<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Gordon Cain appears to be satisfied, finally, with the scope of the $1 billion deal he has amassed f</div>

Gordon Cain appears to be satisfied, finally, with the scope of the $1 billion deal he has amassed f

<div>Gordon Cain appears to be satisfied, finally, with the scope of the $1 billion deal he has amassed for the leveraged buy-out of seven ethylene-relat ed chemical facilities. But one cannot be sure.A twice-retired veteran of the petrochemical industry, Mr. Cain, 75, has quietly been at work piecing together a major new petrochemical company through a leveraged buy-out (LBO) operation in such a way that some observers feel it could revolutionize the economics of the petrochemical industry.Earlier this week, Mr. Cain, chairman of Sterling Group Inc., signed a letter of intent to add the seventh facility to the package, when...

Gordon Cain appears to be satisfied, finally, with the scope of the $1 billion deal he has amassed for the leveraged buy-out of seven ethylene-relat ed chemical facilities. But one cannot be sure. A twice-retired veteran of the petrochemical industry, Mr. Cain, 75, has quietly been at work piecing together a major new petrochemical company through a leveraged buy-out (LBO) operation in such a way that some observers feel it could revolutionize the economics of the petrochemical industry.Earlier this week, Mr. Cain, chairman of Sterling Group Inc., signed a letter of intent to add the seventh facility to the package, when he agreed to purchase PPG Industries Inc.'s $50 million ethylene business. "It's not going to be like anyone else's," Mr. Cain said of the company which has yet to be named. He expects to have the new petrochemical company officially operating by mid-July. The seven plants will be acquired from five different companies and rolled into one integrated whole. The sellers are chemical heavyweights - E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., ICI Americas Inc., PPG Industries Inc., and Corpus Christi Petrochemicals Co., including minority owner Champlin Petroleum Co., a division of Union Pacific Corp. Several of the companies are divesting the plants as among their less-promising assets. Mr. Cain identifies his purchase package as including the following: * A 1.4-billion-pound-a-year ethylene plant from Corpus Christi Petrochemical, located in Corpus Christi, Texas. * A 1-billion-pound-a-year ethylene plant from Du Pont, located at Chocolate Bayou, Texas, south of Houston. * Three high-density polyethylene plants from Du Pont, with a combined capacity of 900 million pounds per year, located in Texas at Orange, Victoria and Bay City. * About 900 million pounds a year of ethylene glycol capacity from two plants. The conglomerate is purchasing half of PPG's glycol plant in Beaumont, Texas, of which Du Pont will have 50 percent ownership. Sterling also is buying a glycol plant in Bayport, Texas, from ICI. The billion dollars in financing has come from a combination of commercial banks and the sale of high-yield bonds with no outside stockholders. "All the stock will be owned by employees, management, us and investment bankers," said Mr. Cain. Management and employee ownership is a characteristic of the petroleum industry LBO which cuts overhead costs dramatically while improving productivity. Traditionally, a leveraged buy-out employs a financing technique pledging the assets of the acquired business as collateral against the buyer's loan with some of the assets sold to pay down the loans. But Mr. Cain - considered the father of the petrochemical LBO with some 15 LBOs completed in the last three years - arranges his deals a little differently, according to industry sources. He keeps everything and pays off the debts with improved profits. Mr. Cain blushes at his role, noting, "The idea of LBOs had been around for a while but I was the first to do one of any consequence in the petrochemical industry." His quiet strategy hasn't gone unnoticed. Money center banks have shown more interest in LBOs since the oil and real estate borrowers dwindled in their requests. And the timing for LBOs in petrochemicals has heightened the last five years thanks to the stiffer competition from overseas production of commodity chemicals which is pushing major domestic chemical companies into specialties. So entrepreneurs like Mr. Cain have began buying control of the best commodity chemical plants available. Mr. Cain volunteers that, "These domestic companies weren't trying to unload their commodity businesses because most of them were still somewhat profitable. They just didn't want to run them anymore. We can run these plants for a fraction of what the previous owners spent." Commodity plants like those that Mr. Cain is purchasing have been selling for as little as 25 percent to 50 percent of the cost required to build a new plant. As independent companies, LBOs remain free to operate more efficiently and creatively than many major companies can and Mr. Cain points to his own past experience as an example. Commenting on his decision to buy ethylene plants, which has raised some questions of risk by industry analysts, Mr. Cain said, "The ethylene industry is operating now at over 90 percent capacity and the demand for ethylene derivatives is going to grow."

