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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Engineered transport providers are gearing up for heavy demand as an energy buildout in both renewable and oil and gas sectors gains strength.</div>

Engineered transport providers are gearing up for heavy demand as an energy buildout in both renewable and oil and gas sectors gains strength.

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<div>Ongoing strength in the energy, process engineering, and infrastructure sectors is leading heavy transportation and engineering companies to pool their expertise and form joint ventures to work on specific projects or pursue new business, senior industry executives tell JOC.com.This comes even as the Russia–Ukraine war is <a>driving investment in alternative energy projects</a>, especially wind energy, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and potentially nuclear power. Many countries are seeking to bolster their energy security by diversifying their energy infrastructure as well as their sourcing, the executives said.“We have seen a shift away from Russian projects, and … new projects across the world...

Ongoing strength in the energy, process engineering, and infrastructure sectors is leading heavy transportation and engineering companies to pool their expertise and form joint ventures to work on specific projects or pursue new business, senior industry executives tell JOC.com. This comes even as the Russia–Ukraine war is driving investment in alternative energy projects , especially wind energy, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and potentially nuclear power. Many countries are seeking to bolster their energy security by diversifying their energy infrastructure as well as their sourcing, the executives said. “We have seen a shift away from Russian projects, and … new projects across the world are being developed to compensate for the energy needs that were planned to be fulfilled by Russia,” Yannick Sel, group commercial director for projects at heavy-lift transport specialist Sarens, told JOC.com. “With the ongoing energy transition and the situation in Europe — with the region less dependent on Russian gas — we will see some LNG projects developed that had been on hold, as well as a further push for renewables.” Sarens is continuing to work in Ukraine despite Russia’s ongoing invasion. Last month, the firm helped repair war damage, installing 54-foot, 18-ton beams to create a temporary bridge across the Zdvizh River in Borodyanka, near Kyiv, and removing bomb-damaged roof elements at a glass factory in Gastomel. “As long as Sarens can conduct operations safely while keeping employees safe, we will continue to support our clients everywhere in the world, including Ukraine,” Sel said. ‘Partnerships required’ Sarens, headquartered in Belgium, and Italy-based Fagioli are among the heavy transport operators that have tied up with other companies to strengthen existing capabilities or help develop new markets. “Projects are getting larger, and the way work packages and work scopes are being combined means joint ventures and partnerships are required,” Sel said. “Each partner is bringing their added value.” “It also depends on the approach end clients have to combining or splitting work scopes,” he added. Sarens’s partnership with PSG Marine & Logistics merges the company’s heavy haulage and lifting capability with PSG’s marine experience. “Having access to Sarens’s heavy crane and self-propelled modular trailer [SPMT] fleet, engineering capability, and giant ring crane fleet will enable Sarens PSG to provide clients with the most comprehensive heavy-lift, transport, assembly, load in/load out, and port marshaling services currently available in Scotland,” Steve Clark, managing director of Sarens PSG, said in a statement. The Sarens PSG joint venture aims to serve Scotland’s offshore wind and renewable energy market. There are 17 offshore wind farm projects, potentially worth a total of $29 billion, planned in the first round of licensing in the United Kingdom’s ScotWind initiative, according to UK government figures. “Sarens PSG has been specifically incorporated to support the rapidly developing offshore wind market and assist in solving some of the current issues around heavy-lift capacity, deployment, and wind turbine generator integration, as the Scottish market scales up to floating wind commercialization and the ScotWind project build-out,” the company said in the statement. Fagioli is also entering into new partnerships to develop new opportunities in the rapidly changing project market. The first sees the creation of G4 Logistics, an alliance between Fagioli, MVN Logistics, and Fratelli Foppiani, all Italian companies, and Switzerland-headquartered Medlog, a subsidiary of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC). G4 Logistics, which launched in October, is developing a multifunctional logistics base in Tuscany, northern Italy, for oil field services company Baker Hughes. Fagioli CEO Fabio Belli told JOC.com that although G4 Logistics will initially be focused on Baker Hughes, “the partnership is open to new adventures.” In a second partnership, Fagioli has tied up with Monadelphous, an Australian engineering group focused on the resources, energy, and infrastructure sectors, to form joint venture company Alevro. The Alevro joint venture was formed five months ago with the aim of creating a single entity capable of selling the partners’ engineering expertise to project owners tackling highly complex projects, as well as to enable Fagioli to “reenter the Australian market, especially the mining, oil and gas, and civil engineering sectors, supported by a local/international, well-known company,” Belli said. Fagioli left the Australian market following the end of the petrochemical plant construction boom 12 years ago. Belli, who is also president of the European Association of Abnormal Road Transport and Mobile Cranes, said Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the US are key targets for Fagioli’s overseas growth. Nuclear resurgence Countries seeking energy security due to the impact of Russia’s war with Ukraine are showing increasing interest in developing nuclear energy, according to Sel. For example, the US State Department confirmed on Nov. 2 that Poland will use Westinghouse as its technology partner to construct three US-designed nuclear reactors in a $20 billion project planned for Choczewo, about 50 miles northwest of Gdańsk. The plant, Poland’s first nuclear station, will reduce the country’s dependence on coal and specifically its reliance on Russian coal and gas, the Polish government said in a statement. Sarens is a partial owner of NuScale, a small modular reactor design, and has deployed “Big Carl,” the world’s biggest crane — a Sarens SGC-250 that can lift up to 5,000 tons — to help build Britain’s Hinkley Point C nuclear station, Sels said. Riccardo Tippmann, a heavy haulage, lifting, and project forwarding consultant, agreed that many countries are seeking alternative power generation options to offset the reduction in Russian gas supplies. While many European countries have chosen to exit nuclear power, it’s a power source now seeing serious reconsideration, he said. “All industries related to energy and power are growing,” Tippmann, a former senior executive at Fagioli, told JOC.com. “In the mid- to long term, this will increase opportunities for the heavy transportation and engineering sector.” US expansion In the US, heavy transportation and lifting specialist Barnhart Crane sees a similar expansion in energy and infrastructure, although the 2023 outlook is more uncertain . “Certainly, wind energy is the leader” in generating growth in the US heavy haulage industry, Jeff Latture, senior vice president at Barnhart Crane, told JOC.com. “Heavy process industries are spotty as owners weigh out the political headwinds against oil and its downstream products,” he said. “The exception is liquefied natural gas projects in the US, which are likely to expand due to the situation in Europe and global demand for LNG.” Latture said 2022 “has been a strong year as the heavy industrial and energy sectors catch up on major projects post-COVID-19, as well as try to keep up with the general demand spike. However, 2023 is a bit more tenuous given the Fed’s program to slow the economy. “It seems they will be successful and cause some amount of recession,” he added. “This will likely put a ‘bubble’ in the US project pipeline, but we are expecting the impact to be short lived.” In the larger picture, Sel said, “Supply chain capacity — ranging from fabricators all the way to equipment availability and finding enough qualified personnel — will dictate the pace of the market.” Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Booming heavy transport demand driving new project partnerships

