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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">More longshore workers will be eligible to return to marine terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey with the lifting of COVID-19 manning restrictions put in place last year. </div>

More longshore workers will be eligible to return to marine terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey with the lifting of COVID-19 manning restrictions put in place last year.

<div><div><img>The social distancing and other COVID-19 guidelines primarily impacted the number of equipment operators and mechanics at the port. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.</div>The termination of COVID-19 workplace restrictions at the Port of New York and New Jersey earlier this month will allow more longshore workers to return to the US East Coast’s busiest port. Although the additional labor is not expected to have a significant impact on the high turn times truckers are experiencing, it will offset increasing absences due to the summer vacation season, according to the groups that represent longshore workers and their employers.The New York Shipping Association (NYSA),...

The social distancing and other COVID-19 guidelines primarily impacted the number of equipment operators and mechanics at the port. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. The termination of COVID-19 workplace restrictions at the Port of New York and New Jersey earlier this month will allow more longshore workers to return to the US East Coast’s busiest port. Although the additional labor is not expected to have a significant impact on the high turn times truckers are experiencing, it will offset increasing absences due to the summer vacation season, according to the groups that represent longshore workers and their employers. The New York Shipping Association (NYSA), which represents marine terminals and ocean carriers in labor negotiations, and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) on July 6 agreed to roll back a series of guidelines for longshore workers that were put in place April 2020 to stem the spread of COVID-19 among New York-New Jersey’s more than 3,200 longshore workers that load and unload container ships. Those guidelines included daily temperature checks for all employees coming to the port, sanitizing of equipment between uses, requiring social distancing at work, staggering shifts to limit the number of longshore workers massing at one location at one time, and limiting the number of longshore workers that could use container-handling or other equipment. John Nardi, president of NYSA, told JOC.com there hadn’t been a positive temperature check indicating COVID-19 at the port for months. But NYSA kept up the temperature checks through July 6 because the state of New Jersey still required health screening of employees, Nardi said, adding that NYSA and ILA are still monitoring the workforce for potential infection. With the sunsetting of these and other COVID-19 restrictions, Nardi said overall port productivity should get a boost. Allowing more workers on the docks could translate to a 15 percent decrease in the number of work hours required for each container lift, he said. The additional labor should also help balance out the increase in worker absenteeism due to summer vacations, Nardi said. “This will free up more workers to be available going forward to help handle the volume spike,” Nardi said. “More importantly we are in our peak vacation season and backing off on the social distancing will make more workers available during this period.” James McNamara, spokesman for the ILA, said the manning restrictions mostly affected the port’s mechanics and equipment operators because they generally work in close physical proximity to one another. Now, with the restrictions lifted, more equipment operators will be available to move containers, and marine terminals will be able to conduct needed maintenance that had been deferred during 2020. “Full manning without restrictions on the amount of personnel in a vehicle or a piece of equipment will improve the productivity of the port,” McNamara said. The first half of 2021 has brought an unprecedented amount of containerized imports into New York and New Jersey terminals. Through June, the port handled nearly 2.25 million TEU in imports, a 30 percent increase from the first half of 2020 and a 21 percent increase from the same 2019 period, according to data from PIERS, a sister company of JOC.com within IHS Markit. Nardi said the early rollout of the COVID-19 manning restrictions , increased vigilance on quarantining, and a vaccination drive limited the effects of the pandemic on labor supply and cargo flow at the port. Over the last 12 months, at least 1,300 New York-New Jersey longshore workers were either infected with or exposed to COVID-19. Two ILA members are reported to have died as a direct result of the disease. The pandemic and the subsequent slowdown in port activity in early 2020 resulted in 900 longshore workers being idled. Most of those were among the 300 that support New York-New Jersey’s cruise and roll-on/roll-off cargo business. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @michael_angell .

Lifting COVID-19 labor restrictions to boost NY-NJ port flow

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Suppliers and manufacturers are unwilling to make long-lead investments in next-gen nuclear projects without credible signals that the demand for them exists, according to a new report. </div>

Suppliers and manufacturers are unwilling to make long-lead investments in next-gen nuclear projects without credible signals that the demand for them exists, according to a new report.