PETROCHEMICAL BUY-OUT OPERATION TERMED ECONOMIC REVOLUTION

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. </div>

Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports.

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<div class="phx-topic">Indian freight forwarders have reported a sharp upswing in ocean rates for loads to the US West Coast — as high as 60% over the past two weeks — amid capacity pressures linked to the now-heated eastbound trans-Pacific trade. Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. Bookings from China to the US have jumped sharply over the past two weeks given the 90-day tariff cooldown period between Washington and Beijing. “With China volumes now peaking, we are noticing a cutback in allocations for India loading,” an executive at an Asian carrier who didn’t want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “We expect this crunch to tighten further in the coming weeks.” Average spot rates on the India-USWC trade lane have climbed 50% to 60% over the last two weeks, according to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from forwarders. Booking rates from Nhava Sheva to Los Angeles on sailings through early June now stand at $3,000 per TEU and $3,500 per FEU, although varying from carrier to carrier. Sources put port-to-port rate quotes by carrier at: CMA CGM — $3,186 per TEU and $3,646 per FEU; Maersk — $4,141 and $4,000; and Hapag-Lloyd — $2,734 and $2,784. Forwarders who spoke with the Journal of Commerce noted somewhat similar rate indications for other active carriers. And significant increase plans are in the offing, including $3,600 per TEU and $4,000 per FEU announced by CMA CGM from June 15; $1,800 and $2,000 in two rounds by Mediterranean Shipping Co. from June 1 and June 15; and $3,200 and $4,000 in two attempts by Wan Hai Lines beginning July 1 and July 15. “We could very well see rates for India-USWC bookings go up to $7,000 per container over the next month,” a forwarder said. Asian carriers are more aggressive than their European peers for India-USWC coverage. Notably, Ocean Network Express’ Pacific South 3 (PS3) service is the only direct routing for Indian shippers, linking Nhava Sheva and Pipavav to Los Angeles and Oakland. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

Indian freight forwarders have reported a sharp upswing in ocean rates for loads to the US West Coast — as high as 60% over the past two weeks — amid capacity pressures linked to the now-heated eastbound trans-Pacific trade. Indian capacity to the West Coast is in large part confined to extended Asian networks connecting over regional hubs, so space availability remains exposed to demand volatility at origin load ports. Bookings from China to the US have jumped sharply over the past two weeks given the 90-day tariff cooldown period between Washington and Beijing. “With China volumes now peaking, we are noticing a cutback in allocations for India loading,” an executive at an Asian carrier who didn’t want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce. “We expect this crunch to tighten further in the coming weeks.” Average spot rates on the India-USWC trade lane have climbed 50% to 60% over the last two weeks, according to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from forwarders. Booking rates from Nhava Sheva to Los Angeles on sailings through early June now stand at $3,000 per TEU and $3,500 per FEU, although varying from carrier to carrier. Sources put port-to-port rate quotes by carrier at: CMA CGM — $3,186 per TEU and $3,646 per FEU; Maersk — $4,141 and $4,000; and Hapag-Lloyd — $2,734 and $2,784. Forwarders who spoke with the Journal of Commerce noted somewhat similar rate indications for other active carriers. And significant increase plans are in the offing, including $3,600 per TEU and $4,000 per FEU announced by CMA CGM from June 15; $1,800 and $2,000 in two rounds by Mediterranean Shipping Co. from June 1 and June 15; and $3,200 and $4,000 in two attempts by Wan Hai Lines beginning July 1 and July 15. “We could very well see rates for India-USWC bookings go up to $7,000 per container over the next month,” a forwarder said. Asian carriers are more aggressive than their European peers for India-USWC coverage. Notably, Ocean Network Express’ Pacific South 3 (PS3) service is the only direct routing for Indian shippers, linking Nhava Sheva and Pipavav to Los Angeles and Oakland. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Maritime