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">S&amp;P Global’s outlook for the transportation sector sees US ports facing a volume decline in 2026 with the potential for recovery in 2027. </div>

S&P Global’s outlook for the transportation sector sees US ports facing a volume decline in 2026 with the potential for recovery in 2027.

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<div class="phx-topic">US ports face another down year for volumes in 2026 due to ongoing uncertainty over the direction of US trade and tariff policy, according to an S&amp;P Global credit outlook. The forecasted drop in container volumes echoes similar outlooks from major US port operators whose fortunes are not expected to turn around until 2027. S&amp;P Global Ratings said Tuesday that while US economic output and employment are expected to remain stable through next year, ports face a down year as the Trump administration’s wide-ranging tariffs against most US trade partners likely makes shippers cautious and continue to reshore production. Trade with China might stabilize in 2026 due to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/trade-deal-could-boost-short-term-china-imports-but-uncertainty-lingers-6106809">the trade deal the US struck with China through next November</a>, S&amp;P Global Ratings said. But tariffs against China and other trading partners remain at record high levels, forcing shippers to be cautious. A US Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s tariffs could reignite cargo shipments, the outlook said. Nevertheless, S&amp;P Global said US port container volumes will decline 2% in 2026. The outlook calls for a rebound in volume of 6% in 2027 on the hopes of a more stable trade policy. The outlook did not include actual volume figures. “US ports face the greatest uncertainty due to the evolving tariff landscape in 2026,” S&amp;P Global Ratings said. “The recently negotiated truce in the US-China trade conflict provides a measure of certainty until that agreement expires. Our estimate of slightly lower container volumes in 2026 is followed by a solid recovery in 2027.” The outlook follows a similar forecast from the National Retail Federation, which said Monday <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/december-us-imports-on-track-to-be-lowest-since-june-23-retailers-6130632">first-quarter 2026 port volumes could see double-digit declines from the year earlier</a>. Overall, the NRF expects 2025 volumes to come in slightly below 2024. Credit ratings agency Moody’s on Nov. 18 warned that US import volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% from this year. Port operators, too, are budgeting for declines or only slow growth in 2026. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in November it’s budgeting for total container volumes of 8.5 million TEUs in 2026, which would be just over a 2% decline from 2024. Since 2016, NY-NJ port container volumes have grown at an annual average of 4.2%. Port Houston Authority also said last month it’s budgeting for container volumes to reach 4.4 million TEUs in 2026, which would represent growth of 4.7%, below the port’s decade-long average volume growth of 7%. S&amp;P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a></div>

