<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Railroads are no longer taking on new contracts for peak domestic intermodal business later this year out of Southern California. And that means small-size and mid-size shippers will likely be hurt the most because they don’t have the necessary volume to gain leverage in negotiations; they will be forced to supplement any truckload serve with record-high spot rates on the rails.</div>

Railroads are no longer taking on new contracts for peak domestic intermodal business later this year out of Southern California. And that means small-size and mid-size shippers will likely be hurt the most because they don’t have the necessary volume to gain leverage in negotiations; they will be forced to supplement any truckload serve with record-high spot rates on the rails.

<div><div><img></div>Union Pacific is no longer taking on new contracts for peak domestic intermodal business later this year out of Southern California, according to Intek Freight &amp; Logistics. Small-size and mid-size shippers will likely be hurt the most because they don’t have the volume to gain leverage in negotiations. (Above: A freight train passes through Palm Springs, California.) Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.Shippers waiting to decide whether to buy capacity to move a 53-foot container out of Southern California are out of luck with contractual business already locked up for the peak season on one rail line. For the stragglers, the only option...

Union Pacific is no longer taking on new contracts for peak domestic intermodal business later this year out of Southern California, according to Intek Freight & Logistics. Small-size and mid-size shippers will likely be hurt the most because they don’t have the volume to gain leverage in negotiations. (Above: A freight train passes through Palm Springs, California.) Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. Shippers waiting to decide whether to buy capacity to move a 53-foot container out of Southern California are out of luck with contractual business already locked up for the peak season on one rail line. For the stragglers, the only option is to pay huge spot market rates and absorb the hit on the bottom line. Click to enlarge For those suggesting rates have plateaued, think again. Rick LaGore, CEO of Intek Freight & Logistics, said that Union Pacific Railroad is fully booked on contracts through the fourth-quarter peak season, leaving the spot market the only viable alternative for shippers to find capacity. Some of the highest domestic intermodal spot rates are exiting Los Angeles, according to the JOC Shipping & Logistics Pricing Hub. For example, prices from Los Angeles to Atlanta have skyrocketed 128 percent over the prior year, according to Intek Freight & Logistics. For the week ending May 21, rates surged 116 percent from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida, and soared 92 percent on the cross-country trip to Kearny, New Jersey. A week before, Los Angeles to Atlanta and to Kearny were up more than 115 percent on a year-over-year basis. Intermodal rail spot rates can be found on JOC.com's Shipping & Logistics Pricing Hub . “We’ve never seen anything like this. In 2014, there was no new contracts by the second or third week of June, but we’ve never seen railroads tell us ‘no new contracts’ for the peak so early in the year,” LaGore said. US surface transportation — tight, everywhere The declaration is the latest in what has been a tsunami of business in the transportation industry this year. Domestic intermodal business expanded 7.4 percent in the first quarter , according to the Intermodal Association of North America, as shippers unable to find truckload capacity turned to the rails. The four-week moving average on US intermodal is up 7.9 percent, according to the Association of American Railroads. The Cass Intermodal Price Index rose 6.6 percent year over year in April to 141.9, close to the all-time record of 143.2 established the month before, and the three-month moving average is up 5.9 percent. "Tight truckload capacity and higher diesel prices are creating incremental demand and pricing power for domestic intermodal," said Donald Broughton, analyst and commentator for the Cass indexes. "Longer term, we continue to foresee oil trading in the $45 to $65 range [per barrel] and diesel in the $2.50 to $3.25 [per gallon] range throughout 2018 [without the refining interruption pressure produced by hurricanes or other catastrophic events]." Robert Rich, CEO of Roar Logistics, an intermodal marketing company (IMC), said the situation in Southern California is another example of the trends since January. Strong economic growth, low unemployment, a shortage of truck capacity, and the electronic logging device mandate reducing driver productivity have combined to form a perfect storm to push freight to the railroads, even after the service problems this winter. “Right now we’re street turning more boxes,” Rich said, referring to the practice of using the same container from one job to the next, rather than exchanging boxes. “Literally, every box we have going to the West Coast we’re strategizing on how we can street turn it and we’re only in the second quarter. Usually we don’t spend this much time on street turns until October.” Drew Roy, director of intermodal operations for Scott Logistics, said that asset-owning IMCs are in a more fluid position to continue to take on Southern California business, but even that opening is limited. Roar Logistics and most other IMCs do not own their 53-foot containers but lease them either from the Class I railroads or private-asset owners such as Milestone Express or COFC Logistics. Some IMCs, however, own containers and therefore have more flexibility. “We would not be surprised if other [railroads] introduced the same policy for Northern California later in the year, as well as introduce similar measures in Chicago and Memphis, Tennessee, if volumes continue to rise in these markets,” Roy said. LaGore and Rick Hauff, a group manager with Giltner Inc., agreed with Roy on Chicago, but were unsure about contract business in the Oakland-Stockton area or in Memphis. “Shippers will have to be proactive and look to lock up capacity as soon as it is available. I believe intermodal can still be an option for shippers, they may just have to be a bit more flexible as capacity will soon be the next issue we face,” Hauff said. Small, mid-sized shippers hurt the most Most large shippers made the decision early on about capacity contracts for the peak season. Small shippers or mid-size shippers, however, without sophisticated operations or predictable volume, were most likely the ones waiting too long. “These shippers are traditionally putting freight on truckload because that’s what they have always done. But they are soon going to say, ‘We’ve never run intermodal, but boy we can’t find any trucks’ and they are going to play on the spot market at a time when prices are at record highs,” LaGore said. These shippers typically also hold the same leverage in terms of volume in a negotiation with the railroads. No matter the mode, carriers provide preferential treatment to those with a large volume of profitable freight. A small shipper will be unlikely to have as much sway in a negotiation. “CSX now requires 500 shipments in a lane instead of 250 shipments to get lock-in pricing. UP tried to do the same thing but are now being more flexible with their small and mid-sized shippers. We told CSX that they need to do a better job communicating with these shippers about why they are doing this and how it will affect them,” Kristy Knichel, CEO of Knichel Logistics, told JOC.com in April . While the railroads are tight-lipped about their individual thresholds, large companies will have a better chance to lock up any contractual opportunities than the small shipper. Shippers sending freight to California in the driver’s seat Although intermodal prices are higher in virtually all markets, shippers moving freight east to west have a better chance to get a favorable rate. There is such a huge demand to move 53-foot containers to Los Angeles that IMCs may accept a smaller margin to accomplish it. Rates from Dallas to Los Angeles, for example, are only up 5 percent versus the prior year. Prices from Seattle-Tacoma and Houston to Los Angeles are also up less than 10 percent. “In an economy like this where we need equipment on the West Coast, we may be willing to lower some prices going west to feed the business coming back east. We have to use a pricing strategy to get the boxes where we need it the most,” Rich said. “It makes the attractiveness of inbound [freight] elevated, while providing some, if only a little, leverage to the shipper to negotiate better than market rates. For example, ‘I send two inbounds to Southern California, so let me get one of those at my historical rate’,” said Ian Moy, director of national carrier sales and intermodal for Zipline Logistics. But with the strong economy showing no signs of stopping, and the United States lifting the tariffs on China to negotiate a trade deal, shippers may have no choice but to buckle up and survive a bumpy ride for the rest of the year. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @ariashe_joc.