Supply chain

Container Shipping News

Container lines

Forwarding

Trans-Pacific

India-US West Coast rates jump as capacity suffers from Asia cargo rush

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The move to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. </div>

The move to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers.

<div class="phx-topic">Truck drivers in the US who can’t speak English are facing a crackdown, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) promising to take them off the road. The step to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency (ELP) will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. Loads could be delayed, driver hours of service affected, and truck capacity may get tighter. But supporters of the move claim US highways will be safer and point out that ELP is the law. Starting June 25, truck drivers who cannot communicate with law enforcement during roadside inspections or at weigh stations will be placed out of service, meaning they will not be permitted to drive, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday. “We are issuing new guidance that ensures a driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country,” Duffy said at a press conference in Austin, Texas, that was livestreamed by DOT. Duffy signed an order replacing guidance issued by the Obama administration in 2016. That guidance removed the requirement to place drivers out of service for an ELP violation if they could communicate with inspectors or police by other means. “[If] someone is pulled over and can’t speak the language, they’ll be pulled out of service,” Duffy said. “Before, they’d be given a slap on the wrist and allowed to go on.” The new guidance will make employing non-English speaking drivers “very costly,” he said. <h3>DOT says safety at risk </h3>ELP enforcement is primarily a safety issue, Duffy said, adding that “allowing drivers who cannot read stop signs threatens the safety of every American on our roadways.” But other issues are contributing to calls for tighter ELP enforcement, especially from US trucking organizations. One is the allegation that some carriers are using non-English speakers as “cheap labor,” and thus denying work to qualified US truck drivers. “There are far too many unqualified drivers driving on the road today, too many loopholes that result in drivers who lack the basic skills,” Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said at the Austin event. The DOT will review how states issue commercial driver’s licenses and review the security of licenses issued by states to drivers outside their jurisdiction, or non-domiciled licenses. “It feels like the trucking industry has become the Wild West with a lot of bad actors who have been allowed to play in this space,” said Duffy. “We’re going to improve verification protocols for both domestic and international credentials to ensure that only qualified drivers are behind the wheel on American roads,” he added. Contact William B. Cassidy at <a href="mailto:bill.cassidy@spglobal.com">bill.cassidy@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Truck drivers in the US who can’t speak English are facing a crackdown, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) promising to take them off the road. The step to ensure commercial drivers comply with US law requiring English-language proficiency (ELP) will have ramifications for shippers, carriers and drivers. Loads could be delayed, driver hours of service affected, and truck capacity may get tighter. But supporters of the move claim US highways will be safer and point out that ELP is the law. Starting June 25, truck drivers who cannot communicate with law enforcement during roadside inspections or at weigh stations will be placed out of service, meaning they will not be permitted to drive, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday. “We are issuing new guidance that ensures a driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country,” Duffy said at a press conference in Austin, Texas, that was livestreamed by DOT. Duffy signed an order replacing guidance issued by the Obama administration in 2016. That guidance removed the requirement to place drivers out of service for an ELP violation if they could communicate with inspectors or police by other means. “[If] someone is pulled over and can’t speak the language, they’ll be pulled out of service,” Duffy said. “Before, they’d be given a slap on the wrist and allowed to go on.” The new guidance will make employing non-English speaking drivers “very costly,” he said. DOT says safety at risk ELP enforcement is primarily a safety issue, Duffy said, adding that “allowing drivers who cannot read stop signs threatens the safety of every American on our roadways.” But other issues are contributing to calls for tighter ELP enforcement, especially from US trucking organizations. One is the allegation that some carriers are using non-English speakers as “cheap labor,” and thus denying work to qualified US truck drivers. “There are far too many unqualified drivers driving on the road today, too many loopholes that result in drivers who lack the basic skills,” Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said at the Austin event. The DOT will review how states issue commercial driver’s licenses and review the security of licenses issued by states to drivers outside their jurisdiction, or non-domiciled licenses. “It feels like the trucking industry has become the Wild West with a lot of bad actors who have been allowed to play in this space,” said Duffy. “We’re going to improve verification protocols for both domestic and international credentials to ensure that only qualified drivers are behind the wheel on American roads,” he added. Contact William B. Cassidy at bill.cassidy@spglobal.com .