US ports face another down year for volumes in 2026 due to ongoing uncertainty over the direction of US trade and tariff policy, according to an S&P Global credit outlook. The forecasted drop in container volumes echoes similar outlooks from major US port operators whose fortunes are not expected to turn around until 2027. S&P Global Ratings said Tuesday that while US economic output and employment are expected to remain stable through next year, ports face a down year as the Trump administration’s wide-ranging tariffs against most US trade partners likely makes shippers cautious and continue to reshore production. Trade with China might stabilize in 2026 due to the trade deal the US struck with China through next November , S&P Global Ratings said. But tariffs against China and other trading partners remain at record high levels, forcing shippers to be cautious. A US Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s tariffs could reignite cargo shipments, the outlook said. Nevertheless, S&P Global said US port container volumes will decline 2% in 2026. The outlook calls for a rebound in volume of 6% in 2027 on the hopes of a more stable trade policy. The outlook did not include actual volume figures. “US ports face the greatest uncertainty due to the evolving tariff landscape in 2026,” S&P Global Ratings said. “The recently negotiated truce in the US-China trade conflict provides a measure of certainty until that agreement expires. Our estimate of slightly lower container volumes in 2026 is followed by a solid recovery in 2027.” The outlook follows a similar forecast from the National Retail Federation, which said Monday first-quarter 2026 port volumes could see double-digit declines from the year earlier . Overall, the NRF expects 2025 volumes to come in slightly below 2024. Credit ratings agency Moody’s on Nov. 18 warned that US import volumes in 2026 will be flat to down 2% from this year. Port operators, too, are budgeting for declines or only slow growth in 2026. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in November it’s budgeting for total container volumes of 8.5 million TEUs in 2026, which would be just over a 2% decline from 2024. Since 2016, NY-NJ port container volumes have grown at an annual average of 4.2%. Port Houston Authority also said last month it’s budgeting for container volumes to reach 4.4 million TEUs in 2026, which would represent growth of 4.7%, below the port’s decade-long average volume growth of 7%. S&P Global is the parent company of the Journal of Commerce. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com

US container volumes set for weak 2026 amid ongoing trade uncertainty

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">While dry-van spot rates typically climb in December, this year’s increase is the highest for early December in more than five years, according to DAT Freight &amp; Analytics. </div>

While dry-van spot rates typically climb in December, this year’s increase is the highest for early December in more than five years, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

<div class="phx-topic">US truckload spot rates have surged in recent days as cold weather, snowstorms and a compressed holiday shopping season tighten capacity ahead of Christmas, analysts say. Spot rates on the 50 largest US lanes rose 4% on average during the first week of December, according to DAT Freight &amp; Analytics. While dry-van spot rates typically climb in December, this year’s increase is the highest for early December in more than five years, according to DAT. On average, dry-van spot rates were flat to up about 1% during the first week of December between 2020 and 2024. Bascome Majors, a transportation industry analyst for Susquehanna Bank, classified the bump as “super-seasonal,” but noted that carriers consider it a seasonal blip and not a shift in the market. “Over the last six weeks, spot rates are now cumulatively about 8% above the long-term average sequential change,” Majors wrote an investor note Tuesday. “Tender rejection rates have risen slightly to about 7%, returning to levels last seen in July of this year but just similar to December 2019 levels.” Dean Croke, principal analyst with DAT, said the combination of frigid temperatures and widespread snowfall in the Midwest and Northeast has pushed rates higher. More storms are expected this week, with another round of arctic air poised to impact the same regions. Dry-van spot rates in Wisconsin, hit with cold temperatures and heavy snow last week, jumped 19 cents per mile. “In the Midwest region, rates were up 23% week over week, a significant departure from post-Thanksgiving rates in that Midwest area,” Croke told the Journal of Commerce. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="13499d91-a088-4824-b1c4-db0f2c552702"></dynamic-object></div>Freezing weather can damage truck components, but even when equipment remains operational, snow and ice force drivers to reduce speeds or temporarily halt movement. Slower driving lowers daily mileage and reduces the number of loads a driver can complete in a week, tightening overall capacity for shippers. There were stretches of Interstate 70 in Indiana and Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania shut down because of crashes during snowstorms last week. More ice, snow and cold temperatures are expected across the Midwest and Northeast this week. <h3>Fewer shopping days </h3>The shortened shopping season is another factor behind the rate increases, Croke said. The last two Thanksgivings have been on Nov. 27 and Nov. 28, respectively, the latest two dates possible, compressing the shopping season between Black Friday and Christmas. It leaves less time for e-commerce companies and traditional retailers to replenish inventory. By contrast, Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 in 2022 and 2023. Rates on one high-volume e-commerce lane, Allentown, Pa., to Boston, shot up 30 cents in the first week of December, according to DAT. Rates between Chicago and the warehousing hub of Columbus, Ohio, have climbed between 10 and 15 cents per mile in each direction during the same period. “A lot of e-commerce-to-e-commerce warehouses in that overnight 300-mile range are red hot with demand,” Croke said. “Anywhere you’ve got big distribution centers within that 300-mile radius where truckers can be out and back home within 12 hours are busy this time of year.” Rates have risen sharply in other states with large concentrations of distribution centers, climbing 21 cents per mile in Maryland and 14 cents in New Jersey, DAT said. Whether the spot surge will influence contract rates remains to be seen. Many annual agreements are signed after the rates fall again post-holidays in mid-January. Derek Leathers, CEO of Werner Enterprises, said he is seeing more shippers ask what it would take to lock in contract capacity early and avoid exposure later to a potentially tighter market. He referred to it as “derisking” — pulling freight out of the traditional bid cycle. “I would say, in general, [the renewals] are lower than mid-single-digit increases,” Leathers said during the UBS Industrials and Transportation Conference on Dec. 2. “It could be bigger than 2%, but it’s not 5%, 6%, or 7%.” Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

