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Union Pacific’s launch of direct intermodal service from Houston comes two weeks after competitor BNSF announced it would begin a new service from the port’s Barbours Cut marine terminal.

Shippers and port executives say the post-COVID shift of cargo back to Hong Kong is being hampered by the global slump in demand as developed countries grapple with elevated inventories and inflationary pressures.

Weeks after starting a new daily train between central Mexico and Chicago, CPKC is introducing 1,000 temperature-controlled containers to the service in a bid to court freight from reefer shippers.

The long drop in truckload spot market rates has eased, revealing a soft bottom for pricing, but more demand is needed to fuel any upswing benefiting truckers, observers say.

Thanks to a recent GRI push, average contract rates for India to the US have seen modest gains in recent weeks and carriers are now looking to build around that limited success.

The port congestion in Asia and North America that compromised vessel on-time performance during the pandemic began to ease last fall with declining cargo volumes, and the reliability improvements have accelerated since.

The carrier's CEO said inflation and destocking in global markets heralded a “phase of normalization” for container shipping.

The ruling could place an additional burden on US chassis manufacturers to ensure their subcontractors are using US materials or paying duties on parts from China.

End-to-end supply chain visibility remains an elusive goal for providers in a market where shippers are expecting better data quality than they have seen.

The drive to decarbonize European inland transport by switching freight from the road to greener alternatives took a step forward this week.

Ocean carriers are pulling all available capacity management levers to address a supply-demand imbalance that is set to widen significantly through 2024.

Visionary shipping legend Bertram Rickmers created the Pearl String, the only round-the-world breakbulk liner service, which operated from 2003 until the fall of Zeamarine in 2020.

As shippers scramble to shed unwanted inventory, more than 80% responding to a Journal of Commerce survey reported that they’ve kept 53-foot domestic containers for too long, incurring detention fees.

With spot freight rates largely stabilized, ocean carriers have blanked fewer sailings in May and instead opted for more biweekly sailings.

Although the container shipping order book is the highest it has been in many years and demand remains subdued, the ground is shifting under the ocean market in new and unfamiliar ways, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Price is once again on the side of shippers, with excess ocean capacity allowing them to extract lower rates from service providers.

deugro and partners Siemens and Amasus will build and deploy two specialized offshore wind ro/ro vessels able to accommodate increasingly large wind turbine components.

While indicators may point to a “normal” container shipping market in the wake of the pandemic, it is important to remember that disruptions large and small are all part of that normality, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

More freight density, a tighter point-to-point network and better data have enabled successive rounds of transit time cuts at Roadrunner, which company executives claim is gaining shipments.

Shippers want Congress to address their inability to challenge rail demurrage fees when they contract for merchant haulage, but finding a solution will be tricky, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.