Trucking News

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Surface

US DOT initiates crackdown on non-English-speaking truckers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Carriers may find it difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region amid the tariff-linked demand drop in April and early May. </div>

Carriers may find it difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region amid the tariff-linked demand drop in April and early May.

<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carriers are bringing suspended container services back to the trans-Pacific next month due to heavy import demand from China. Even so, capacity remains tight in the near term as some ships that once served the trans-Pacific have been redeployed to other lanes. President Donald Trump’s temporary reprieve on reciprocal tariffs against China has meant the resumption of previously canceled ocean freight bookings, as well as likely frontloading of imports during the 90-day reprieve period, which ends Aug. 14. That means container capacity from China is “tight” through the first week of July, Hong Kong-based logistics provider Honour Lane Shipping said in its most recent trans-Pacific market update, adding that cargo may likely be rolled to later voyages due to space constraints. “All carriers are facing serious space shortages as they’ve cut a large percentage of their capacities by service suspension and blank sailings in the previous two months,” Honour Lane said. “Most vessels are very full by the end of the month, and many of them have overbooking.” Zim Integrated Shipping Service was one of the first out of the gate to announce <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/zim-restarts-china-los-angeles-service-to-capture-fresh-import-demand-6007601">it will restart an express service</a> from China to the Port of Los Angeles, and now other carriers are following suit. After <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/april-blank-sailings-ramp-up-amid-push-to-finalize-long-term-contracts-5974802">a slate of blank sailings</a>, Mediterranean Shipping Co. is resuming regular weekly sailings on its Orient service between China and the Port of Long Beach starting with the June 9 departure from Shanghai of the 8,500-TEU MSC Tianshan, according to MSC’s vessel schedule. The Premier Alliance also appears to be planning a restart of its PS5 service from China to the ports of Long Beach and Oakland. Alliance member Ocean Network Express (ONE) shows four vessels already nominated to the string, with the first voyage from Qingdao on June 6 on the 6,589-TEU YM Mobility. The resumption of the PS5, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trans-pacific-capacity-cuts-accelerating-amid-sharp-reduction-in-chinese-cargo-5992769">originally planned for May</a>, was delayed due to the downturn in import demand. <h3>‘Takes time to resume services’ </h3>Other carriers, though, may find it more difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they have repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region, Honour Lane’s report said. “Despite the demand spikes, carriers have yet to return capacity to China,” Honour Lane said. “It takes time to resume services or cancel blank sailings which have been announced months ago.” Cosco Shipping’s AAC4 service from central China to Long Beach went to a biweekly schedule, instead of weekly, through May due to the post-tariff demand downturn. While the service is set to resume weekly voyages in June, Cosco redeployed two vessels in the AAC4 service to other markets. The 14,568-TEU Cosco Shipping Alps, which had called Long Beach regularly since 2023 as part of the AAC4 service, is now destined for the Port of Rotterdam with a May 24 estimated arrival, according to data from Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Likewise, the 13,386-TEU Cosco Portugal, which had been in the AAC4 rotation since 2021, is also scheduled to call Rotterdam in June. Evergreen Marine may also have to reposition ships to the trans-Pacific to meet the renewed demand. After its CPS service to Los Angeles blanked five weekly voyages through April and May, two vessels in that service went to other trades. Evergreen’s 11,888-TEU Ever Fame had been in the rotation for the carrier’s CPS service since this year, port call data shows. However, since the CPS started blanking its weekly calls, the Ever Fame is now en route to Rio De Janeiro as part of Evergreen’s Far East-South America service. The 12,118-TEU Ever Frank, which was also put into the CPS rotation at the start of 2025, is now en route to Southampton, England, as part of Evergreen’s China-Europe Shuttle service. Evergreen is now looking to backfill capacity in the wake of the schedule changes. The carrier scheduled two ad hoc calls to Los Angeles in May on its Asia-Northwest Pacific service. Evergreen’s HTW service also made ad hoc calls to Shanghai and Ningbo after service from those ports was curtailed. Other Ocean Alliance members are resuming regular trans-Pacific services. CMA CGM’s Pearl River Express service to Los Angeles, which canceled nearly all its sailings from April through May, plans to return to a regular weekly cadence in June, as does OOCL’s Pacific South China Express service. Cosco Shipping is set to deploy two extra loaders from China to Long Beach this week to handle the sudden demand surge, but it’s “not sure whether it would be enough to mitigate the short supply,” Honour Lane said in its advisory. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Ocean carriers are bringing suspended container services back to the trans-Pacific next month due to heavy import demand from China. Even so, capacity remains tight in the near term as some ships that once served the trans-Pacific have been redeployed to other lanes. President Donald Trump’s temporary reprieve on reciprocal tariffs against China has meant the resumption of previously canceled ocean freight bookings, as well as likely frontloading of imports during the 90-day reprieve period, which ends Aug. 14. That means container capacity from China is “tight” through the first week of July, Hong Kong-based logistics provider Honour Lane Shipping said in its most recent trans-Pacific market update, adding that cargo may likely be rolled to later voyages due to space constraints. “All carriers are facing serious space shortages as they’ve cut a large percentage of their capacities by service suspension and blank sailings in the previous two months,” Honour Lane said. “Most vessels are very full by the end of the month, and many of them have overbooking.” Zim Integrated Shipping Service was one of the first out of the gate to announce it will restart an express service from China to the Port of Los Angeles, and now other carriers are following suit. After a slate of blank sailings , Mediterranean Shipping Co. is resuming regular weekly sailings on its Orient service between China and the Port of Long Beach starting with the June 9 departure from Shanghai of the 8,500-TEU MSC Tianshan, according to MSC’s vessel schedule. The Premier Alliance also appears to be planning a restart of its PS5 service from China to the ports of Long Beach and Oakland. Alliance member Ocean Network Express (ONE) shows four vessels already nominated to the string, with the first voyage from Qingdao on June 6 on the 6,589-TEU YM Mobility. The resumption of the PS5, originally planned for May , was delayed due to the downturn in import demand. ‘Takes time to resume services’ Other carriers, though, may find it more difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they have repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region, Honour Lane’s report said. “Despite the demand spikes, carriers have yet to return capacity to China,” Honour Lane said. “It takes time to resume services or cancel blank sailings which have been announced months ago.” Cosco Shipping’s AAC4 service from central China to Long Beach went to a biweekly schedule, instead of weekly, through May due to the post-tariff demand downturn. While the service is set to resume weekly voyages in June, Cosco redeployed two vessels in the AAC4 service to other markets. The 14,568-TEU Cosco Shipping Alps, which had called Long Beach regularly since 2023 as part of the AAC4 service, is now destined for the Port of Rotterdam with a May 24 estimated arrival, according to data from Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Likewise, the 13,386-TEU Cosco Portugal, which had been in the AAC4 rotation since 2021, is also scheduled to call Rotterdam in June. Evergreen Marine may also have to reposition ships to the trans-Pacific to meet the renewed demand. After its CPS service to Los Angeles blanked five weekly voyages through April and May, two vessels in that service went to other trades. Evergreen’s 11,888-TEU Ever Fame had been in the rotation for the carrier’s CPS service since this year, port call data shows. However, since the CPS started blanking its weekly calls, the Ever Fame is now en route to Rio De Janeiro as part of Evergreen’s Far East-South America service. The 12,118-TEU Ever Frank, which was also put into the CPS rotation at the start of 2025, is now en route to Southampton, England, as part of Evergreen’s China-Europe Shuttle service. Evergreen is now looking to backfill capacity in the wake of the schedule changes. The carrier scheduled two ad hoc calls to Los Angeles in May on its Asia-Northwest Pacific service. Evergreen’s HTW service also made ad hoc calls to Shanghai and Ningbo after service from those ports was curtailed. Other Ocean Alliance members are resuming regular trans-Pacific services. CMA CGM’s Pearl River Express service to Los Angeles, which canceled nearly all its sailings from April through May, plans to return to a regular weekly cadence in June, as does OOCL’s Pacific South China Express service. Cosco Shipping is set to deploy two extra loaders from China to Long Beach this week to handle the sudden demand surge, but it’s “not sure whether it would be enough to mitigate the short supply,” Honour Lane said in its advisory. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