Intermodal providers

All intermodal contracts booked up for Southern California 2018 peak

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">GenLogs is offering data on shipper drayage volumes, available carriers and asset location at the Port of Miami as part of a broadening of its highway sensor-based platform. </div>

GenLogs is offering data on shipper drayage volumes, available carriers and asset location at the Port of Miami as part of a broadening of its highway sensor-based platform.

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<div class="phx-topic">Transportation technology provider GenLogs is branching out from providing information on truckload capacity and carriers to doing the same in the US drayage market. GenLogs, whose primary business is helping freight brokers identify carriers they can work with on lanes where shipper-customers have volume, is looking to extend similar capability to drayage lanes from every major container port in the US through a product called “Port Intelligence.” GenLogs has established sensors at the Port of Miami and will add a second major port next month, CEO Ryan Joyce told the Journal of Commerce Friday. “We don’t need sensors right at gates to get the drayage data that unlocks all these capabilities for customers,” Joyce said. “We hope that this will help us springboard to signing all 300 ports in the United States as customers, as Port Intelligence gives them visibility into where cargo flows inland from each port, and which [beneficial cargo owners] may be better serviced by their port rather than a neighboring port.” GenLogs’ platform uses a nationwide network of its own roadside sensors that passively collect data on every passing truck and equipment pairing. Joyce said the nearly 1,000 sensors in the network collect about 10 million images of trucks each day on more than 285,000 unique for-hire truck carriers, including drayage carriers. The static sensors, on the sides of interstates, filter out private vehicles and only collect data on vehicles, not drivers. The company’s product combines data from its sensor network with other third-party datasets to track truck locations, equipment pairings and patterns. <h3>Initial users include larger customers </h3>The Port Intelligence features allow users to identify destinations where drayage volume is headed from US container gateways, a list of shippers and receivers tied to those moves, and a list of carriers operating on those lanes. GenLogs’ “Asset Locator” tools allow users to set alerts for specific containers and chassis based on an identifier. Joyce said GenLogs expects about one-third of its existing 60 customers to use Port Intelligence, mostly larger customers who also move drayage such as J.B. Hunt, CH Robinson, Ryder, Echo Global Logistics, NFI and Evans Transportation. He also said forwarders and drayage-specific third-party logistics providers have shown interest in the product since it launched Thursday. The company <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/truckload-visibility-vendor-gets-funding-to-expand-sensor-network-5936129">signaled its intent</a> to service drayage and intermodal nodes in February when it landed a $14.6 million funding round that would be directed, in part, to establish sensors at major US ports and in intermodal facilities. GenLogs’ foray into drayage is part of a broadening landscape of data in that historically overlooked segment of the container shipping industry. Along with a proliferation of tools designed to help drayage carriers operate more efficiently, a list that includes companies such as transportation management system provider PortPro, shippers and brokers can also get benchmark drayage rates on lanes nationwide using DrayRates, which launched in the first half of 2025. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Transportation technology provider GenLogs is branching out from providing information on truckload capacity and carriers to doing the same in the US drayage market. GenLogs, whose primary business is helping freight brokers identify carriers they can work with on lanes where shipper-customers have volume, is looking to extend similar capability to drayage lanes from every major container port in the US through a product called “Port Intelligence.” GenLogs has established sensors at the Port of Miami and will add a second major port next month, CEO Ryan Joyce told the Journal of Commerce Friday. “We don’t need sensors right at gates to get the drayage data that unlocks all these capabilities for customers,” Joyce said. “We hope that this will help us springboard to signing all 300 ports in the United States as customers, as Port Intelligence gives them visibility into where cargo flows inland from each port, and which [beneficial cargo owners] may be better serviced by their port rather than a neighboring port.” GenLogs’ platform uses a nationwide network of its own roadside sensors that passively collect data on every passing truck and equipment pairing. Joyce said the nearly 1,000 sensors in the network collect about 10 million images of trucks each day on more than 285,000 unique for-hire truck carriers, including drayage carriers. The static sensors, on the sides of interstates, filter out private vehicles and only collect data on vehicles, not drivers. The company’s product combines data from its sensor network with other third-party datasets to track truck locations, equipment pairings and patterns. Initial users include larger customers The Port Intelligence features allow users to identify destinations where drayage volume is headed from US container gateways, a list of shippers and receivers tied to those moves, and a list of carriers operating on those lanes. GenLogs’ “Asset Locator” tools allow users to set alerts for specific containers and chassis based on an identifier. Joyce said GenLogs expects about one-third of its existing 60 customers to use Port Intelligence, mostly larger customers who also move drayage such as J.B. Hunt, CH Robinson, Ryder, Echo Global Logistics, NFI and Evans Transportation. He also said forwarders and drayage-specific third-party logistics providers have shown interest in the product since it launched Thursday. The company signaled its intent to service drayage and intermodal nodes in February when it landed a $14.6 million funding round that would be directed, in part, to establish sensors at major US ports and in intermodal facilities. GenLogs’ foray into drayage is part of a broadening landscape of data in that historically overlooked segment of the container shipping industry. Along with a proliferation of tools designed to help drayage carriers operate more efficiently, a list that includes companies such as transportation management system provider PortPro, shippers and brokers can also get benchmark drayage rates on lanes nationwide using DrayRates, which launched in the first half of 2025. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Surface