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<div class="phx-topic">US nuclear energy development is surging after a series of recent approvals and initiatives to advance domestic projects — including a $40 billion deal the US struck with Japan to build next-gen reactors in southern states and a Bill Gates-backed startup receiving the federal green light to construct a first-of-its-kind reactor in Wyoming. But reactor developers will need to work through supply chain bottlenecks for those projects to materialize, according to a new report by a nuclear advocacy group. Nuclear energy projects are lining up to become a significant source of future breakbulk and project cargo as energy companies push to expand the US reactor fleet and the infrastructure to support domestic uranium production, conversion, and enrichment. The Trump administration has set a goal of expanding nuclear energy capacity from 100 gigawatts (GW) to 400 GW by 2050, while having 10 large reactors under construction in the US by 2030. But those goals could prove challenging as a “self-reinforcing market paralysis” threatens to upend the supply chain for next-gen nuclear reactors under development, according to a March 20 report from the Nuclear Scaling Initiative. The analysis, prepared by energy consultancy Solestiss and funded by the Bezos Earth Fund, suggests suppliers and manufacturers are unwilling to make long-lead investments in next-gen nuclear projects without credible signals that the demand for them exists. And utilities, it says, are reluctant to commit to these new energy sources because of cost, schedule, and supply chain uncertainties. “This dynamic suppresses investment in manufacturing capacity, workforce pipelines, qualification infrastructure, and fuel supply — compounding the very risks that deter demand,” the report stated. With supplier bases limited, a vertical integration trend is emerging, with reactor developers opting to take on the manufacturing themselves domestically instead of importing components from overseas. “Rather than waiting for a fragmented and unreliable external market to mature, several leading companies are choosing to become their own suppliers out of necessity (or, in some cases, as a hallmark of their culture),” the report stated. <h3>Key advances for reactor fleet </h3>Recent weeks have brought major project developments for advanced small modular reactors, or SMRs, the next-gen reactors expected to drive future nuclear energy output. SMRs consist of modular components that can be delivered and assembled onsite and have been touted as a more cost- and time-efficient alternative to large-scale reactors, which can cost billions and take decades to build. SMRs are still under development in the US but growing in numbers, with the first reactors set to come online by the end of the decade. On March 19, the US and Japan announced a $40 billion deal to have GE Vernova and Hitachi build SMRs in Tennessee and Alabama. Along with that project, Japan will invest up to $33 billion in natural gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas. The energy deals are part of a five-year, $550 billion trade agreement made last year between the US and Japan to accelerate next-generation nuclear technology. And in a key milestone for next-gen reactors, Bill Gates startup TerraPower on March 4 became the first developer to win federal approval to build a commercial SMR in the US. The Natrium advanced reactor project will be constructed in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and is targeted for completion in 2030. <h3>Policy changes meant to speed development </h3>Policy changes are also taking shape to expand the domestic reactor fleet. On March 12, the US Department of Energy rolled out an initiative to use existing nuclear energy infrastructure to put more power on the grid. Dubbed the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE), the initiative aims to expand US nuclear energy capacity by increasing the power output of existing reactors, bringing dormant facilities back online, completing stalled projects, and advancing new reactor construction. UPRISE has set a goal to achieve 2.5 GW of additional nuclear capacity by 2027 and 5 GW of total additional nuclear capacity by 2029.  In Florida, lawmakers have been taking steps to streamline the approval process for constructing nuclear reactors. On March 5, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation authorizing the state to oversee the permitting for advanced nuclear reactor construction, taking oversight from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Kim Casey, investor relations director for US uranium provider Energy Fuels, told the Journal of Commerce that regulatory, permitting and litigation timelines present additional challenges that could prolong the development of nuclear energy projects. “What we know from past experience is that building new reactors doesn’t happen quickly,” she said. Casey said the approval of TerraPower’s advanced SMR represents a “huge step” in the nuclear buildout. “I think that will tell us a lot, if things go smoothly. There’s certainly a bipartisan appetite for nuclear,” she said. The question, Casey said, becomes how nuclear developers will deal with the regulatory approval process, which can involve decades of reviews and permitting. “If they can shorten that up with support of administrations around the world, that will be exceptional not only for the industry, but for electrification across the globe,” she said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at <a href="mailto:autumn@autumngiusti.com">autumn@autumngiusti.com</a>. </div>