North American ports

Trans-Pacific services set for restart as carriers scramble to restore capacity

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Matt Schrap, who has headed the HTA for the past four years, told the Journal of Commerce he is transitioning to another job but will remain with the group through late August.</div>

Matt Schrap, who has headed the HTA for the past four years, told the Journal of Commerce he is transitioning to another job but will remain with the group through late August.

<div class="phx-topic">The Harbor Trucking Association, which represents drayage operators at ports along the US West Coast, has launched a nationwide search for a new CEO after announcing that Matt Schrap is leaving the organization. Schrap, who has headed the HTA for the past four years, told the Journal of Commerce he is transitioning to another job but will remain with the group through late August. HTA said in a statement on Tuesday it is seeking “a strategic leader with proven experience in transportation, logistics and stakeholder engagement.” The Long Beach-based HTA represents the interests of drayage operators serving the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. It publishes a detailed monthly report on truck turn times at container terminals in Southern California and Oakland. Drayage operators have been dealing with <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/tariff-related-disruption-spreading-as-us-shippers-pause-plans-5989017">supply chain disruptions due to tariff uncertainties</a>, fluctuating vessel arrivals as <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-supply-chain-planning-must-involve-a-mix-of-the-known-and-unknown-6008684">carriers blank multiple sailings in the trans-Pacific</a>, and mounting empty containers at marine terminals. Longer-standing issues such as <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/empty-containers-piling-up-in-los-angeles-long-beach-after-january-import-surge-5966996">securing sufficient appointment slots at marine terminals</a> are also a challenge. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

The Harbor Trucking Association, which represents drayage operators at ports along the US West Coast, has launched a nationwide search for a new CEO after announcing that Matt Schrap is leaving the organization. Schrap, who has headed the HTA for the past four years, told the Journal of Commerce he is transitioning to another job but will remain with the group through late August. HTA said in a statement on Tuesday it is seeking “a strategic leader with proven experience in transportation, logistics and stakeholder engagement.” The Long Beach-based HTA represents the interests of drayage operators serving the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. It publishes a detailed monthly report on truck turn times at container terminals in Southern California and Oakland. Drayage operators have been dealing with supply chain disruptions due to tariff uncertainties , fluctuating vessel arrivals as carriers blank multiple sailings in the trans-Pacific , and mounting empty containers at marine terminals. Longer-standing issues such as securing sufficient appointment slots at marine terminals are also a challenge. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Port News

Drayage

Marine terminals

HTA seeks new CEO amid multiple challenges for West Coast drayage operators

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">A calendar quirk is causing consternation for importers of non-Chinese goods with long lead times who believed they had avoided the first salvo of US tariffs by loading their cargo before the prescribed “load-by” date and are now facing unexpected costs.</div>

A calendar quirk is causing consternation for importers of non-Chinese goods with long lead times who believed they had avoided the first salvo of US tariffs by loading their cargo before the prescribed “load-by” date and are now facing unexpected costs.