Port News

Drayage

Logistics Technology News

Trucking intelligence provider expands visibility product into drayage market

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The 90-day pause in tariffs was long enough for US importers to advance most of their cargo shipments by ocean, according to analysts.</div>

The 90-day pause in tariffs was long enough for US importers to advance most of their cargo shipments by ocean, according to analysts.

<div class="phx-topic">Frontloading from Asia to the US by ocean shippers appears to have sucked the demand out of the trans-Pacific air cargo business, with little sign of rising volume and rates before the pause on higher US tariffs expires in August. Data from air freight analyst Rotate shows capacity deployed on China and Hong Kong routes to the US is down slightly over the past four weeks at 36,000 metric tons. Frontloading of ocean freight and the sharp drop in e-commerce demand following a US clampdown on low-value Chinese imports have reduced the need for trans-Pacific air cargo. “While difficult to say exactly, we do see high levels of inventory combined with a relatively long lead up to the new tariff announcements which allowed shippers to plan ahead and choose a more cost-efficient method of transport,” said Jonathan Mellink, head of sales and marketing at Rotate. Online freight marketplace Freightos has drawn the same conclusions — with the low appetite for air freight evident in spot rates. The Freightos Air Index this week shows air cargo rates to the US from major trade partner origins were level with or slightly lower than just before an Aug. 1 extension to the 90-day tariff pause was announced in early July. A separate pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods is due to expire Aug. 14. “For businesses shipping out of China, the 90-day tariff extension spurred a surge in ocean volumes and was likely long enough so that most frontloading ahead of August has been done by container,” said Judah Levine, head of research at online freight marketplace Freightos. “In the couple of weeks since President Donald Trump extended the reciprocal tariff deadline, we haven’t seen a surge in demand or upward pressure on inbound US air cargo rates from countries granted the extension,” Levine added. Freightos data shows rates from China to the US this week are $5.17 per kilogram, down 7% from early July and 3% lower year over year. While there may be a bump in volume and rates as the August deadline approaches, Levine said the lack of air freight demand reflected shippers’ expectations of de-escalations and deals, or possible further extensions to the tariff deadlines. <h3>Framework deals announced </h3>Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson, said air freight remained an option for shippers looking to frontload before the new deadline, “but it all depends on their inventory needs and supplier readiness,” he told the Journal of Commerce. Many of the countries facing new tariff rates from Aug. 1 are manufacturing powerhouses in Asia, such as Thailand (36% tariffs), South Korea (25%) and Malaysia (25%). The levies will include air freight-friendly commodities such as pharmaceutical imports and semiconductors. Some framework deals have been made with the US. A deal reached recently with Vietnam will see tariffs set at 25% for US exports and 40% for any goods “transshipped” through the country en route to the US, while deals were reached with the Philippines and Indonesia this week setting tariffs at 19% — although no details have been revealed. While the tariffs on Asian countries might have some indirect benefit to the air cargo industry through frontloading, the loss of huge e-commerce volume still affects the trans-Pacific business directly. In 2024, e-commerce shipments accounted for close to 50% of China-to-US air freight volume, with the big Chinese platforms Temu and Shein filling dozens of freighters every day. But that spigot was turned off by President Donald Trump on May 2 with dramatic effect. The duty-free exemption for low-value imports from China valued at under $800 was eliminated, although that was followed on May 14 by a reduction of de minimis tariffs from 120% to 54%. Items sent via post from China to the US are now charged a flat fee of $100, regardless of value. China-US air cargo demand fell more than 30% in June year over year following a 28% drop in May. Data from Rotate for July shows China’s e-commerce exports to the US falling 44% year over year, even as e-commerce exports to all other countries recorded robust growth of nearly 50%. <h3>‘Precipitous fall’ in China-US e-commerce </h3>The effect of the US tariffs on China’s two main e-commerce platforms, Temu and Shein, has been significant. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates that from April to June, Temu’s US downloads fell 77% year over year and Shein’s were down 51%. Sensor Tower noted the “precipitous fall in app usage” could be tied to each company’s advertising spend in the US in June that for Temu was down 87% year over year and for Shein dropped 69%. Meanwhile, the ability to offset the e-commerce-driven drop in China-Europe air freight with growth in other markets was noted by Kuehne + Nagel CEO Stefan Paul on the forwarder’s <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/post-tariff-foreign-currency-headwinds-hit-kuehne-nagels-h1-q2-profit-6049005">first-half earnings call</a> with analysts Thursday. Paul said he was expecting a strong air cargo peak season later in the second half with “high single-digit growth” in volume in the fourth quarter driven by increasing demand for perishables, semiconductors and “hyperscalers” — IT equipment providing the cloud infrastructure that powers modern digital applications and services. Airlines are also increasing their focus on traditional cargo customers, with Cathay Pacific saying business has been booming. “We observed significant growth in tonnage from Southeast Asia and the Taiwan region to the Americas, driven by both general cargo and high-tech electronics,” Lavinia Lau, chief customer and commercial officer at the Hong Kong-based airline, said in a statement on the carrier’s June operations. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Frontloading from Asia to the US by ocean shippers appears to have sucked the demand out of the trans-Pacific air cargo business, with little sign of rising volume and rates before the pause on higher US tariffs expires in August. Data from air freight analyst Rotate shows capacity deployed on China and Hong Kong routes to the US is down slightly over the past four weeks at 36,000 metric tons. Frontloading of ocean freight and the sharp drop in e-commerce demand following a US clampdown on low-value Chinese imports have reduced the need for trans-Pacific air cargo. “While difficult to say exactly, we do see high levels of inventory combined with a relatively long lead up to the new tariff announcements which allowed shippers to plan ahead and choose a more cost-efficient method of transport,” said Jonathan Mellink, head of sales and marketing at Rotate. Online freight marketplace Freightos has drawn the same conclusions — with the low appetite for air freight evident in spot rates. The Freightos Air Index this week shows air cargo rates to the US from major trade partner origins were level with or slightly lower than just before an Aug. 1 extension to the 90-day tariff pause was announced in early July. A separate pause on higher tariffs on Chinese goods is due to expire Aug. 14. “For businesses shipping out of China, the 90-day tariff extension spurred a surge in ocean volumes and was likely long enough so that most frontloading ahead of August has been done by container,” said Judah Levine, head of research at online freight marketplace Freightos. “In the couple of weeks since President Donald Trump extended the reciprocal tariff deadline, we haven’t seen a surge in demand or upward pressure on inbound US air cargo rates from countries granted the extension,” Levine added. Freightos data shows rates from China to the US this week are $5.17 per kilogram, down 7% from early July and 3% lower year over year. While there may be a bump in volume and rates as the August deadline approaches, Levine said the lack of air freight demand reflected shippers’ expectations of de-escalations and deals, or possible further extensions to the tariff deadlines. Framework deals announced Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson, said air freight remained an option for shippers looking to frontload before the new deadline, “but it all depends on their inventory needs and supplier readiness,” he told the Journal of Commerce. Many of the countries facing new tariff rates from Aug. 1 are manufacturing powerhouses in Asia, such as Thailand (36% tariffs), South Korea (25%) and Malaysia (25%). The levies will include air freight-friendly commodities such as pharmaceutical imports and semiconductors. Some framework deals have been made with the US. A deal reached recently with Vietnam will see tariffs set at 25% for US exports and 40% for any goods “transshipped” through the country en route to the US, while deals were reached with the Philippines and Indonesia this week setting tariffs at 19% — although no details have been revealed. While the tariffs on Asian countries might have some indirect benefit to the air cargo industry through frontloading, the loss of huge e-commerce volume still affects the trans-Pacific business directly. In 2024, e-commerce shipments accounted for close to 50% of China-to-US air freight volume, with the big Chinese platforms Temu and Shein filling dozens of freighters every day. But that spigot was turned off by President Donald Trump on May 2 with dramatic effect. The duty-free exemption for low-value imports from China valued at under $800 was eliminated, although that was followed on May 14 by a reduction of de minimis tariffs from 120% to 54%. Items sent via post from China to the US are now charged a flat fee of $100, regardless of value. China-US air cargo demand fell more than 30% in June year over year following a 28% drop in May. Data from Rotate for July shows China’s e-commerce exports to the US falling 44% year over year, even as e-commerce exports to all other countries recorded robust growth of nearly 50%. ‘Precipitous fall’ in China-US e-commerce The effect of the US tariffs on China’s two main e-commerce platforms, Temu and Shein, has been significant. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates that from April to June, Temu’s US downloads fell 77% year over year and Shein’s were down 51%. Sensor Tower noted the “precipitous fall in app usage” could be tied to each company’s advertising spend in the US in June that for Temu was down 87% year over year and for Shein dropped 69%. Meanwhile, the ability to offset the e-commerce-driven drop in China-Europe air freight with growth in other markets was noted by Kuehne + Nagel CEO Stefan Paul on the forwarder’s first-half earnings call with analysts Thursday. Paul said he was expecting a strong air cargo peak season later in the second half with “high single-digit growth” in volume in the fourth quarter driven by increasing demand for perishables, semiconductors and “hyperscalers” — IT equipment providing the cloud infrastructure that powers modern digital applications and services. Airlines are also increasing their focus on traditional cargo customers, with Cathay Pacific saying business has been booming. “We observed significant growth in tonnage from Southeast Asia and the Taiwan region to the Americas, driven by both general cargo and high-tech electronics,” Lavinia Lau, chief customer and commercial officer at the Hong Kong-based airline, said in a statement on the carrier’s June operations. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Maritime

Container Shipping News

Air Cargo Carriers News

Trans-Pacific

Air Cargo

Ocean frontloading cuts air freight demand on trans-Pacific

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Double-digit demand is expected to continue through the third quarter on the Asia-Europe trades, piling more pressure on terminals that have been overstretched for months.</div>

Double-digit demand is expected to continue through the third quarter on the Asia-Europe trades, piling more pressure on terminals that have been overstretched for months.