US nuclear energy development is surging after a series of recent approvals and initiatives to advance domestic projects — including a $40 billion deal the US struck with Japan to build next-gen reactors in southern states and a Bill Gates-backed startup receiving the federal green light to construct a first-of-its-kind reactor in Wyoming. But reactor developers will need to work through supply chain bottlenecks for those projects to materialize, according to a new report by a nuclear advocacy group. Nuclear energy projects are lining up to become a significant source of future breakbulk and project cargo as energy companies push to expand the US reactor fleet and the infrastructure to support domestic uranium production, conversion, and enrichment. The Trump administration has set a goal of expanding nuclear energy capacity from 100 gigawatts (GW) to 400 GW by 2050, while having 10 large reactors under construction in the US by 2030. But those goals could prove challenging as a “self-reinforcing market paralysis” threatens to upend the supply chain for next-gen nuclear reactors under development, according to a March 20 report from the Nuclear Scaling Initiative. The analysis, prepared by energy consultancy Solestiss and funded by the Bezos Earth Fund, suggests suppliers and manufacturers are unwilling to make long-lead investments in next-gen nuclear projects without credible signals that the demand for them exists. And utilities, it says, are reluctant to commit to these new energy sources because of cost, schedule, and supply chain uncertainties. “This dynamic suppresses investment in manufacturing capacity, workforce pipelines, qualification infrastructure, and fuel supply — compounding the very risks that deter demand,” the report stated. With supplier bases limited, a vertical integration trend is emerging, with reactor developers opting to take on the manufacturing themselves domestically instead of importing components from overseas. “Rather than waiting for a fragmented and unreliable external market to mature, several leading companies are choosing to become their own suppliers out of necessity (or, in some cases, as a hallmark of their culture),” the report stated. Key advances for reactor fleet Recent weeks have brought major project developments for advanced small modular reactors, or SMRs, the next-gen reactors expected to drive future nuclear energy output. SMRs consist of modular components that can be delivered and assembled onsite and have been touted as a more cost- and time-efficient alternative to large-scale reactors, which can cost billions and take decades to build. SMRs are still under development in the US but growing in numbers, with the first reactors set to come online by the end of the decade. On March 19, the US and Japan announced a $40 billion deal to have GE Vernova and Hitachi build SMRs in Tennessee and Alabama. Along with that project, Japan will invest up to $33 billion in natural gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas. The energy deals are part of a five-year, $550 billion trade agreement made last year between the US and Japan to accelerate next-generation nuclear technology. And in a key milestone for next-gen reactors, Bill Gates startup TerraPower on March 4 became the first developer to win federal approval to build a commercial SMR in the US. The Natrium advanced reactor project will be constructed in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and is targeted for completion in 2030. Policy changes meant to speed development Policy changes are also taking shape to expand the domestic reactor fleet. On March 12, the US Department of Energy rolled out an initiative to use existing nuclear energy infrastructure to put more power on the grid. Dubbed the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort (UPRISE), the initiative aims to expand US nuclear energy capacity by increasing the power output of existing reactors, bringing dormant facilities back online, completing stalled projects, and advancing new reactor construction. UPRISE has set a goal to achieve 2.5 GW of additional nuclear capacity by 2027 and 5 GW of total additional nuclear capacity by 2029.  In Florida, lawmakers have been taking steps to streamline the approval process for constructing nuclear reactors. On March 5, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation authorizing the state to oversee the permitting for advanced nuclear reactor construction, taking oversight from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Kim Casey, investor relations director for US uranium provider Energy Fuels, told the Journal of Commerce that regulatory, permitting and litigation timelines present additional challenges that could prolong the development of nuclear energy projects. “What we know from past experience is that building new reactors doesn’t happen quickly,” she said. Casey said the approval of TerraPower’s advanced SMR represents a “huge step” in the nuclear buildout. “I think that will tell us a lot, if things go smoothly. There’s certainly a bipartisan appetite for nuclear,” she said. The question, Casey said, becomes how nuclear developers will deal with the regulatory approval process, which can involve decades of reviews and permitting. “If they can shorten that up with support of administrations around the world, that will be exceptional not only for the industry, but for electrification across the globe,” she said. Contact Autumn Cafiero Giusti at autumn@autumngiusti.com .