US truckload spot rates have surged in recent days as cold weather, snowstorms and a compressed holiday shopping season tighten capacity ahead of Christmas, analysts say. Spot rates on the 50 largest US lanes rose 4% on average during the first week of December, according to DAT Freight & Analytics. While dry-van spot rates typically climb in December, this year’s increase is the highest for early December in more than five years, according to DAT. On average, dry-van spot rates were flat to up about 1% during the first week of December between 2020 and 2024. Bascome Majors, a transportation industry analyst for Susquehanna Bank, classified the bump as “super-seasonal,” but noted that carriers consider it a seasonal blip and not a shift in the market. “Over the last six weeks, spot rates are now cumulatively about 8% above the long-term average sequential change,” Majors wrote an investor note Tuesday. “Tender rejection rates have risen slightly to about 7%, returning to levels last seen in July of this year but just similar to December 2019 levels.” Dean Croke, principal analyst with DAT, said the combination of frigid temperatures and widespread snowfall in the Midwest and Northeast has pushed rates higher. More storms are expected this week, with another round of arctic air poised to impact the same regions. Dry-van spot rates in Wisconsin, hit with cold temperatures and heavy snow last week, jumped 19 cents per mile. “In the Midwest region, rates were up 23% week over week, a significant departure from post-Thanksgiving rates in that Midwest area,” Croke told the Journal of Commerce. Freezing weather can damage truck components, but even when equipment remains operational, snow and ice force drivers to reduce speeds or temporarily halt movement. Slower driving lowers daily mileage and reduces the number of loads a driver can complete in a week, tightening overall capacity for shippers. There were stretches of Interstate 70 in Indiana and Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania shut down because of crashes during snowstorms last week. More ice, snow and cold temperatures are expected across the Midwest and Northeast this week. Fewer shopping days The shortened shopping season is another factor behind the rate increases, Croke said. The last two Thanksgivings have been on Nov. 27 and Nov. 28, respectively, the latest two dates possible, compressing the shopping season between Black Friday and Christmas. It leaves less time for e-commerce companies and traditional retailers to replenish inventory. By contrast, Thanksgiving fell on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 in 2022 and 2023. Rates on one high-volume e-commerce lane, Allentown, Pa., to Boston, shot up 30 cents in the first week of December, according to DAT. Rates between Chicago and the warehousing hub of Columbus, Ohio, have climbed between 10 and 15 cents per mile in each direction during the same period. “A lot of e-commerce-to-e-commerce warehouses in that overnight 300-mile range are red hot with demand,” Croke said. “Anywhere you’ve got big distribution centers within that 300-mile radius where truckers can be out and back home within 12 hours are busy this time of year.” Rates have risen sharply in other states with large concentrations of distribution centers, climbing 21 cents per mile in Maryland and 14 cents in New Jersey, DAT said. Whether the spot surge will influence contract rates remains to be seen. Many annual agreements are signed after the rates fall again post-holidays in mid-January. Derek Leathers, CEO of Werner Enterprises, said he is seeing more shippers ask what it would take to lock in contract capacity early and avoid exposure later to a potentially tighter market. He referred to it as “derisking” — pulling freight out of the traditional bid cycle. “I would say, in general, [the renewals] are lower than mid-single-digit increases,” Leathers said during the UBS Industrials and Transportation Conference on Dec. 2. “It could be bigger than 2%, but it’s not 5%, 6%, or 7%.” Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

US truckload rates jump on poor weather, shorter holiday shopping season

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The move into transportation management expands Transfix’s scope from its current focus on brokerage pricing technology. </div>

The move into transportation management expands Transfix’s scope from its current focus on brokerage pricing technology.

