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The Dubai-based terminal operator’s end-to-end supply chain strategy is paying dividends with strategic investment in forwarding services attracting business from high value verticals.

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.

Zim’s decision to keep more capacity available for spot rather than contract business on the trans-Pacific allowed it to capitalize on the expanded deployment of capacity on the trade.

The ability to shift capacity to alternative growth markets combined with a diversified cargo mix will insulate the airline from US moves to target e-commerce imports from China, according to its chairman.

While the 15-month-old Red Sea crisis is ever present, ocean carriers and their customers are also now navigating the vagaries of the trade policies and proposals of the Trump administration.

After raising rates in anticipation of higher volumes, several top carriers have now dropped spot booking rates from West India to North Europe by between $300 and $500 per container, according to freight forwarder sources in Mumbai.

Reshuffling port calls because of a potential Trump administration fee on Chinese-built and -operated ships would place additional strain on the US intermodal supply chain, railroad executives say.

The explosion of logistics software-as-a-service tools is leading shippers to build data foundations that reside outside of their internal systems.

As a top tier of mega carriers has emerged through consolidation and organic growth, so has the need of those carriers to align their dominance on the ocean with capacity at ports.

US-bound spot truck shipments from Canada are shrinking but rates are rising, while Mexico-US spot market shipments outpace pricing, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to return to Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. 

Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships and improved schedule reliability.

While strong e-commerce demand last year filled all available air freight capacity out of China and kept the industry in peak season mode, recent US moves to clamp down on low-value Chinese imports have rattled the market.

Domestic intermodal’s share of the US long-haul truck market has risen over the past two quarters, although that resiliency is going to be tested in the months to come, writes analyst Larry Gross.

The visibility market has bifurcated into standalone vendors too small to be captured by Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” report and larger vendors whose platforms extend far beyond what the report evaluates.

The so-called Ocean Shipper Bill of Rights was distributed by the National Industrial Transportation League at the conclusion of the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference.

European governments and the European Commission will carry out regulatory reviews to assess the level of market concentration MSC will have with the planned takeover of Hutchison’s port assets, with divestitures likely on the table.

Across all the terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, average rail dwell times peaked at just under 10 days in October, according to the Pacific Maritime Shipping Association.

The arrival of the first vehicle imports in five years has sparked renewed interest in the country’s auto shipment potential.

The carrier’s investment, announced while its chief executive met at the White House with President Donald Trump, comes amid heightened political sensitivities in the US as far as the container shipping industry is concerned.

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.

Major carriers on the India-US East Coast trade are reporting success on their March rate recovery efforts, thanks in large part to recent sailing cuts, prompting some of them to announce even higher increases for next month.

Spot rates soared as the deadline for US tariffs approached this week, and now many shipments are stranded in transit, according to logistics providers.

The head of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told TPM25 that US exports of logs, fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products appear to be slowing due to China’s tariff countermeasures.

The new service that will start in April will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America.

The bleak timeline from Europe’s busiest port is based on the chaos that resulted when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021.

The largest cold chain storage company in the world is looking to maintain momentum through targeted acquisitions and diverse portfolio development, its co-founder told TPM25.

ONE’s chief executive took the opportunity of TPM’s silver anniversary to look back at how the industry has changed for the better over the years and call out some of the existing hurdles.

Kate Farmer told TPM25 that people would be “shocked” at how much money the oft-targeted railroad spends on combating the increasingly sophisticated methods of cargo theft.

The massive deal includes Hutchison’s 90% interests in the Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on the Pacific and Atlantic entrances to the Panama Canal and has been the object of recent scrutiny from the Trump administration.

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.

While the new network will need two cycles to be fully phased in through the next two or three months, the Hapag-Lloyd CEO said Gemini was “off to a good start” with 550 port calls made so far and 45 of 57 services already started.

Contract logistics was the star performer in the company’s portfolio in 2024, with gross profit rising 4% to $4 billion.

The Barstow International Gateway (BIG) could cut transit times on international intermodal business and increase the resiliency of Southern California ports during freight surges, BNSF CEO Kate Farmer said.

Fluor, KBR, TechnipFMC and Worley are predicting moderate to strong growth in project orders this year, buoyed by oil and gas work.

An oversupply of vessels, carrier rate wars and bleak consumer sentiment are positioned to oppress the container shipping market in 2025, experts told TPM25.

Truckload spot shipments and pricing in trade corridors such as Toronto-to-Chicago have soared since the US election, but the increases flow in both directions.

Should the Trump administration’s proposal be implemented, capacity will have to be withdrawn from the US and redeployed to where it makes more economical sense, the CEO of the world’s largest ocean carrier said.