Nuclear projects advance in US, but need to overcome ‘market paralysis’

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Several regional carriers, typically second- and third-rung players in the industry, have opened new dedicated shuttle services connecting Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India to the Middle East/Persian Gulf corridor. </div>

Several regional carriers, typically second- and third-rung players in the industry, have opened new dedicated shuttle services connecting Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India to the Middle East/Persian Gulf corridor.

<div class="phx-topic">The Middle East crisis is driving a fresh influx of capacity into major Indian ports from smaller, nimble liner operators willing to offer wider Persian Gulf port reach despite the war. That comes as long-haul carriers keep operations in the conflict region either suspended or limited to certain ports deemed safe. Several opportunistic regional carriers, typically second- and third-rung players in the industry, have opened new dedicated shuttle services connecting Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India to the Middle East/Persian Gulf corridor, according to market sources. Gulf Feeder Shipping is one notable name among those rushing into the market. The UAE-based feeder line this week kicked off a new loop with direct calls to Jeddah and King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, Sokhna in Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan. Gulftainer’s short-haul arm GT Lines is also primed to operate two separate shuttle loops from India’s Nhava Sheva and Mundra to the UAE’s Khor Fakkan in a pendulum fashion, using a fleet of three ships. Emboldened regional carriers see the Middle East crisis as yet another opportunity to reap strong freight earnings, reminiscent of the Red Sea diversions when mainline carriers were entirely avoiding the Suez Canal route due to attacks from Houthi militants while smaller liners nonetheless maintained services in the hostile region. <h3>Capacity demand to move rerouted containers </h3>Capacity demand on the disrupted Middle East trade lane has been massive in recent weeks as cargo owners look to evacuate Asian containers rerouted to Indian ports. That comes on top of the typical fiscal year-end export rush seen during March in India. Both factors are beginning to choke storage yards, according to market sources. Meanwhile, some mainliners are deploying ad-hoc vessels to clear up stranded boxes and pick up some high-yield export bookings. Cosco Shipping has positioned a vessel for an early-April sailing from three ports of loading in West India for Fujairah (UAE) and Sohar (Oman) connections, joining CMA CGM in that alternative supply chain push. Ocean rates from India to the Middle East have surged since the war, with average Nhava Sheva-Khor Fakkan/Fujairah booking rates now at about $3,500 per FEU. Space for loads to Sohar is even hotter, with carrier pricing hovering at around $4,500 per FEU. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

The Middle East crisis is driving a fresh influx of capacity into major Indian ports from smaller, nimble liner operators willing to offer wider Persian Gulf port reach despite the war. That comes as long-haul carriers keep operations in the conflict region either suspended or limited to certain ports deemed safe. Several opportunistic regional carriers, typically second- and third-rung players in the industry, have opened new dedicated shuttle services connecting Nhava Sheva and Mundra in India to the Middle East/Persian Gulf corridor, according to market sources. Gulf Feeder Shipping is one notable name among those rushing into the market. The UAE-based feeder line this week kicked off a new loop with direct calls to Jeddah and King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, Sokhna in Egypt and Aqaba in Jordan. Gulftainer’s short-haul arm GT Lines is also primed to operate two separate shuttle loops from India’s Nhava Sheva and Mundra to the UAE’s Khor Fakkan in a pendulum fashion, using a fleet of three ships. Emboldened regional carriers see the Middle East crisis as yet another opportunity to reap strong freight earnings, reminiscent of the Red Sea diversions when mainline carriers were entirely avoiding the Suez Canal route due to attacks from Houthi militants while smaller liners nonetheless maintained services in the hostile region. Capacity demand to move rerouted containers Capacity demand on the disrupted Middle East trade lane has been massive in recent weeks as cargo owners look to evacuate Asian containers rerouted to Indian ports. That comes on top of the typical fiscal year-end export rush seen during March in India. Both factors are beginning to choke storage yards, according to market sources. Meanwhile, some mainliners are deploying ad-hoc vessels to clear up stranded boxes and pick up some high-yield export bookings. Cosco Shipping has positioned a vessel for an early-April sailing from three ports of loading in West India for Fujairah (UAE) and Sohar (Oman) connections, joining CMA CGM in that alternative supply chain push. Ocean rates from India to the Middle East have surged since the war, with average Nhava Sheva-Khor Fakkan/Fujairah booking rates now at about $3,500 per FEU. Space for loads to Sohar is even hotter, with carrier pricing hovering at around $4,500 per FEU. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Opportunistic regional lines rush to Middle East corridor amid mainliner pause