<div class="phx-topic">Former truckload broker turned software vendor Transfix on Wednesday released a transportation management system (TMS) product designed specifically to help freight brokers wean themselves off third-party applications for processes like scheduling and payment processing. The new product represents an expansion of Transfix’s offerings since it <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/transfix-selling-digital-brokerage-business-to-nfi-industries-5244349">sold its brokerage business to NFI in mid-2024</a> and spun out its technology to serve all brokers. In conjunction with the launch, NFI said it is using the Transfix TMS across its entire brokerage business. Transfix CEO Jonathan Salama said the development of Transfix’s TMS, which builds on its existing pricing products for brokers, was designed to help brokers simplify their tech stacks as they are bombarded by vendors with applications meant to patch over insufficient features within the TMSs they use. He referred to this as an <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/ma-pace-signals-truckload-tech-industry-unsure-about-unbundling-5909043">‘unbundling’ of TMS</a> in recent years, driven in part by the rise of artificial intelligence-based and automation-based vendors aiming to improve discrete processes for a broker. “TMSs are meant to do the work themselves; they’re not meant to do the work through a third party,” Salama told the Journal of Commerce. “We’re obviously going to have an [application programming interface] that makes it easy to integrate with partners, but the idea is you’re not going to need as many partners.” Salama said Transfix essentially “road tested” the TMS when it operated as a broker and has since refined it through working with other brokers as a technology vendor. The focus is around “what you need to do to keep your cost of operation as low as possible,” he said. “Brokerage has seen the toughest market (the last few years),” Salama added. “You have to understand where your costs go, and it goes to two things: people and tech stack, and if you keep adding vendors, it will cost more. Even taking out extra costs, it’s managing fewer vendors. One versus 20 is easier to manage.” NFI CEO Sid Brown said the company had chosen to apply the Transfix TMS across its brokerage business “after evaluating several TMS platforms in the market.” <h3>Transfix seeking larger piece of broker spending </h3>Salama said brokers are better managing their cost per shipment, asserting that the cost to manage a load can rise to more than $100, a number higher than the margin in some cases. “Our (cost per shipment) at Transfix was $40, and that’s where the TMS comes in,” he said. Since spinning off its technology as a standalone business, Transfix has largely competed with a small group of vendors, including AVRL, Parade, Greenscreens.AI (<a href="https://www.joc.com/article/triumph-acquires-broker-focused-pricing-technology-provider-greenscreensai-5951484">purchased in early 2025 by Triumph</a>) and Sonar, that assist brokers with their pricing strategy. Large load board providers, namely DAT Freight &amp; Analytics and Truckstop.com, also play in that space. In going after the broker TMS segment, Transfix is angling for a larger share of broker spend, but it’s also entering a more crowded category, with long-established incumbents like McLeod, Trimble and MercuryGate (acquired in 2024 by Korber and rebranded as Infios) competing against newer options like Tai and Revenova. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com.</a></div>