<div class="phx-topic">Some US importers with long ocean transit times, including those who move cargo through transshipment hubs, will be on the hook for the 10% US tariffs now in place on non-Chinese goods even if those goods beat an April 5 load-by deadline to avoid the tariffs. That’s because of a shorter-than-usual length of time set by the Trump administration encompassing the cutoff dates between when goods needed to depart their origin ports and arrive at destination ports. And that scheduling quirk is causing consternation for importers who believed they had avoided the first salvo of tariffs by loading their cargo before the prescribed date and are now facing unexpected costs. Don Pisano, president of American Coffee Corp., said shipments from Southeast Asia to US Gulf ports regularly take 60 days, longer than the gap between the “load-by” April 5 deadline set by the White House and the May 27 arrival date set by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in which the goods must be “entered for consumption.” “It seems completely arbitrary and punitive,” Pisano told the Journal of Commerce. Pisano pointed to another example on a different lane, a containerized shipment of coffee that left Brazil’s Port of Santos in late March on a service that went west through the Panama Canal, to Shanghai and then to the US West Coast. “That’s not arriving until May 29, and we’ll have to pay $20,000 in tariffs because [the carrier] routed it through Shanghai,” he said. Further, shippers whose goods were transshipped, with the final leg departing after April 5, will also be subject to the 10% US tariffs, even if the cargo shipped from origin prior to April 5. In many cases, the decision to transship is out of the control of importers. <h3>Delay in ‘end-date’ guidance </h3>Gabrielle Griffith, a director at BPE Global, a trade compliance consulting firm, said an end date for the in-transit exemption was not initially specified <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trump-announces-10-across-the-board-tariffs-on-all-us-imports-5975639">when the reciprocal tariffs were imposed April 2 through President Donald Trump’s executive order</a>. The end-date guidance came two days later, on April 4, in a separate message in the Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS), a channel CBP uses to communicate with the trade community. Griffith said the April 4 message from CBP added the May 27 cutoff in order to, in the agency’s words, “prevent abuse of exemption,” and was reiterated by CBP on April 8. Pisano’s contention is that most goods aiming to beat the April 5 deadline were loaded or on the water prior to either of those guidance messages being issued, as importers were racing to beat the deadline. Griffith said the end-date provision aligns with prior CBP practices for tariff exclusions but differs from earlier executive orders issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) that lacked time limits. The end date was not specified in Trump’s executive order, but CBP has some leeway to interpret the application of that order. <h3>Transshipment confusion </h3>The transshipment issue is potentially more vexing for importers, as CBP’s original guidance on April 4 wasn’t clear, according to a range of trade compliance experts. At issue is whether reciprocal tariffs would be exempted if goods departed their origin port before April 5, or if transshipped, departed the final leg of their ocean journey prior to April 5. Guidance issued by CBP on May 15, which included a set of frequently asked questions, included details on how transshipment would impact tariff exemptions. The guidance painted a scenario in which, prior to the cutoff date for the reciprocal tariff in-transit provision, US-bound cargo is loaded onto a vessel destined for a foreign port prior to shipment to the US. At that foreign port, after April 5, the cargo is transferred onto a different vessel destined for the US. “The cargo in this scenario does not qualify for the in-transit exception for reciprocal tariffs because the US bound cargo was laden onto a vessel destined for the US after the cutoff date irrespective of when it departed from the original port of lading,” CBP wrote, responding to its own rhetorical question in the guidance. A trade attorney who did not want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce that the May 15 guidance on transshipment is “inconsistent with previous guidance we received from CBP on the same question, so we are trying to reconcile this.” The fact that guidance on transshipment came six weeks after the initial executive order will now impact importers for whom it wasn’t clear that such a routing wouldn’t be exempted, Pisano said. “It took them six weeks to come up with the wrong conclusion,” he said. