more of a controlled easing rather than an operational reset.

<div class="phx-topic">The two-week ceasefire agreed to between the US and Iran this week is too short and too fragile to encourage international air carriers to resume flights to the Middle East, air freight analysts say. While the ceasefire marks the first diplomatic shift in the 40-day conflict, it is being regarded by transport operators as more of a controlled easing rather than an operational reset. “There will be a bit of reluctance from non-Gulf-based carriers to resume normal scheduled activity until there is a feeling that the ceasefire will be more permanent,” said Frederic Horst, managing director of Sydney-based consultancy Trade and Transport Group. “Combined passenger and freight on flights through Gulf-facing hubs have been edging up a little bit over the past couple of weeks, but we are still at less than 40% of previous levels,” Horst told the Journal of Commerce. Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, said bringing air capacity back to the Middle East corridors will provide welcome relief for shippers, many of whom were facing severe disruption to ocean supply chains. But carriers require a far more permanent settlement to the conflict before flights resume, van de Wouw said in a statement from Xeneta Thursday. “A two-week timeline is too short to justify restructuring freight plans,” he said. “Carriers will be in no rush to lower rates given the ceasefire is only temporary and the geopolitical situation remains uncertain. Shippers will also not rush into major routing decisions on the basis of a fragile two-week ceasefire “Even when it is deemed safe to fly, setting up the infrastructure again takes time,” he added. “Customers need to find you again and trust you again. Insurance companies may still advise against transiting these Middle East hubs despite the ceasefire.” Should the ceasefire hold, a full return to pre-conflict capacity and rates on trades transiting Middle East hubs is still one to two months away, van de Wouw said. <h3>Passenger confidence key to restoring networks </h3>Pre-conflict networks routed through the Middle East accounted for about 30% of the Asia-Europe air freight capacity, much of that carried in the bellies of passenger aircraft. Flights to the regional hub of Dubai by Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and British Airways remain suspended until May 31. Air France as of now has Dubai flights suspended only until April 19, with KLM due to return May 17. Both van de Wouw and Horst identified passenger confidence as a key variable in the recovery of air freight in Middle East corridors. “Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways operate some of the world’s most important air freight networks, but those networks depend on passenger revenue,” van de Wouw said. “If tourist confidence in Middle East destinations takes time to recover — even after the ceasefire — airlines may operate routes at below-sustainable passenger load factors and could cut network capacity as a result,” he noted. Horst said flight frequencies into the Middle East hubs might take a long time to return to pre-conflict levels, with passenger confidence shaken by the war. “In terms of overall flight levels, I don’t know whether they will come back in the next few years because people are probably going to re-evaluate their exposure to the Middle East and travel to alternative locations,” he said. <h3>Cargo backlogs, shuttered airports </h3>Crane Worldwide Logistics wrote in an update Wednesday that cargo backlogs at Dubai International Airport were structural and there was no defined timeline for clearing the logjam. “Full air freight normalization is expected no earlier than three to six weeks post‑ceasefire,” the forwarder noted. Crane added in the update that Bahrain International Airport remains closed, with home carrier Gulf Air operating out of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait International Airport will remain closed indefinitely. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="8fc0722e-09e9-4b12-a4ba-76e0a0deaa46"></dynamic-object></div>With air freight routes disrupted through the Middle East, forwarders have scrambled to find direct capacity from Asia to Europe, leaving space limited and pushing rates on the corridor higher. Percentage increases in spot rates provided by Xeneta show a steep increase in the five weeks since the conflict began on Feb. 28, particularly out of Southeast Asia and South Asia. Rates have risen 105% from South Asia to Europe, 84% from South Asia to the Middle East, and 82% from South Asia to North America, according to Xeneta. The rates were up 87% from Europe to the Middle East and 72% from Southeast Asia to Europe. In price per kilogram, air cargo spot rates are at their highest level of the year, according to the Freightos Air Index. Spot rates from China to Europe of $4.69/kg are up 33% compared with the first week of January, while China-Middle East rates are up 43% since the start of the year at $4.20/kg, Freightos data showed. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The two-week ceasefire agreed to between the US and Iran this week is too short and too fragile to encourage international air carriers to resume flights to the Middle East, air freight analysts say. While the ceasefire marks the first diplomatic shift in the 40-day conflict, it is being regarded by transport operators as more of a controlled easing rather than an operational reset. “There will be a bit of reluctance from non-Gulf-based carriers to resume normal scheduled activity until there is a feeling that the ceasefire will be more permanent,” said Frederic Horst, managing director of Sydney-based consultancy Trade and Transport Group. “Combined passenger and freight on flights through Gulf-facing hubs have been edging up a little bit over the past couple of weeks, but we are still at less than 40% of previous levels,” Horst told the Journal of Commerce. Niall van de Wouw, chief air freight officer at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, said bringing air capacity back to the Middle East corridors will provide welcome relief for shippers, many of whom were facing severe disruption to ocean supply chains. But carriers require a far more permanent settlement to the conflict before flights resume, van de Wouw said in a statement from Xeneta Thursday. “A two-week timeline is too short to justify restructuring freight plans,” he said. “Carriers will be in no rush to lower rates given the ceasefire is only temporary and the geopolitical situation remains uncertain. Shippers will also not rush into major routing decisions on the basis of a fragile two-week ceasefire “Even when it is deemed safe to fly, setting up the infrastructure again takes time,” he added. “Customers need to find you again and trust you again. Insurance companies may still advise against transiting these Middle East hubs despite the ceasefire.” Should the ceasefire hold, a full return to pre-conflict capacity and rates on trades transiting Middle East hubs is still one to two months away, van de Wouw said. Passenger confidence key to restoring networks Pre-conflict networks routed through the Middle East accounted for about 30% of the Asia-Europe air freight capacity, much of that carried in the bellies of passenger aircraft. Flights to the regional hub of Dubai by Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and British Airways remain suspended until May 31. Air France as of now has Dubai flights suspended only until April 19, with KLM due to return May 17. Both van de Wouw and Horst identified passenger confidence as a key variable in the recovery of air freight in Middle East corridors. “Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways operate some of the world’s most important air freight networks, but those networks depend on passenger revenue,” van de Wouw said. “If tourist confidence in Middle East destinations takes time to recover — even after the ceasefire — airlines may operate routes at below-sustainable passenger load factors and could cut network capacity as a result,” he noted. Horst said flight frequencies into the Middle East hubs might take a long time to return to pre-conflict levels, with passenger confidence shaken by the war. “In terms of overall flight levels, I don’t know whether they will come back in the next few years because people are probably going to re-evaluate their exposure to the Middle East and travel to alternative locations,” he said. Cargo backlogs, shuttered airports Crane Worldwide Logistics wrote in an update Wednesday that cargo backlogs at Dubai International Airport were structural and there was no defined timeline for clearing the logjam. “Full air freight normalization is expected no earlier than three to six weeks post‑ceasefire,” the forwarder noted. Crane added in the update that Bahrain International Airport remains closed, with home carrier Gulf Air operating out of Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Kuwait International Airport will remain closed indefinitely. With air freight routes disrupted through the Middle East, forwarders have scrambled to find direct capacity from Asia to Europe, leaving space limited and pushing rates on the corridor higher. Percentage increases in spot rates provided by Xeneta show a steep increase in the five weeks since the conflict began on Feb. 28, particularly out of Southeast Asia and South Asia. Rates have risen 105% from South Asia to Europe, 84% from South Asia to the Middle East, and 82% from South Asia to North America, according to Xeneta. The rates were up 87% from Europe to the Middle East and 72% from Southeast Asia to Europe. In price per kilogram, air cargo spot rates are at their highest level of the year, according to the Freightos Air Index. Spot rates from China to Europe of $4.69/kg are up 33% compared with the first week of January, while China-Middle East rates are up 43% since the start of the year at $4.20/kg, Freightos data showed. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Air Cargo Carriers News