Former truckload broker turned software vendor Transfix on Wednesday released a transportation management system (TMS) product designed specifically to help freight brokers wean themselves off third-party applications for processes like scheduling and payment processing. The new product represents an expansion of Transfix’s offerings since it sold its brokerage business to NFI in mid-2024 and spun out its technology to serve all brokers. In conjunction with the launch, NFI said it is using the Transfix TMS across its entire brokerage business. Transfix CEO Jonathan Salama said the development of Transfix’s TMS, which builds on its existing pricing products for brokers, was designed to help brokers simplify their tech stacks as they are bombarded by vendors with applications meant to patch over insufficient features within the TMSs they use. He referred to this as an ‘unbundling’ of TMS in recent years, driven in part by the rise of artificial intelligence-based and automation-based vendors aiming to improve discrete processes for a broker. “TMSs are meant to do the work themselves; they’re not meant to do the work through a third party,” Salama told the Journal of Commerce. “We’re obviously going to have an [application programming interface] that makes it easy to integrate with partners, but the idea is you’re not going to need as many partners.” Salama said Transfix essentially “road tested” the TMS when it operated as a broker and has since refined it through working with other brokers as a technology vendor. The focus is around “what you need to do to keep your cost of operation as low as possible,” he said. “Brokerage has seen the toughest market (the last few years),” Salama added. “You have to understand where your costs go, and it goes to two things: people and tech stack, and if you keep adding vendors, it will cost more. Even taking out extra costs, it’s managing fewer vendors. One versus 20 is easier to manage.” NFI CEO Sid Brown said the company had chosen to apply the Transfix TMS across its brokerage business “after evaluating several TMS platforms in the market.” Transfix seeking larger piece of broker spending Salama said brokers are better managing their cost per shipment, asserting that the cost to manage a load can rise to more than $100, a number higher than the margin in some cases. “Our (cost per shipment) at Transfix was $40, and that’s where the TMS comes in,” he said. Since spinning off its technology as a standalone business, Transfix has largely competed with a small group of vendors, including AVRL, Parade, Greenscreens.AI ( purchased in early 2025 by Triumph ) and Sonar, that assist brokers with their pricing strategy. Large load board providers, namely DAT Freight & Analytics and Truckstop.com, also play in that space. In going after the broker TMS segment, Transfix is angling for a larger share of broker spend, but it’s also entering a more crowded category, with long-established incumbents like McLeod, Trimble and MercuryGate (acquired in 2024 by Korber and rebranded as Infios) competing against newer options like Tai and Revenova. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com.

Transfix targets ‘unbundled’ chaos of truckload brokerage with TMS product

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The rise in bookings is driving an increase in the capacity offered by ocean carriers on Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean that this week reached record levels on both trades. </div>

The rise in bookings is driving an increase in the capacity offered by ocean carriers on Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean that this week reached record levels on both trades.