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Some US importers with long ocean transit times, including those who move cargo through transshipment hubs, will be on the hook for the 10% US tariffs now in place on non-Chinese goods even if those goods beat an April 5 load-by deadline to avoid the tariffs. That’s because of a shorter-than-usual length of time set by the Trump administration encompassing the cutoff dates between when goods needed to depart their origin ports and arrive at destination ports. And that scheduling quirk is causing consternation for importers who believed they had avoided the first salvo of tariffs by loading their cargo before the prescribed date and are now facing unexpected costs. Don Pisano, president of American Coffee Corp., said shipments from Southeast Asia to US Gulf ports regularly take 60 days, longer than the gap between the “load-by” April 5 deadline set by the White House and the May 27 arrival date set by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in which the goods must be “entered for consumption.” “It seems completely arbitrary and punitive,” Pisano told the Journal of Commerce. Pisano pointed to another example on a different lane, a containerized shipment of coffee that left Brazil’s Port of Santos in late March on a service that went west through the Panama Canal, to Shanghai and then to the US West Coast. “That’s not arriving until May 29, and we’ll have to pay $20,000 in tariffs because [the carrier] routed it through Shanghai,” he said. Further, shippers whose goods were transshipped, with the final leg departing after April 5, will also be subject to the 10% US tariffs, even if the cargo shipped from origin prior to April 5. In many cases, the decision to transship is out of the control of importers. Delay in ‘end-date’ guidance Gabrielle Griffith, a director at BPE Global, a trade compliance consulting firm, said an end date for the in-transit exemption was not initially specified when the reciprocal tariffs were imposed April 2 through President Donald Trump’s executive order . The end-date guidance came two days later, on April 4, in a separate message in the Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS), a channel CBP uses to communicate with the trade community. Griffith said the April 4 message from CBP added the May 27 cutoff in order to, in the agency’s words, “prevent abuse of exemption,” and was reiterated by CBP on April 8. Pisano’s contention is that most goods aiming to beat the April 5 deadline were loaded or on the water prior to either of those guidance messages being issued, as importers were racing to beat the deadline. Griffith said the end-date provision aligns with prior CBP practices for tariff exclusions but differs from earlier executive orders issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) that lacked time limits. The end date was not specified in Trump’s executive order, but CBP has some leeway to interpret the application of that order. Transshipment confusion The transshipment issue is potentially more vexing for importers, as CBP’s original guidance on April 4 wasn’t clear, according to a range of trade compliance experts. At issue is whether reciprocal tariffs would be exempted if goods departed their origin port before April 5, or if transshipped, departed the final leg of their ocean journey prior to April 5. Guidance issued by CBP on May 15, which included a set of frequently asked questions, included details on how transshipment would impact tariff exemptions. The guidance painted a scenario in which, prior to the cutoff date for the reciprocal tariff in-transit provision, US-bound cargo is loaded onto a vessel destined for a foreign port prior to shipment to the US. At that foreign port, after April 5, the cargo is transferred onto a different vessel destined for the US. “The cargo in this scenario does not qualify for the in-transit exception for reciprocal tariffs because the US bound cargo was laden onto a vessel destined for the US after the cutoff date irrespective of when it departed from the original port of lading,” CBP wrote, responding to its own rhetorical question in the guidance. A trade attorney who did not want to be identified told the Journal of Commerce that the May 15 guidance on transshipment is “inconsistent with previous guidance we received from CBP on the same question, so we are trying to reconcile this.” The fact that guidance on transshipment came six weeks after the initial executive order will now impact importers for whom it wasn’t clear that such a routing wouldn’t be exempted, Pisano said. “It took them six weeks to come up with the wrong conclusion,” he said. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Scheduling linked to 10% tariffs causing confusion, angst for US importers

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

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