Supply chain

The proposed 2-million-TEU container terminal would be situated downriver from New Orleans where ships won’t face the air-draft restrictions of the Crescent City Connection bridge that spans the Mississippi River.

UPS and FedEx are delivering more packages on time this holiday season, helped by no shortage of capacity in the modes that feed their networks, while Amazon, Walmart and others build out delivery capabilities.

Those making offers — which analysts say could top $20 billion — are expected to be a list of major global forwarders including DSV, Kuehne+Nagel and DHL Global Forwarding.

Expectations that the US Navy will step up maritime protection in the Red Sea following an increasing number of attacks on commercial shipping hasn’t stopped carriers from routing services away from the Suez Canal.

As conditions normalize, US retailers such as Dollar General are cutting unneeded resources, including temporary warehousing, while reinforcing their core business.

Retailers and e-commerce merchants leased 3.7 million square feet of warehousing and distribution space near the Port of Jacksonville in the third quarter, a record for Jacksonville’s industrial market.

The Water Resources Development Act, which provides funding for deepening and widening projects at US ports, has no set timeline to be implemented and stakeholders worry the delay will hinder critical work.

The facility sets up the Port of Wilmington to become a key point of entry for importers of refrigerated blueberries, grapes, apples, pears, citrus and a broad variety of organics.

Container shipping is hardly the only industry to feel the impact of organized labor’s bargaining power, nor is it unique in dealing with heightened geopolitical flashpoints or regulatory pressures tied to decarbonization, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Cost and long implementation timelines are among the reasons software has been out of reach for smaller shippers, brokers and carriers, a dynamic that newer solutions providers are attempting to change.

Motor carrier TCW was unable to prove that street turn fees violate US shipping law in one of the first test cases to see how the Federal Maritime Commission might regulate those charges.

The Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program offers a free view of supply-demand data across several metrics to help make transportation management decisions easier for US supply chain stakeholders.

With shippers already having a say in regulation and policy, two House members are urging maritime regulators to give marine terminal operators and public port authorities a seat at the table.

Given shipping’s relatively poor track record on implementing anything not rigorously enforced, and a preference to delay action to the last possible minute, there seems to be a high risk that decarbonization milestones will not be met, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

The company, which caters to shippers like Uniqlo and Michelin, will use the new round of funding to spur a global expansion of its multimodal freight visibility product.

The rare joint statement reiterates earlier comments by container lines that a greenhouse gas pricing mechanism is needed to make green fuel competitive with traditional bunkers during the phase when both fuels will be in use.

US importers have finally cleared out most of the inventory overhang that kept their warehouses at capacity and created bottlenecks in their supply chains.

Getting the most out of global logistics software sometimes involves using a forwarder as a co-pilot until a shipper is ready to run processes similarly to procurement and order management internally.

The fresh funding is part of recent federal efforts to increase economic opportunities for farmers and reduce food costs for US residents.

Despite initially failing to meet capacity commitments, the carrier extended the contract for three months at the original rate, saving the shipper $180,000.

Despite some pockets of progress, exactly how container shipping achieves decarbonization will likely remain an unanswered question until new zero-emission fuel standards are adopted, writes Peter Tirschwell.

The four-phase, seven-building project with CSX rail connections will support the growing needs of importers and exporters using the port.

Draft legislation would also seek to codify that rail demurrage fees be billed to the ocean carrier, which would then pass along the charge to the responsible shipper or BCO. .

Just a month after the European Commission announced that the block exemption regulation for carriers would not be renewed next April, the UK competition authority has also called for it to lapse upon expiry.

CMA CGM is moving beyond funding and supporting startups with a hefty investment into a non-profit lab designed to improve data models that feed into artificial intelligence products.

The bill is a response to growing CBP demands that ports pay for new inspection-related equipment, or risk having the agency reduce the amount of time its officers spend performing inspections.

The phased reduction in the number of transits coincides with peak banana exports from Ecuador and the start of the deciduous fruit season in the southern hemisphere.

The International Maritime Organization voted in May 2022 to implement the so-called Maritime Single Window from the start of 2024 in a bid to accelerate digitalization in shipping.

The direct service that kicks off at the end of the month will add further options to transport apparel, textiles, poultry, pork and agricultural products between Central America and the US East Coast.

The need for greater supply chain stability, not just control over on-time service, is driving growth in the number of private fleets run by shippers even in a time of cheap truck rates.

Despite public commitments by some 4,000 companies globally to reduce Scope 3 emissions, ocean shippers have thus far been unwilling to pay higher-than-market freight rates to achieve those goals.

An explosion in the use of the so-called de minimis provision, which enables US consignees to bring in a package under $800 in value each day, has US customs regulators worried about the intrusion of illicit goods, such as fentanyl.

Alongside broader talks on wages for its members, the International Longshoremen’s Association said individual ports need to use more union supervisors and foremen, particularly throughout the South.

The new north-south service will begin next week with trial runs transporting perishable goods out of Latin America to Chicago.

Along with the grant for the Port of Wilmington’s proposed container terminal, Tacoma and Long Beach received grants for improving truck and rail access, respectively.

Ryan Petersen tells the Journal of Commerce that the first order of business after this week’s acquisition of Convoy’s tech stack is getting the Convoy app running again and reaching out to the shuttered company’s customers.

The need for shippers and brokers to speed up the auditing and payment of freight bills is bringing AI and automation-focused vendors to the fore.

Six amicus briefs have been filed to the US Supreme Court supporting the South Carolina Ports Authority’s position that the ILA is illegally forcing carriers to boycott Charleston’s Hugh Leatherman Terminal as a means to acquire jobs that belong to state employees.

The two partners will collaborate on pilot projects aimed at accurately measuring and tracking emissions reduction data across the supply chain.

Carriers are already beginning to adjust schedules ahead of Europe’s new shipping carbon tax, something forwarders say could reduce direct port connections and boost transshipment activity.