<div class="phx-topic">Robust demand in December is filling ships on the Asia to North Europe and Mediterranean container shipping trades, with the strong volume expected to continue through January as cargo owners lock in bookings ahead of February’s Lunar New Year. Data from container shipment tracker Vizion shows bookings for the three weeks ending Dec. 7 rose 10% compared with the prior three weeks, with 207,000 TEUs booked on Asia-Europe. Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, said high demand in December has become a “new normal” on the westbound corridors. “In 2023 and 2024, and probably also 2025, December is the month of the year with the highest demand,” he said, adding that it was “real demand” with no sign of shippers frontloading orders. The rise in bookings is driving an increase in the capacity offered by ocean carriers on Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean that this week reached record levels on both trades. Data from Xeneta shows carriers are deploying 1.12 million TEUs of capacity in December on Asia-North Europe while blanking 84,000 TEUs, down from 126,000 TEUs blanked in November. Planned capacity for the trade in January is at a record 1.17 million TEUs, while blanks announced so far are at 54,000 TEUs. Capacity deployed on Asia-Mediterranean in December is at 788,842 TEUs with 69,218 TEUs blanked, compared with November, when 713,489 TEUs were deployed and 98,296 TEUs blanked, Xeneta data shows. A record 849,371 TEUs are planned for January deployment, with blank sailings currently at 39,706 TEUs. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="f4ff8e0a-22c0-44e8-99ff-43c43501ec74"></dynamic-object></div>A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said regular capacity deployed on the main trade lanes into Europe was increasing to meet the rising demand, while rates “are expected to peak in early January with a gradual slowdown towards February.” The rising volume through the fourth quarter is being accompanied by a steep increase in spot rates. Asia-North Europe rates reached $2,350 per FEU as of Dec. 9, up 80% since the beginning of October, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Asia-Mediterranean rates of $3,250/FEU this week are just over double where they were on Oct. 1. Jacob Moe, senior vice president of global FCL (full container load) at DHL Global Forwarding, said Asia-Europe demand leading into the Lunar New Year was “very strong” in December with a “strong booking intake” already being made for January. “We are for now not seeing extra loaders being put in but are watching the blank sailing program as this seems to be enough to manage the capacity from the carrier side,” Moe told the Journal of Commerce. <h3>Year of high demand growth </h3>Demand growth in Asia-Europe this year is up between 10% and 14%, depending on the market vertical, according to Michael Aldwell, executive vice president of sea logistics at Kuehne + Nagel. “We haven’t seen growth like that on the Far East westbound trade since before the global financial crisis,” Aldwell told the Journal of Commerce in a recent interview. Total Asian exports to North Europe and the Mediterranean of 21.95 million TEUs from January through October are up 8.6% year over year, with almost 2 million more boxes this year than last, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS). <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="1757bc92-59e3-4e30-b987-63a9d840cd61"></dynamic-object></div>One explanation for the solid growth in European import volumes into December is that shippers are building inventory as a buffer to counter the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/stretched-logistics-capacity-in-europe-threatened-by-red-sea-return-6129492">disruption that is likely to occur should widespread Red Sea transits resume</a>, with the later-than-usual Lunar New Year that starts on Feb. 17 giving shippers more time to stock up. But Andy Gillespie, senior logistics advisor at supply chain managers WOWL, said shippers trying to plan orders three or four months out while factoring in a potential return to the Red Sea was virtually impossible. “[Reducing] inventories and replenishment planning with some orders suddenly transiting two weeks faster while others are taking the Cape of Good Hope routing is unplannable for those supply chain managers that are placing orders 90 to 120 days in advance of when they think they need the products at destination [distribution centers] or with customers,” he told the Journal of Commerce. Gillespie said logistics service providers will have to pick up the slack in Europe, adding that yards or warehouses with capacity at 80% or higher “will be slammed” as ships diverting around southern Africa and those transiting the Red Sea converge. “For shippers and the routing of cargo, we won’t know which services are going which way exactly or where the feeders will hook up on which service, so the logistics people will deal with the chaos,” he said. “In the end, though, back to Suez safely is a great thing.” Despite some carriers moving capacity through the Suez, there remains no clarity on when large-scale mainline Asia-Europe services will resume voyages through the critical waterway. Carriers are assessing the risk profile of returning to the Red Sea, which they say revolves around the safety of the crew, ship and cargo. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Robust demand in December is filling ships on the Asia to North Europe and Mediterranean container shipping trades, with the strong volume expected to continue through January as cargo owners lock in bookings ahead of February’s Lunar New Year. Data from container shipment tracker Vizion shows bookings for the three weeks ending Dec. 7 rose 10% compared with the prior three weeks, with 207,000 TEUs booked on Asia-Europe. Peter Sand, chief analyst at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta, said high demand in December has become a “new normal” on the westbound corridors. “In 2023 and 2024, and probably also 2025, December is the month of the year with the highest demand,” he said, adding that it was “real demand” with no sign of shippers frontloading orders. The rise in bookings is driving an increase in the capacity offered by ocean carriers on Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean that this week reached record levels on both trades. Data from Xeneta shows carriers are deploying 1.12 million TEUs of capacity in December on Asia-North Europe while blanking 84,000 TEUs, down from 126,000 TEUs blanked in November. Planned capacity for the trade in January is at a record 1.17 million TEUs, while blanks announced so far are at 54,000 TEUs. Capacity deployed on Asia-Mediterranean in December is at 788,842 TEUs with 69,218 TEUs blanked, compared with November, when 713,489 TEUs were deployed and 98,296 TEUs blanked, Xeneta data shows. A record 849,371 TEUs are planned for January deployment, with blank sailings currently at 39,706 TEUs. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said regular capacity deployed on the main trade lanes into Europe was increasing to meet the rising demand, while rates “are expected to peak in early January with a gradual slowdown towards February.” The rising volume through the fourth quarter is being accompanied by a steep increase in spot rates. Asia-North Europe rates reached $2,350 per FEU as of Dec. 9, up 80% since the beginning of October, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Asia-Mediterranean rates of $3,250/FEU this week are just over double where they were on Oct. 1. Jacob Moe, senior vice president of global FCL (full container load) at DHL Global Forwarding, said Asia-Europe demand leading into the Lunar New Year was “very strong” in December with a “strong booking intake” already being made for January. “We are for now not seeing extra loaders being put in but are watching the blank sailing program as this seems to be enough to manage the capacity from the carrier side,” Moe told the Journal of Commerce. Year of high demand growth Demand growth in Asia-Europe this year is up between 10% and 14%, depending on the market vertical, according to Michael Aldwell, executive vice president of sea logistics at Kuehne + Nagel. “We haven’t seen growth like that on the Far East westbound trade since before the global financial crisis,” Aldwell told the Journal of Commerce in a recent interview. Total Asian exports to North Europe and the Mediterranean of 21.95 million TEUs from January through October are up 8.6% year over year, with almost 2 million more boxes this year than last, according to Container Trades Statistics (CTS). One explanation for the solid growth in European import volumes into December is that shippers are building inventory as a buffer to counter the disruption that is likely to occur should widespread Red Sea transits resume , with the later-than-usual Lunar New Year that starts on Feb. 17 giving shippers more time to stock up. But Andy Gillespie, senior logistics advisor at supply chain managers WOWL, said shippers trying to plan orders three or four months out while factoring in a potential return to the Red Sea was virtually impossible. “[Reducing] inventories and replenishment planning with some orders suddenly transiting two weeks faster while others are taking the Cape of Good Hope routing is unplannable for those supply chain managers that are placing orders 90 to 120 days in advance of when they think they need the products at destination [distribution centers] or with customers,” he told the Journal of Commerce. Gillespie said logistics service providers will have to pick up the slack in Europe, adding that yards or warehouses with capacity at 80% or higher “will be slammed” as ships diverting around southern Africa and those transiting the Red Sea converge. “For shippers and the routing of cargo, we won’t know which services are going which way exactly or where the feeders will hook up on which service, so the logistics people will deal with the chaos,” he said. “In the end, though, back to Suez safely is a great thing.” Despite some carriers moving capacity through the Suez, there remains no clarity on when large-scale mainline Asia-Europe services will resume voyages through the critical waterway. Carriers are assessing the risk profile of returning to the Red Sea, which they say revolves around the safety of the crew, ship and cargo. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Cargo bookings for Asia-Europe ocean trade rise sharply in December