<div class="phx-topic">Shippers in North Europe are being warned to expect further delays and disrupted services during August and September when a wave of inbound containers from Asia arrive at already-congested gateway ports. Strong import demand in Europe over the past few months has kept ships full and volume growing in double digits; that demand is expected to continue through the third quarter, piling more pressure on the overstretched terminals. “The peak will be August and September, and we also expect a peak in congestion until it gets better in the fourth quarter,” said Michael Amri, global sea freight business development manager at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, the Singapore-listed port operator that controls Hutchison’s Hong Kong and mainland China port interests, said China’s exports to Europe in the second half of the year are set to continue the double-digit growth seen in the first half. “Growth in China’s exports to the European Union is expected to follow the same trajectory as seen in the first half of 2025, with exports to the EU in Q2 growing by 13% year on year,” the port operator said. Should the double-digit growth in volume materialize, the combined volume arriving in North Europe in August and September will top 2 million TEUs. “In terms of seasonality, July is typically the month wherein the most cargo is loaded from Far East to Europe, which means arrival into European ports in August and September,” Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst, wrote <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7353298019477336065/">in a LinkedIn post</a> this week. “The lack of progress in removing port congestion in Europe is worrying seen in the light of this coming peak load of cargo,” Jensen added. North Europe’s gateway terminals have been struggling to get on top of often severe congestion for much of the year, with ships arriving outside scheduled windows causing berthing delays and full container yards delaying the offloading of cargo. <h3>Terminals heading for ‘code red’ summer </h3>Stefan Verberckmoes, senior shipping analyst at Alphaliner, said he was not optimistic that congestion would improve over the summer months, which was shaping up to be a “hot summer with code red for European container terminals.” Verberckmoes said most of the ports in North Europe that had reserve capacity were now fully operational, with the main problem at terminals being the long dwell times caused by late vessel arrivals. “The fact that some carriers compete by granting longer free time [for containers] of course only makes the problem of the terminal operators worse,” he said. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said none of its hub terminals in Europe were congested at the moment but acknowledged there could be knock-on effects in the coming months. Still, Destine Ozuygur, chief analyst at ocean visibility provider eeSea, said she did not see an imminent congestion crisis across North Europe and emphasized that not all terminals were affected. “London Gateway has been the most extreme, followed by Antwerp, then Hamburg and then Rotterdam,” Ozuygur told the Journal of Commerce. “While vessels and services are being impacted, it hasn’t put turnover across Europe in a chokehold,” she added. “Even a port like Rotterdam that has seen stubborn congestion is reporting healthy throughput in Q2 and has seen steady reliability improvement since January.” Ozuygur outlined the factors contributing to the persistent congestion in North Europe for much of the year. Ongoing vessel diversions around southern Africa have necessitated the deployment of larger-capacity vessels, she noted, which leads to longer berth stays and higher yard utilization. The longer transit times have also left room for more volatility and unpredictable delays. Schedule reliability data from eeSea, in which ships are considered late if they arrive one calendar day or more after the scheduled time, shows Asia-North Europe on-time performance falling from 42% in May to 29% in July. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="fdd3215b-b33e-458b-ab68-3ad2be100c5e"></dynamic-object></div>On the land side, Ozuygur said some ports, such as Antwerp and Hamburg, are impacted by both high yard density and major barge delays. One of the major causes of the barge delays has been low water levels in European waterways that cause capacity restrictions. <h3>Cutting transshipment moves </h3>Ozuygur said carriers had the most flexibility in dealing with port congestion as they could use port swaps and port omissions or adjust their rotations to avoid bottlenecks. The Gemini Cooperation of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd recently extended an Asia-Europe service to Denmark and Sweden, removing transshipment volume from Rotterdam and lowering overall container moves. Instead of unloading boxes in Rotterdam and transferring to a feeder ship to Aarhus in Denmark and Gothenburg in Sweden, a direct call at the ports turned three container moves into one. Mediterranean Shipping Co. is also sailing direct from Ecuador to St. Petersburg to avoid transshipment in the Benelux ports. Another option to ease congestion is carriers transferring containers from the overloaded deep-sea terminals into inland depots to reduce dwell times and free up space in yards that are full. But Ozuygur said ports and terminals were facing many factors that were simply out of their control. “The best they can do is maximize berth planning operations and whatever robust vessel forecasting solutions are available to them,” she said. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Shippers in North Europe are being warned to expect further delays and disrupted services during August and September when a wave of inbound containers from Asia arrive at already-congested gateway ports. Strong import demand in Europe over the past few months has kept ships full and volume growing in double digits; that demand is expected to continue through the third quarter, piling more pressure on the overstretched terminals. “The peak will be August and September, and we also expect a peak in congestion until it gets better in the fourth quarter,” said Michael Amri, global sea freight business development manager at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, the Singapore-listed port operator that controls Hutchison’s Hong Kong and mainland China port interests, said China’s exports to Europe in the second half of the year are set to continue the double-digit growth seen in the first half. “Growth in China’s exports to the European Union is expected to follow the same trajectory as seen in the first half of 2025, with exports to the EU in Q2 growing by 13% year on year,” the port operator said. Should the double-digit growth in volume materialize, the combined volume arriving in North Europe in August and September will top 2 million TEUs. “In terms of seasonality, July is typically the month wherein the most cargo is loaded from Far East to Europe, which means arrival into European ports in August and September,” Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst, wrote in a LinkedIn post this week. “The lack of progress in removing port congestion in Europe is worrying seen in the light of this coming peak load of cargo,” Jensen added. North Europe’s gateway terminals have been struggling to get on top of often severe congestion for much of the year, with ships arriving outside scheduled windows causing berthing delays and full container yards delaying the offloading of cargo. Terminals heading for ‘code red’ summer Stefan Verberckmoes, senior shipping analyst at Alphaliner, said he was not optimistic that congestion would improve over the summer months, which was shaping up to be a “hot summer with code red for European container terminals.” Verberckmoes said most of the ports in North Europe that had reserve capacity were now fully operational, with the main problem at terminals being the long dwell times caused by late vessel arrivals. “The fact that some carriers compete by granting longer free time [for containers] of course only makes the problem of the terminal operators worse,” he said. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said none of its hub terminals in Europe were congested at the moment but acknowledged there could be knock-on effects in the coming months. Still, Destine Ozuygur, chief analyst at ocean visibility provider eeSea, said she did not see an imminent congestion crisis across North Europe and emphasized that not all terminals were affected. “London Gateway has been the most extreme, followed by Antwerp, then Hamburg and then Rotterdam,” Ozuygur told the Journal of Commerce. “While vessels and services are being impacted, it hasn’t put turnover across Europe in a chokehold,” she added. “Even a port like Rotterdam that has seen stubborn congestion is reporting healthy throughput in Q2 and has seen steady reliability improvement since January.” Ozuygur outlined the factors contributing to the persistent congestion in North Europe for much of the year. Ongoing vessel diversions around southern Africa have necessitated the deployment of larger-capacity vessels, she noted, which leads to longer berth stays and higher yard utilization. The longer transit times have also left room for more volatility and unpredictable delays. Schedule reliability data from eeSea, in which ships are considered late if they arrive one calendar day or more after the scheduled time, shows Asia-North Europe on-time performance falling from 42% in May to 29% in July. On the land side, Ozuygur said some ports, such as Antwerp and Hamburg, are impacted by both high yard density and major barge delays. One of the major causes of the barge delays has been low water levels in European waterways that cause capacity restrictions. Cutting transshipment moves Ozuygur said carriers had the most flexibility in dealing with port congestion as they could use port swaps and port omissions or adjust their rotations to avoid bottlenecks. The Gemini Cooperation of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd recently extended an Asia-Europe service to Denmark and Sweden, removing transshipment volume from Rotterdam and lowering overall container moves. Instead of unloading boxes in Rotterdam and transferring to a feeder ship to Aarhus in Denmark and Gothenburg in Sweden, a direct call at the ports turned three container moves into one. Mediterranean Shipping Co. is also sailing direct from Ecuador to St. Petersburg to avoid transshipment in the Benelux ports. Another option to ease congestion is carriers transferring containers from the overloaded deep-sea terminals into inland depots to reduce dwell times and free up space in yards that are full. But Ozuygur said ports and terminals were facing many factors that were simply out of their control. “The best they can do is maximize berth planning operations and whatever robust vessel forecasting solutions are available to them,” she said. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