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Gateway Terminals named Bryan Blalock as its next president after Georgia Ports hired the stevedore’s current leader to be its next CEO. </div>

Gateway Terminals named Bryan Blalock as its next president after Georgia Ports hired the stevedore’s current leader to be its next CEO.

<div class="phx-topic">The Port of Savannah’s container stevedore has picked a new president as its current leader transitions to running the port. The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said in a statement Thursday that Bryan Blalock will become the next president of Gateway Terminals as of April 13. Gateway Terminals is a joint venture of Ports America and SSA Marine. Blalock will succeed Kevin Price, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/gpa-names-next-ceo-as-savannah-readies-for-new-growth-phase-6167449">the GPA’s pick for its next chief executive starting in mid-2027</a>. Price, who will first take a role as GPA president in July, said in the statement that Blalock “has worked in all facets of our industry, brings excellent working relationships in our region and will be immediately effective in his new role, allowing a seamless management transition.” Blalock joins Gateway Terminals from Charleston-based CMC, the diversified provider of repair and maintenance services to the container industry, where he was chief operating officer responsible for 1,900 employees across more than 60 operations. Blalock has worked in the ports industry for over 35 years, the GPA said, including, according to his LinkedIn profile, 16 years with APM Terminals. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The Port of Savannah’s container stevedore has picked a new president as its current leader transitions to running the port. The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said in a statement Thursday that Bryan Blalock will become the next president of Gateway Terminals as of April 13. Gateway Terminals is a joint venture of Ports America and SSA Marine. Blalock will succeed Kevin Price, the GPA’s pick for its next chief executive starting in mid-2027 . Price, who will first take a role as GPA president in July, said in the statement that Blalock “has worked in all facets of our industry, brings excellent working relationships in our region and will be immediately effective in his new role, allowing a seamless management transition.” Blalock joins Gateway Terminals from Charleston-based CMC, the diversified provider of repair and maintenance services to the container industry, where he was chief operating officer responsible for 1,900 employees across more than 60 operations. Blalock has worked in the ports industry for over 35 years, the GPA said, including, according to his LinkedIn profile, 16 years with APM Terminals. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Port of Savannah’s container stevedore picks new president

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters that most of the new costs were coming from rising bunker fuel prices, with other areas such as insurance, container storage and inland transportation adding millions of dollars to weekly expenses. </div>

Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters that most of the new costs were coming from rising bunker fuel prices, with other areas such as insurance, container storage and inland transportation adding millions of dollars to weekly expenses.