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Israel-based carrier is urging shareholders to reelect its current slate of directors later this month after alternate nominees were put forth by dissident shareholders. </div>

The Israel-based carrier is urging shareholders to reelect its current slate of directors later this month after alternate nominees were put forth by dissident shareholders.

<div class="phx-topic">A group of shareholders has launched a proxy fight to get their candidates elected to the board of Zim Integrated Shipping Services after the ocean carrier rejected <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/zim-says-reviewing-buyout-offers-including-one-from-ceo-6123362">an initial buyout offer from its chief executive</a> as too low and continues to review other potential bids. The Israel-based ocean carrier said in a statement Tuesday that a proxy advisor recommended shareholders reelect eight current board members at the company’s Dec. 26 annual meeting. The advisor also recommended that Zim shareholders vote against a slate of three directors nominated by an investor group that “made no attempt to work constructively with the board nor provided any suggestions for improving the company’s business or any other insight into how to create long-term value for shareholders,” Zim said. The investor group — Mor Gemel &amp; Pension Ltd., Reading Capital Ltd., and Sparta 24 — said in a letter nominating its candidates that it holds 5% of the company’s stock, Zim said. The investor group did not release the required stock exchange disclosures or a public statement about its proxy fight. There was no contact information available for the investors. The investor group put up their nominees after a report that Zim Chief Executive Eli Glickman made a buyout offer that was less than the company’s cash balance, Zim said in its statement. While Zim evaluated Glickman’s proposal, it “unanimously determined that it materially undervalued the company,” the carrier said. “The rumor that the board was willing to accept such an undervalued bid was clearly false,” Zim said. The investor group wants the company to issue a special dividend, Zim said, which would undermine Zim’s “liquidity and create substantial risk to shareholder value given our charter-intensive model, which requires adequate cash to navigate industry cycles.” Zim’s board said that it’s continuing a review of strategic alternatives that could include a merger or other another transaction. As part of that review, Zim has set up a transaction committee and appointed two additional outside directors to review any offers. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

A group of shareholders has launched a proxy fight to get their candidates elected to the board of Zim Integrated Shipping Services after the ocean carrier rejected an initial buyout offer from its chief executive as too low and continues to review other potential bids. The Israel-based ocean carrier said in a statement Tuesday that a proxy advisor recommended shareholders reelect eight current board members at the company’s Dec. 26 annual meeting. The advisor also recommended that Zim shareholders vote against a slate of three directors nominated by an investor group that “made no attempt to work constructively with the board nor provided any suggestions for improving the company’s business or any other insight into how to create long-term value for shareholders,” Zim said. The investor group — Mor Gemel & Pension Ltd., Reading Capital Ltd., and Sparta 24 — said in a letter nominating its candidates that it holds 5% of the company’s stock, Zim said. The investor group did not release the required stock exchange disclosures or a public statement about its proxy fight. There was no contact information available for the investors. The investor group put up their nominees after a report that Zim Chief Executive Eli Glickman made a buyout offer that was less than the company’s cash balance, Zim said in its statement. While Zim evaluated Glickman’s proposal, it “unanimously determined that it materially undervalued the company,” the carrier said. “The rumor that the board was willing to accept such an undervalued bid was clearly false,” Zim said. The investor group wants the company to issue a special dividend, Zim said, which would undermine Zim’s “liquidity and create substantial risk to shareholder value given our charter-intensive model, which requires adequate cash to navigate industry cycles.” Zim’s board said that it’s continuing a review of strategic alternatives that could include a merger or other another transaction. As part of that review, Zim has set up a transaction committee and appointed two additional outside directors to review any offers. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Zim faces proxy fight after rejecting CEO’s buyout bid

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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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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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