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Wave of Asian boxes to hit congested North Europe ports in August–September

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The carrier announced in March it would spend $20 billion over the next four years to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including expanding its US-flag fleet and increasing capacity at key US ports.</div>

The carrier announced in March it would spend $20 billion over the next four years to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including expanding its US-flag fleet and increasing capacity at key US ports.

<div class="phx-topic">CMA CGM said Thursday it has reflagged its 9,300-TEU container ship Phoenix under the US flag, the first of four ships that will be so flagged this year as the carrier looks to triple the size of its US fleet to 30 over the next four years. The reflagging of the Phoenix — the largest container vessel to ever sail under the US flag, occurred in Charleston, CMA CGM said in a statement. The ship will be used on the carrier’s Indamex service that connects the US East Coast with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Marseille-based liner is the owner of the US-flag carrier American President Lines (APL). In March, following a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Rodolph Saade, head of CMA CGM Group, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-to-invest-20-billion-in-us-shipping-ports-and-logistics-5957748">announced the company would spend $20 billion</a> over the next four years to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including expanding its US-flag fleet and increasing capacity at key US ports. “By expanding our US-flagged fleet, we will create new jobs, support American exports, and help strengthen the nation’s maritime capabilities for years to come,” Adeline Franger Chouraqui, CEO of CMA CGM America, said in the statement. Each of the four vessels to be reflagged this year will have a capacity of 9,300 TEUs. The delivery of the four ships will allow CMA CGM to increase the number of American seafarers it employs by 50%, the carrier said. Contact Kevin Saville at <a href="mailto:kevin.saville2@spglobal.com">kevin.saville2@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

CMA CGM said Thursday it has reflagged its 9,300-TEU container ship Phoenix under the US flag, the first of four ships that will be so flagged this year as the carrier looks to triple the size of its US fleet to 30 over the next four years. The reflagging of the Phoenix — the largest container vessel to ever sail under the US flag, occurred in Charleston, CMA CGM said in a statement. The ship will be used on the carrier’s Indamex service that connects the US East Coast with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Marseille-based liner is the owner of the US-flag carrier American President Lines (APL). In March, following a White House meeting with President Donald Trump, Rodolph Saade, head of CMA CGM Group, announced the company would spend $20 billion over the next four years to significantly bolster its logistics presence in the US, including expanding its US-flag fleet and increasing capacity at key US ports. “By expanding our US-flagged fleet, we will create new jobs, support American exports, and help strengthen the nation’s maritime capabilities for years to come,” Adeline Franger Chouraqui, CEO of CMA CGM America, said in the statement. Each of the four vessels to be reflagged this year will have a capacity of 9,300 TEUs. The delivery of the four ships will allow CMA CGM to increase the number of American seafarers it employs by 50%, the carrier said. Contact Kevin Saville at kevin.saville2@spglobal.com .