<div class="phx-topic">The war in the Middle East has raised Hapag-Lloyd’s operating costs by $40 million to $50 million per week, a reality that “is not something that you can sustain for very long,” the carrier’s CEO said Thursday. Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters during a briefing that most of the new costs were coming from rising bunker fuel prices, with other areas such as insurance, container storage and inland transportation adding millions of dollars to weekly expenses. “To counterbalance that, we have introduced a number of contingency and emergency fuel surcharges,” he said. “This is not to collect more than the extra costs, but an extra cost of $40 million or $50 million per week is not something that you can sustain for very long.” While the disruption caused by the war has spilled over to ports outside the Persian Gulf, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict is affecting only 3% of global container traffic, according to Hapag-Lloyd. But from a cost perspective, the impact is immense and growing. Emergency fuel surcharges <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/war-reignites-tussle-between-ocean-carriers-cargo-owners-over-fuel-surcharges-6188632">have been rolled out by several carriers</a> on top of quarterly bunker adjustment factors that were no match for fuel prices that have doubled since the conflict started on Feb. 28. Still, the practice drew swift condemnation from Global Shippers’ Council director James Hookham. “Sure, shipping lines need to watch their costs just like the rest of us but it’s not as if they don’t have working capital reserves of their own,” he told the Journal of Commerce. “The speed with which these charges are being imposed makes it nigh impossible for shippers to recover them from their own customers or suppliers.” On Monday, the US Federal Maritime Commission <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/fmc-rejects-requests-by-carriers-to-waive-waiting-period-for-middle-east-surcharges-6191881">unanimously rejected separate requests from four ocean carriers</a> to waive a 30-day notice period to implement surcharges tied to the war in the Middle East, forcing the four to wait until early April to charge their shipper customers. <h3>Ships trapped in the Gulf </h3>Hapag-Lloyd, meanwhile, has six fully crewed vessels that remain trapped in the Persian Gulf that the carrier is urgently trying to move out of harm’s way. There are unconfirmed reports that Iran is asking carriers to pay a “toll fee” of $1 million or $2 million per ship to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz; Habben Jansen was asked whether Hapag-Lloyd would pay Tehran to secure its six ships. “We are pursuing every avenue that we can to try to get the ships and the crews safely out, and I would not rule out anything at this point,” he said. Habben Jansen declined to speculate on what a worst-case scenario around bunker fuel shortages would look like should Hormuz remain effectively closed, but he acknowledged that the longer the conflict continued, the greater the impact on the industry. “What we see is a lot of extra costs that we have to absorb for now, and in the short term that has a negative impact,” he said. “Longer term, it’s still difficult to judge, but we assume that we will be able to recover that extra cost and that’s why we are sticking with our annual forecast.” Hapag-Lloyd has left its 2026 profitability forecast unchanged, but left a wide gap between the high and low ends of the financial guidance. It expects group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between $1.1 billion and $3.1 billion, and earnings before interest and taxes to be between a $1.5 billion loss and a $500 million profit. The carrier has forecast that global volumes in 2026 will grow 3% year over year against market capacity growth of 4%. Hapag-Lloyd is trying to ringfence the Middle East conflict from an operational perspective to allow the rest of its network to run as normal, but it is being done in an environment of significant uncertainty, Habben Jansen acknowledged. “There are many things that could happen as a consequence of this conflict and it depends on how long it takes, because it could also have a negative effect on global demand or it could have a positive effect if it ends soon,” he said. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The war in the Middle East has raised Hapag-Lloyd’s operating costs by $40 million to $50 million per week, a reality that “is not something that you can sustain for very long,” the carrier’s CEO said Thursday. Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters during a briefing that most of the new costs were coming from rising bunker fuel prices, with other areas such as insurance, container storage and inland transportation adding millions of dollars to weekly expenses. “To counterbalance that, we have introduced a number of contingency and emergency fuel surcharges,” he said. “This is not to collect more than the extra costs, but an extra cost of $40 million or $50 million per week is not something that you can sustain for very long.” While the disruption caused by the war has spilled over to ports outside the Persian Gulf, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict is affecting only 3% of global container traffic, according to Hapag-Lloyd. But from a cost perspective, the impact is immense and growing. Emergency fuel surcharges have been rolled out by several carriers on top of quarterly bunker adjustment factors that were no match for fuel prices that have doubled since the conflict started on Feb. 28. Still, the practice drew swift condemnation from Global Shippers’ Council director James Hookham. “Sure, shipping lines need to watch their costs just like the rest of us but it’s not as if they don’t have working capital reserves of their own,” he told the Journal of Commerce. “The speed with which these charges are being imposed makes it nigh impossible for shippers to recover them from their own customers or suppliers.” On Monday, the US Federal Maritime Commission unanimously rejected separate requests from four ocean carriers to waive a 30-day notice period to implement surcharges tied to the war in the Middle East, forcing the four to wait until early April to charge their shipper customers. Ships trapped in the Gulf Hapag-Lloyd, meanwhile, has six fully crewed vessels that remain trapped in the Persian Gulf that the carrier is urgently trying to move out of harm’s way. There are unconfirmed reports that Iran is asking carriers to pay a “toll fee” of $1 million or $2 million per ship to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz; Habben Jansen was asked whether Hapag-Lloyd would pay Tehran to secure its six ships. “We are pursuing every avenue that we can to try to get the ships and the crews safely out, and I would not rule out anything at this point,” he said. Habben Jansen declined to speculate on what a worst-case scenario around bunker fuel shortages would look like should Hormuz remain effectively closed, but he acknowledged that the longer the conflict continued, the greater the impact on the industry. “What we see is a lot of extra costs that we have to absorb for now, and in the short term that has a negative impact,” he said. “Longer term, it’s still difficult to judge, but we assume that we will be able to recover that extra cost and that’s why we are sticking with our annual forecast.” Hapag-Lloyd has left its 2026 profitability forecast unchanged, but left a wide gap between the high and low ends of the financial guidance. It expects group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to be between $1.1 billion and $3.1 billion, and earnings before interest and taxes to be between a $1.5 billion loss and a $500 million profit. The carrier has forecast that global volumes in 2026 will grow 3% year over year against market capacity growth of 4%. Hapag-Lloyd is trying to ringfence the Middle East conflict from an operational perspective to allow the rest of its network to run as normal, but it is being done in an environment of significant uncertainty, Habben Jansen acknowledged. “There are many things that could happen as a consequence of this conflict and it depends on how long it takes, because it could also have a negative effect on global demand or it could have a positive effect if it ends soon,” he said. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

