Old-fashioned breakbulk and supply chain skills have served shippers well in the “spillover” market, and some practices may linger after the container market normalizes.
Modest growth in freight volumes will continue in the second half of the year even if inflation and oil prices remain high, according to trade economists who spoke at the SMC3 conference this week.
The Indian Ocean Service, a weekly connection between West India and North Europe, will operate with truncated port coverage on eight upcoming sailings between July and September.
Rate levels on the major trade lanes out of Asia should be rising as peak season begins and key destination ports remain congested, but the spot market has continued to decline.
Millions of tons of project cargo freight will be moving soon as energy projects, including Qatar’s massive LNG facility, gather steam, logistics executives say.
Ocean carriers could find themselves under pressure from shippers to revisit long-term contracts as spot market rates tumble on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe trade lanes.
US retailers’ stockpiling of inventory has not only swelled the number of import boxes sitting on marine terminals and railheads, it has also left thousands of chassis idled with unopened containers on top of them at distribution centers around the country.
The short-term cost of cutting maritime emissions in the Pacific Ocean will be relatively small compared with the market variability of rate levels, according to UNCTAD.
An influx of equipment into the Indian market has caused rates to soften, but sources believe prices will climb again next month as the industry enters the traditional peak demand season.
FourKites will get access to previously internal shipment data from FedEx to train its predictive visibility system as part of a new planning and problem resolution platform called FourKites X.
The air freight industry is seeing a welcome increase in the urgently needed long-haul belly cargo capacity available to the market as international travel starts picking up.