CMA CGM reflags vessel in first move to boost size of US fleet

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Volumes from Oceania to the US East Coast have grown steadily during the past five years, with this June recording the most imports ever for a single month.</div>

Volumes from Oceania to the US East Coast have grown steadily during the past five years, with this June recording the most imports ever for a single month.

<div class="phx-topic">Mediterranean Shipping Co. will launch a new direct weekly service between the US East Coast and Oceania in February, boosting total monthly sailings on the small but expanding trade lane by approximately one-quarter. The standalone service, announced Wednesday, will be called the Eagle Service and serve several ports in Australia and New Zealand, with additional stops through the Panama Canal. It will include 11 vessels, but MSC declined to comment on how much capacity the service will bring to the trade. The full rotation includes Philadelphia, Savannah, Freeport, Rodman, Papeete, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tauranga, Rodman and Cristobal, before returning to Philadelphia. Volumes from Oceania to the US East Coast have grown steadily during the past five years. Between 2020 and 2024, data from PIERS shows the compound annual growth rate for USEC volumes from Oceania was 5.2%, rising to 108,198 TEUs in 2025 from 84,120 TEUs in 2020. PIERS is a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. US imports to the East Coast from Oceania reached an all-time high for a single month in June, with 10,384 TEUs, up 6.3% year over year. April 2025 is the only other month when US imports from Oceania have exceeded 10,000 TEUs, PIERS data shows. Through the first half of 2025, Maersk has had the largest presence among carriers on the USEC-Oceania trade lane, with CMA CGM and MSC coming in second and third place, respectively. Maersk’s first-half imports from Oceania to the US East Coast alone exceeded the total TEUs carried on the trade by CMA CGM and MSC individually. Maritime intelligence provider eeSea shows four services consistently present on the trade lane since 2022, averaging about 13 to 14 sailings per month for the first seven months of 2025. Contact Laura Robb at <a href="mailto:Laura.Robb@spglobal.com">laura.robb@spglobal.com</a>.  </div>

Mediterranean Shipping Co. will launch a new direct weekly service between the US East Coast and Oceania in February, boosting total monthly sailings on the small but expanding trade lane by approximately one-quarter. The standalone service, announced Wednesday, will be called the Eagle Service and serve several ports in Australia and New Zealand, with additional stops through the Panama Canal. It will include 11 vessels, but MSC declined to comment on how much capacity the service will bring to the trade. The full rotation includes Philadelphia, Savannah, Freeport, Rodman, Papeete, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tauranga, Rodman and Cristobal, before returning to Philadelphia. Volumes from Oceania to the US East Coast have grown steadily during the past five years. Between 2020 and 2024, data from PIERS shows the compound annual growth rate for USEC volumes from Oceania was 5.2%, rising to 108,198 TEUs in 2025 from 84,120 TEUs in 2020. PIERS is a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. US imports to the East Coast from Oceania reached an all-time high for a single month in June, with 10,384 TEUs, up 6.3% year over year. April 2025 is the only other month when US imports from Oceania have exceeded 10,000 TEUs, PIERS data shows. Through the first half of 2025, Maersk has had the largest presence among carriers on the USEC-Oceania trade lane, with CMA CGM and MSC coming in second and third place, respectively. Maersk’s first-half imports from Oceania to the US East Coast alone exceeded the total TEUs carried on the trade by CMA CGM and MSC individually. Maritime intelligence provider eeSea shows four services consistently present on the trade lane since 2022, averaging about 13 to 14 sailings per month for the first seven months of 2025. Contact Laura Robb at laura.robb@spglobal.com . 