War adding $40-$50 million per week to Hapag-Lloyd's costs: CEO

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The announced cuts come one month after WiseTech Global said it would be laying off 30% of its workforce over the next two years, also in an AI-related move. </div>

The announced cuts come one month after WiseTech Global said it would be laying off 30% of its workforce over the next two years, also in an AI-related move.

<div class="phx-topic">Freightos on Thursday announced it is reducing its workforce by up to 15% in the near future as part of an effort to adapt to the fast-moving impact artificial intelligence is having on software development. The company, which provides global freight pricing, booking and procurement products to forwarders and shippers, said the cuts will affect about 55 positions in a mix of layoffs and cancellation of planned backfills. “With what’s happening with software and data in the industry around AI, we felt we needed to be set up for scalability long-term,” Freightos Chief Strategy Officer Ian Arroyo told the Journal of Commerce. “And to make sure our teams are structured in a more efficient and effective way going forward.” The announced cuts come one month after WiseTech Global, the largest provider of software to global logistics providers, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/wisetech-says-to-cut-nearly-30-of-workforce-as-it-preps-for-ai-era-6175881">said it would be laying off 30% of its workforce</a> over the next two years, also in an AI-related move. Arroyo said publicly-traded Freightos had signaled in its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call in February, its first since founder Zvi Schreiber stepped down as CEO Jan. 31, that the company was shifting from a transactions-focused approach to a solutions-focused approach. Freightos, founded in 2012, had built its presence in ocean freight through a transactions-oriented marketplace before acquiring WebCargo, a pricing solutions provider in the air freight industry, in 2016. “The strategy going forward is we’re going to be solutions focused first, with transactions to come later as a result of that,” Arroyo said. “Our commitment is to be ready for profitability [by the end of 2026]. We’re supporting thousands of forwarders, including all of the top 20, and we needed to make some changes to the organization.” More broadly, a number of technology companies, from Oracle to Amazon to fintech solutions provider Block, have announced layoffs in light of the oncoming march of AI. In particular, the companies have cited AI agents as being able to replace roles in programming, product development and customer service. Traditionally, layoffs at publicly traded companies have been seen as a negative, but more recently, markets have viewed such actions positively, as a sign of companies adapting to the realities of accommodating more digital workers. Arroyo agreed that was a factor in Freightos’ decision-making. “100 percent,” he said. “This is about rightsizing teams in light of the AI revolution. How we support and build and go to market, all of that has to adjust.” <h3>‘Difficult but ... necessary’ decision </h3>Arroyo said that while it might be prudent for software users to be conservative about investment in AI given how fast the environment is moving, software vendors don’t have that luxury. “Maybe the head of global logistics can sit on the sidelines and wait right now,” he said. “But those of us actually building the software, we better be in a position that we can enable the shifts [customers] need or want to make, while ensuring the continuity of the backbones of what they run their businesses on.” Newly appointed Freightos CEO Pablo Pinillos emphasized that the layoffs will help the company reach its goal of being profitable by the end of the year. “These types of decisions are very difficult, but this is a necessary step to ensure Freightos is positioned for long-term, sustainable growth in a dynamic market,” Pinillos said in a statement Thursday. Freightos estimates it will incur approximately $1.3 million in one-time restructuring charges, primarily related to severance and employee benefits, over the first nine months of 2026. But it expects the restructuring to generate annualized cost savings of approximately $4.5 million starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The company had revenue of $29.5 million in 2025, a 24% increase year over year, while it posted an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization loss of $11.2 million, compared with a $12.6 million loss in 2024. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Freightos on Thursday announced it is reducing its workforce by up to 15% in the near future as part of an effort to adapt to the fast-moving impact artificial intelligence is having on software development. The company, which provides global freight pricing, booking and procurement products to forwarders and shippers, said the cuts will affect about 55 positions in a mix of layoffs and cancellation of planned backfills. “With what’s happening with software and data in the industry around AI, we felt we needed to be set up for scalability long-term,” Freightos Chief Strategy Officer Ian Arroyo told the Journal of Commerce. “And to make sure our teams are structured in a more efficient and effective way going forward.” The announced cuts come one month after WiseTech Global, the largest provider of software to global logistics providers, said it would be laying off 30% of its workforce over the next two years, also in an AI-related move. Arroyo said publicly-traded Freightos had signaled in its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call in February, its first since founder Zvi Schreiber stepped down as CEO Jan. 31, that the company was shifting from a transactions-focused approach to a solutions-focused approach. Freightos, founded in 2012, had built its presence in ocean freight through a transactions-oriented marketplace before acquiring WebCargo, a pricing solutions provider in the air freight industry, in 2016. “The strategy going forward is we’re going to be solutions focused first, with transactions to come later as a result of that,” Arroyo said. “Our commitment is to be ready for profitability [by the end of 2026]. We’re supporting thousands of forwarders, including all of the top 20, and we needed to make some changes to the organization.” More broadly, a number of technology companies, from Oracle to Amazon to fintech solutions provider Block, have announced layoffs in light of the oncoming march of AI. In particular, the companies have cited AI agents as being able to replace roles in programming, product development and customer service. Traditionally, layoffs at publicly traded companies have been seen as a negative, but more recently, markets have viewed such actions positively, as a sign of companies adapting to the realities of accommodating more digital workers. Arroyo agreed that was a factor in Freightos’ decision-making. “100 percent,” he said. “This is about rightsizing teams in light of the AI revolution. How we support and build and go to market, all of that has to adjust.” ‘Difficult but ... necessary’ decision Arroyo said that while it might be prudent for software users to be conservative about investment in AI given how fast the environment is moving, software vendors don’t have that luxury. “Maybe the head of global logistics can sit on the sidelines and wait right now,” he said. “But those of us actually building the software, we better be in a position that we can enable the shifts [customers] need or want to make, while ensuring the continuity of the backbones of what they run their businesses on.” Newly appointed Freightos CEO Pablo Pinillos emphasized that the layoffs will help the company reach its goal of being profitable by the end of the year. “These types of decisions are very difficult, but this is a necessary step to ensure Freightos is positioned for long-term, sustainable growth in a dynamic market,” Pinillos said in a statement Thursday. Freightos estimates it will incur approximately $1.3 million in one-time restructuring charges, primarily related to severance and employee benefits, over the first nine months of 2026. But it expects the restructuring to generate annualized cost savings of approximately $4.5 million starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The company had revenue of $29.5 million in 2025, a 24% increase year over year, while it posted an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization loss of $11.2 million, compared with a $12.6 million loss in 2024. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Freightos to trim up to 15% of headcount amid AI adaptation process

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