Forwarding

After getting the year off to a solid start in the first quarter, Jens Lund said the real work begins now to bring the two global forwarders together under the DSV brand.

If regulatory approval is achieved, the deal will nearly double the size of CMA CGM subsidiary CEVA Logistics’ footprint in a rapidly expanding region.

The export decline is already showing up in some data, with bookings for US exports to China for the week of April 8–15 down 5.4% from the prior week.

With the door to US trade effectively slammed shut by tariffs, Chinese manufacturers are urgently looking for alternative markets in which to offload their surplus inventory.

With the integration now set to begin, DSV has announced a round of executive appointments with candidates promoted from within both DSV and DB Schenker.

Some ships are leaving China just half-full as the Trump administration’s rush of tariffs sends shippers into contortions about what to do with their freight.

And the chilling effect of the tariffs is extending further down the calendar, with forwarders in the trans-Pacific saying US retailers are holding off making purchase orders with factories in Asia for fall and holiday merchandise for 30 to 60 days.

The latest Global Port Tracker demonstrates the uncertainty that has overtaken global supply chains since the White House’s announcement on tariffs a week ago.

A general rate increase implemented by carriers in the eastbound trans-Pacific on April 1 has largely stuck, giving shippers less leverage in attempting to lower contract rates for 2025–26 service year.

The deal will merge “K” Lines’ traditional logistics activities in ocean and air freight with Kamigumi’s niche business in project cargo logistics.

Some US-based shippers are racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness.

Shippers, carriers and forwarders say uncertainty around consumer demand, tariffs and geopolitical disruptions has produced a wider range of service contract rates this year.

CEO Stefan Paul told the company’s annual capital markets event in London that while K+N will focus on organic growth, it will also make bolt-on acquisitions “if they make sense.”

Despite banking a collective operating profit of about $60 billion in 2024, a worsening supply-demand imbalance could make the next three years difficult for the container shipping industry.

Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025–26 service year.

While shippers might have expected ocean carriers to make application programming interfaces widely available by 2025, negative incentives have inhibited that progress.

The National Retail Federation now says it expects a downward shift in the second quarter as importers face challenges from tariffs and elevated inventories in the wake of significant cargo frontloading.

Analyst Lars Jensen’s closing message to conference participants planning their supply chains for the coming year is to move slowly and carefully because it will take months before clarity emerges.

DHL group CEO Tobias Meyer recognized that the division’s performance remained lackluster, with the “volatile” gross profit/EBIT conversion rate below DHL’s 35% target.

Large customers are looking for large logistics partners that can offer more control over supply chains as international trade becomes more complex, the CEO tells TPM25.

Digital forwarders that emerged over the past decade are coming of age in the era of AI, but not all will make it to the other end.

Shipper, forwarder and customs broker associations want to see the members of the Digital Container Shipping Association accelerate efforts to create interoperable process standards.

Forwarders say demand expectations for trans-Pacific imports to North America are softening for the second quarter, forcing liners to reduce peak season surcharges that have been in place for almost a year.

The forwarder reported solid results to close 2024 as unknowns linked to US longshore labor, tariff policy and changes to de minimis rules fueled trans-Pacific freight demand.

Automation of the customs entry process, which software provider Magaya announced this week, is being enabled by advances in data extraction from emails and offline files.

Smaller forwarders on the trade lane are pooling their cargo volumes in formal and informal arrangements to get vessel space at favorable fixed rates as some carriers focus primarily on larger customers.

project44 is the latest established software provider to release a suite of artificial intelligence agents amid a torrent of startups building tools for logistics providers and shippers.

Full ships from China are arriving as labor action roils container handling at major hubs in Rotterdam and throughout France, with the disruption exacerbated by bad weather.

But Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett said US port cargo “could be badly hit” if tariffs on Asian and European countries increase prices and prompt US consumers to buy less.

Vincent Clerc says one reason for the delay is the liner’s extreme profitability since the pandemic, a reality he said was “taking a lot of the light” from its integrated logistics plans.

Regulatory uncertainty around the allowance of digital trade documents is one factor that has slowed the adoption of electronic bills of lading in the shipping industry.

DSV CEO Jens Lund said the size of the Schenker acquisition meant it could take up to two years before the companies were fully integrated into the world’s largest forwarder.

The largest US freight broker expects the first quarter of 2025 to be weak for trucking as the freight recession remains in place, but it is converting more customers to use its services for ocean freight.

A handful of companies unveiled new products in the last week intended to enable decision-making based off the visibility data they provide.

With the threat of a US port strike averted, the transition to new global service networks will not be accompanied by widespread disruption, the analyst believes.

Most US retailers say they have frontloaded sufficient inventory from Asia to get them through the first quarter, but planning import volumes and supply chains beyond that point remains problematic.

Despite a glut of capacity on the water, Suez Canal diversions and healthy volumes will keep container shipping vessel supply tight, analysts predict.

Handling large container exchanges with vessels arriving late and bunching outside import gateways is leading to bottlenecks at some of the region’s largest hubs.

The facility’s launch customer is known to be Amazon, which will use the strategically located warehouse to provide fulfilment services across the region.

Strong bookings out of Asia require more capacity than carriers can provide, which, according to Hapag-Lloyd, is having the predictable impact on prices.