MSC to launch new USEC-Oceania weekly service in February

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The world of LTL is slow to embrace change. Business anachronisms permeate current supply chain processes. These vestiges of the way things used to work define the LTL freight transportation procurement process of many modern shippers.David Knuth, logistics specialist at IEWC, a global supplier of cable and wire based in Wisconsin, is happy to have modernized the RFP process, automating the entire LTL bidding procedure with Bid$ense, SMC³’s automated truckload and LTL freight transportation sourcing solution. But when prompted, he can still recall what once was.In his previous job, a large part of his duties were consumed by creating an intermodal bid package for carriers. In a spreadsheet, Knuth detailed the company’s volumes lane by lane, taking care to delete any errant keystrokes or misleading data. He would then email out the information to each carrier, taking time to respond to detailed technical questions about the spreadsheet data. Finally, he had to compile all the results, create an algorithm that would compare the carriers on each lane, and award the business.“It was a huge undertaking. It took about four months to do,” Knuth said of the old process. “It was almost a full-time job for that part of the year, every year.”In his new job at IEWC, he sat down with Bid$ense on day one and was amazed at the capabilities. Knuth had never before used a bid tool. SMC³’s latest versions of Bid$ense automate the process even further, taking truckload and LTL RFPs entirely online. The tool draws on RFP best-practices protocols to streamline the bidding communication process, enabling bidding carriers to respond accurately and promptly to shipper requests. The solution also does all the distribution work automatically, electronically submitting shipper bid data to carriers based on their actual service capabilities and performance records. Carriers are alerted with timely prompts for RFP deliverables, so shippers aren’t waiting by the phone for responses.Another benefit of automating the process is the data-cleansing assistance. When Knuth sent spreadsheets to carriers, data errors might cloud the bidding process; he might have to resend data or simply accept a price that did not truly reflect the costs of doing business. Data cleansing is incredibly beneficial, he said.The spreadsheet technique also made bidding analysis an onerous task. Since Bid$ense automates and streamlines the entire RFP process, intensive examination is now simple. SMC³ knows that each bid has more than one best outcome. With uniform responses from each carrier, shippers can quickly rank results and create an unlimited quantity of what-if scenarios to make the optimal procurement decision.Jesse Burnett of Central Garden &amp; Pet experiences many of the same benefits. Founded in 1980, Central Garden &amp; Pet has spent the last three decades growing from a small garden supply company to a provider of a range of products from dog chews and bird seed to soil supplements and natural insecticides. For much of its life, the company shipped these disparate goods via LTL and truckload carriers to retailers throughout the country, relying on each business unit to negotiate directly with their freight transportation providers. This arrangement worked fairly well for a small company, but as Central Garden &amp; Pet expanded, leadership decided to consolidate decision making.Burnett helped centralize the transportation decision making in 2015 with SMC³’s Bid$ense. Before Bid$ense, every business unit operated independently as far as negotiating with carriers.“There were a lot of different things just floating around,” he said. “We didn’t have master agreements in place; no national pricing at all. The pricing from carriers was just all over the place, depending on where you were.”The transformations he saw with Bid$ense were immediate. Burnett has been using the tool about every other year since its implementation at the company. Central Garden and Pet’s $19.6 million 2019 LTL bid saved the company just more than 9 percent when compared to its historical average. For Burnett, though, bid automation extends far beyond savings.“We knew that we weren’t getting the best pricing offer from our carriers just because nothing was centralized,” he continued. “We knew that if we combined everything from all these business units and paired it with one corporate offering, then it would drive some cost benefit with it.”When the company initially decided to centralize bid procurement, executives researched a number of different methodologies and technologies. In the end, though, Burnett found that Bid$ense was both widespread and well known, and that his carrier partners already knew how to use the application. Burnett also highlighted the data-cleansing process as a major benefit, saying the rigorous process ensures that carriers always return the best price.“It definitely has helped drive savings,” he said. “Any time you go out there and you drive that competitiveness with the carriers and they know they’re in a bid environment, it seems to sharpen their pencils.”Transportation procurement is an integral part of the modern supply chain. With Bid$ense, shippers can develop a strategic implementation plan that saves them time and money, but also helps them create strong relationships with their carrier partners. These carriers appreciate the solution’s data-cleansing process; when carriers receive a complete shipment history and future volume forecast, they don’t have to guess on pricing. Carriers that receive more data from shippers get a complete picture of that shipper’s freight, allowing them to accurately plan instead of simply preparing for the worst-case scenario. Clean data presented through an automated system can lead to both bigger shipment savings and a lasting partnership between carrier and customer.Whether customers are looking to streamline over-the-road transportation bidding by automating the RFP process or create an entirely new, centralized sourcing process, Bid$ense has the analytical horsepower to get the job done.SMC³ 2020 Customer Case Study

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Shippers save money, time with automated transportation bidding tools

If there’s one immutable truth in the world of logistics, it’s this: LTL is an inherently complex form of transportation. Tariffs, rates, DIM weights, transit times — it’s enough to confuse even seasoned logistics professionals. The solution to this knowledge gap has historically been on-the-job training or university supply chain education, but for a variety of reasons there is now a pressing need for third-party, remote LTL training that prepares logistics workers for transportation success. Global Scope Can Overlook Local Intricacies In the past, professionals looking to move into a supply chain career learned about the basics of supply chain from universities. However, many of these college supply chain programs are now global in scope, focusing on worldwide supply chain management instead of the intricacies of specialized domestic transportation. And even these programs, which used to be widespread, are becoming less common. LTL is not an industry of broad-brush strokes; supply chain professionals really need a pointillistic understanding of the logistics of LTL in order to excel in the industry. Accelerating Need for Dedicated LTL Education This lack of specified training put the onus on employers to prepare new hires with the LTL knowledge needed to do their jobs. Dedicated LTL study is a necessity, not a luxury. At the same time, changes in LTL and the broader supply chain world are accelerating. The reliance on e-commerce has ballooned since the start of the pandemic, and last-mile LTL shipments and related e-commerce strains on the supply chain won’t diminish once social distancing abates. That genie isn’t going back into the bottle. So supply chain employers need logistics workers that are fully versed in all aspects of the industry, ready to solve unique shipping and delivery problems based on their extensive supply chain knowledge But why care about LTL? It’s been reported that some shippers in today’s world are no longer concerned with what mode is used to ship their goods. A Multimodal Approach Ensures On-Time Delivery This mode agnosticism means supply chain stakeholders have to be well versed in all modes of transportation. As unforeseen weather events and other disruptions, such as protests, become more common, savvy logistics employees will need to be armed with familiarity of all modes, not just the most popular, to ensure that freight is delivered on time, without damage, and in the most financially expedient way possible. Offerings like SMC³’s LTL online education courses cover a wide range of topics from LTL basics and operations to more advanced concepts like pricing analytics and transportation law. The company also has plans to continually refresh content, adding new expert presenters and taking the feedback of students to make the courses even better as time goes on. Learn more about&nbsp;<a href="https://logisticstrainingcenter.com/smc3-courses/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">SMC³’s LTL Online Education program</a>&nbsp;and view the 2021 hybrid schedule, featuring live industry experts,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smc3.com/onlinelearning2021/" rel="noreferrer" class="joc_admin__link">here.</a>

SMC3rates_shutterstock_5247046 (1).jpg

Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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