Air Cargo

US-Iran ceasefire unlikely to spur air freight return to Middle East: analysts

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, could possibly be the first M&amp;A domino to fall among a growing number of agent vendors catering to the logistics industry.</div>

The deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, could possibly be the first M&A domino to fall among a growing number of agent vendors catering to the logistics industry.

<div class="phx-topic">Logistics technology provider project44 has acquired an automation company focused on building digital agents that cover dozens of pre-built use cases across international and domestic freight, the company announced Thursday. The all-cash acquisition, terms of which were not disclosed, will enable project44 to embed agents from Chicago-based LunaPath into its visibility and transportation management products. Founded in 2024, LunaPath develops logistics orchestration- and execution-focused agents that tackle discrete tasks such as sourcing missing ocean freight milestones and retrieving container location at the port of discharge. The company’s agents, also known as digital workers, undertake tasks in domestic freight as well, such as finding missing equipment identifiers and resolving invalid truck telematics connections. LunaPath’s sale is the first of the dozen or so artificial intelligence-focused agent developers serving the logistics and transportation industry to have emerged in the last three years. project44 CEO Jett McCandless told the Journal of Commerce the company had been trialing a number of these providers side by side over the past 16 months to see which ones performed best using project44’s data. “The reality is there isn’t one that’s the best at everything,” he said. “Some are better at voice, some are better at documents. Some better on Tuesday. Some are better for one carrier than another.” But LunaPath stood out, McCandless said, especially in high-volume voice and messaging execution use cases, prompting the decision to buy the emergent company rather than just use them among a number of other automation vendors. “They outperformed in a lot of use cases,” he said. “They got answers faster and more consistently.” <h3>‘Customers want outcomes’ </h3>The speed component is key in an environment where the cost of computing capacity to power digital workers is a factor that software companies must control. “Faster means it’s taking less capital; less time and less tokens,” McCandless said. “Our customers want outcomes.” Tokens are a unit the makers of AI models use to charge for use of their product. The more tokens used, the more a software company building agents pays, and in general, the faster a task is accomplished, the fewer tokens are used. The cost to build agents is starting to become a key issue as they become more prevalent in logistics, with some arguing that building agents are a cost of doing business for software providers, who should be expected to be enhancing their products continuously. On the other hand, some argue the cost of using AI models will only rise, and software vendors shouldn’t bear those costs alone. “The cost is not a billion dollars, but it’s not free either,” McCandless said. “Every time an agent does something it has a cost.” His contention is that application programming interfaces (APIs) are sometimes a more efficient way to transfer information, with project44 an early advocate for broader use of APIs over more traditional information exchange mechanisms such as electronic data interchange (EDI). “Where an API can do the job reliably, we use it,” McCandless said. “Agents earn their place when the task requires judgment, context or real-time adaptation. We’re not religious about it. We’re focused on outcomes.” <h3>Will also use other AI agent vendors </h3>McCandless said the acquisition of LunaPath won’t preclude project44 from using other AI agent vendors, such as Vooma and HappyRobot, with which it has had longstanding partnerships. project44, which serves more than 1,000 shippers and two-thirds of the world’s biggest logistics providers, has dived headlong into AI and agent-based workflows over the past 18 months to power its data platform and a new transportation management system it unveiled in 2025. A high-profile software vendor snapping up an early-stage AI vendor could, in theory, trigger other such acquisitions, but not all of those vendors are in the same position as LunaPath. Many have raised tens of millions of dollars from venture capital investors and need a return that justifies such investment. But it’s generally recognized that not every AI logistics vendor will survive in a market that appears commoditized, especially for agents that do relatively straightforward tasks that could be built internally by prospective buyers. Indeed, McCandless said project44 has built its own agents, ones that will be combined with those of LunaPath and augmented by those provided by other partner vendors. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Logistics technology provider project44 has acquired an automation company focused on building digital agents that cover dozens of pre-built use cases across international and domestic freight, the company announced Thursday. The all-cash acquisition, terms of which were not disclosed, will enable project44 to embed agents from Chicago-based LunaPath into its visibility and transportation management products. Founded in 2024, LunaPath develops logistics orchestration- and execution-focused agents that tackle discrete tasks such as sourcing missing ocean freight milestones and retrieving container location at the port of discharge. The company’s agents, also known as digital workers, undertake tasks in domestic freight as well, such as finding missing equipment identifiers and resolving invalid truck telematics connections. LunaPath’s sale is the first of the dozen or so artificial intelligence-focused agent developers serving the logistics and transportation industry to have emerged in the last three years. project44 CEO Jett McCandless told the Journal of Commerce the company had been trialing a number of these providers side by side over the past 16 months to see which ones performed best using project44’s data. “The reality is there isn’t one that’s the best at everything,” he said. “Some are better at voice, some are better at documents. Some better on Tuesday. Some are better for one carrier than another.” But LunaPath stood out, McCandless said, especially in high-volume voice and messaging execution use cases, prompting the decision to buy the emergent company rather than just use them among a number of other automation vendors. “They outperformed in a lot of use cases,” he said. “They got answers faster and more consistently.” ‘Customers want outcomes’ The speed component is key in an environment where the cost of computing capacity to power digital workers is a factor that software companies must control. “Faster means it’s taking less capital; less time and less tokens,” McCandless said. “Our customers want outcomes.” Tokens are a unit the makers of AI models use to charge for use of their product. The more tokens used, the more a software company building agents pays, and in general, the faster a task is accomplished, the fewer tokens are used. The cost to build agents is starting to become a key issue as they become more prevalent in logistics, with some arguing that building agents are a cost of doing business for software providers, who should be expected to be enhancing their products continuously. On the other hand, some argue the cost of using AI models will only rise, and software vendors shouldn’t bear those costs alone. “The cost is not a billion dollars, but it’s not free either,” McCandless said. “Every time an agent does something it has a cost.” His contention is that application programming interfaces (APIs) are sometimes a more efficient way to transfer information, with project44 an early advocate for broader use of APIs over more traditional information exchange mechanisms such as electronic data interchange (EDI). “Where an API can do the job reliably, we use it,” McCandless said. “Agents earn their place when the task requires judgment, context or real-time adaptation. We’re not religious about it. We’re focused on outcomes.” Will also use other AI agent vendors McCandless said the acquisition of LunaPath won’t preclude project44 from using other AI agent vendors, such as Vooma and HappyRobot, with which it has had longstanding partnerships. project44, which serves more than 1,000 shippers and two-thirds of the world’s biggest logistics providers, has dived headlong into AI and agent-based workflows over the past 18 months to power its data platform and a new transportation management system it unveiled in 2025. A high-profile software vendor snapping up an early-stage AI vendor could, in theory, trigger other such acquisitions, but not all of those vendors are in the same position as LunaPath. Many have raised tens of millions of dollars from venture capital investors and need a return that justifies such investment. But it’s generally recognized that not every AI logistics vendor will survive in a market that appears commoditized, especially for agents that do relatively straightforward tasks that could be built internally by prospective buyers. Indeed, McCandless said project44 has built its own agents, ones that will be combined with those of LunaPath and augmented by those provided by other partner vendors. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

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project44 acquires agent developer to expand AI use cases

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