BNSF’s proposed inland hub 130 miles from Los Angeles–Long Beach will reduce port congestion and eliminate thousands of truck moves by shuttling marine containers by rail to transloading warehouses.

Spot rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific are dropping so quickly — and by such large amounts — that industry analysts warn carriers could soon be carrying containers at a loss.

Vessel on-time performance to US ports improved in August, but was still noticeably below global reliability as supply chain bottlenecks on some of the major east-west trade lanes began to ease.

A jurisdictional dispute between the ILWU and the machinists union over jobs at Terminal 5 in Seattle has become a major snag in West Coast contract talks between the ILWU and waterfront employers.

Slowdown tactics employed by the ILWU last week reduced cargo handling productivity in Oakland and Seattle-Tacoma and come as the union and waterfront employers continue to negotiate for a new contract.

Trans-Pacific carriers in recent months slashed capacity to the West Coast as Asian imports and freight rates plummeted this summer, but the trade will likely continue to have excess capacity in the coming months unless they blank more capacity than is currently planned.

Congestion is easing along Canada’s rail networks and at inland rail hubs in Toronto and Vancouver, and this is translating to declining rail container dwell times at the Port of Vancouver.

A tentative contract agreement between security guards represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach eliminates one possible source of cargo-handling disruption.

Equipment providers believe the chaos caused by two years of chassis shortages will end sometime next year as excessive street dwell times diminish and new domestic and foreign chassis manufacturers enter the US market.

US imports from Asia remained strong through August despite container shipping indicators normally associated with a drop in cargo volumes.

Carriers and their customers say they will not rush into contract negotiations this fall as they did last year, but rather wait for the volatility in the trans-Pacific to dissipate and the direction of the US economy to become clearer.

While US retailers downgraded their forecast for year-over-year monthly import declines, they nonetheless remain bullish on growth in retail sales.

The recently ample supply of equipment has cut the price of new 40-foot containers by about 20 percent since late last year, and the price could soften further into 2023, according to Drewry.

The Port of Oakland says increasing a long-dwell container fee is needed to reduce congestion on the docks, but the port’s largest terminal worries that could attract unwanted pushback from the FMC.

The July spike in imports from Asia arriving at US East and Gulf coast ports overwhelmed some of those gateways with vessel backlogs and congested marine terminals.

A new rail-road corridor in Prince Rupert will streamline the transfer of commodities from rail to marine containers, with the port hoping that export volumes through the gateway will boom in the coming years.

Vessel schedule reliability in the eastbound trans-Pacific last month improved to the West Coast but deteriorated for the third consecutive month at ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

Even with the recent sharp decline in spot rates, they are still more than twice what they were two years ago when imports from Asia began to surge after initial COVID-19 lockdowns in the US were lifted.

Vancouver has experienced excessive container dwell times for several months as congestion at rail hubs in Toronto and Montreal reduced intermodal services to and from Canada’s largest port.

Industry analysts say they expect US imports from Asia to remain strong for the next several months as a significant amount of holiday season goods remain in transit or stuck in vessel queues outside major gateways.

The proposed rail-served Mojave Inland Port 90 miles north of Los Angeles is being pitched as a one-stop shop for retailers, logistics providers and the railroads as an alternative to the congested truck corridors in the more densely populated Inland Empire.

The US Department of Transportation has announced project grants designed to improve container handling at three ports, including the US’s largest gateway.

As a new clean truck rule in California looms, replacing older trucks with compliant vehicles is becoming increasingly difficult — and costly — amid shortages of microchips and other parts.

US retailers note that two wild cards that could affect supply chain fluidity in the second half of the year remain — the outcome of West Coast longshore contract talks and the status of freight railroad negotiations.

The steep reduction in rail services to Los Angeles-Long Beach is having a knock-on impact at the terminal gates, with the average truck turn time increasing by four minutes in July.

US retailers have shifted some of their imports to the East Coast as a hedge against possible labor disruption at West Coast ports, a move that has caused vessel backlogs at major gateways along the eastern seaboard.

Retailers and forwarders in the eastbound trans-Pacific are facing an unusual dichotomy in which spot rates continue to deteriorate even though monthly import volumes from Asia remain at record or near-record levels.

The fact the ILWU and PMA issued an update showing progress in labor talks while the negotiations are ongoing should be welcomed by trade groups that have expressed concern about possible port disruptions on the West Coast.

Oakland’s container terminals were fully reopened Monday as truckers protesting California’s AB5 law confined their demonstrations to free-speech zones away from terminal gates.

Terminal operators in Oakland worked vessels on Friday, but gate operations were idled to avoid attracting truckers protesting California’s AB5 law.

West Coast port managers say their terminals could handle even more vessel capacity than trans-Pacific carriers are scheduled to deploy this peak season, but landside bottlenecks are limiting the effective terminal capacity that exists today.

Cargo handling and gate operations in Oakland effectively ground to a halt as trucker protests over California’s AB5 law continued for a fourth day.

Truckers protesting the demise of the owner-operator working model in California shut down Oakland International Container Terminal after longshore workers refused to cross a picket line.

East and Gulf coast ports in the first six months of 2022 continued to benefit from cargo diversions as national retailers sought to mitigate risk with the West Coast labor contract expiring on July 1.

US imports from Asia hit a record for the month of June as consumers seemingly shrugged off rising inflation and maintained recent spending habits.

The new White House port envoy says because private sector transportation providers and cargo interests operate independently, the US supply chain is fragmented and a bottleneck that surfaces in one sector spreads quickly to others.

The degree to which US importers can negotiate lower service contract rates hinges on whether container lines can keep up spot rates, which are still three times higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

US retailers are forecasting continued strong import volumes in the second half of the year, although not quite as high as the torrid pace of 2021.

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.

With bottlenecks at inland rail hubs in Toronto and Montreal building and rail container backups likewise mounting in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, Canada’s West Coast ports could experience congestion problems for some time.