Supply chain

Some US-based shippers are racing to beat the April 9 imposition of new tariffs on most goods, while others are holding back product in Asia on the chance the levies will be reduced by President Donald Trump, whose tariff implementation strategy in recent weeks has been marked by a large dose of impulsiveness.

But any shipper celebrations over potentially lower rates in a cooling market will be tempered by concerns about border congestion as US customs will now be tasked with processing millions of de minimis imports every day.

But countries believed by the White House as having an unfair advantage over the US on trade will be hit with higher levies, including China, South Korea and European Union nations.

Price and volume increases are being seen across trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade lanes, but there is little clarity on whether underlying demand is enough to prop up spot rates once the tariffs have been implemented.

Firms sourcing from Vietnam, India or Mexico rely heavily on components, raw materials and equipment from China, which will remain an essential link in the production supply chain even if it’s no longer the only one.

As shippers race to get goods from Mexico and Canada into the US before full implementation of 25% tariffs Wednesday, they’re beginning to rethink supply chains.

In creating the threat of a clearly significant penalty, the US Trade Representative essentially forced observers to not merely give a thumbs up or down to the proposal, but to offer alternative solutions.

The carrier wants the tax imposed on CO2 emissions to raise the price of conventional bunkers high enough to force increased demand for low- and zero-emission fuels and narrow the yawning price gap between green and fossil energy.

The port authority on Wednesday completed an expansion of Inland Port Greer ahead of the opening of the near-dock Navy Base Intermodal Facility (NBIF) at the Port of Charleston later this year.

Ongoing supply chain disruption and a significant increase in trading of container freight futures among speculative investors could accelerate the adoption of financial hedging tools among shippers and other physical industry players.

In a move to better utilize its leased pool of trailers, Uber Freight has partnered with software vendor Optimal Dynamics to bundle loads for drivers across 10 trailer pool locations.

Brent Sadler served in the US Navy for 26 years and now works as a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Acquisitions continue in the domestic freight market, with Descartes buying 3GTMS to continue a decade-long spree of purchases.

CEO Stefan Paul told the company’s annual capital markets event in London that while K+N will focus on organic growth, it will also make bolt-on acquisitions “if they make sense.”

An alliance of global shippers is calling on the IMO to use the April gathering of its Marine Environment Protection Committee to meet the “urgency of the moment” when it comes to lowering emissions from shipping.

Why the impact is so potentially profound is the way carriers would likely respond to a scenario in which a fuel standard is imposed on them, but no automatically higher cost is imposed on shippers to pay, writes Peter Tirschwell.

US maritime interests said the proposed fees on Chinese ships would hit a variety of low-value, niche trades that can’t absorb the costs.

The IMO is a specialized agency of the United Nations, which potentially puts the organization in the crosshairs of the new administration that is reassessing all its UN positions and policies.

Groups representing transportation providers, retailers and manufacturers are calling for Congress to create a cargo theft task force blending the resources of multiple agencies as cargo crime spreads.

The country’s competition watchdog is reviewing whether DP World’s acquisition of the logistics provider could lead to higher costs for shippers.

The Federal Maritime Commission is looking at areas where ships are having transit troubles with an eye on how US maritime influence can fix those problems.

Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025–26 service year.

The dizzying pace of the Trump administration’s moves against longtime US trading partners is putting shippers at risk of facing hefty new costs as a result of tariff “stacking.”

While shippers might have expected ocean carriers to make application programming interfaces widely available by 2025, negative incentives have inhibited that progress.

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

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

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

Analyst Lars Jensen’s closing message to conference participants planning their supply chains for the coming year is to move slowly and carefully because it will take months before clarity emerges.

DHL group CEO Tobias Meyer recognized that the division’s performance remained lackluster, with the “volatile” gross profit/EBIT conversion rate below DHL’s 35% target.

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

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

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

Large customers are looking for large logistics partners that can offer more control over supply chains as international trade becomes more complex, the CEO tells TPM25.

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

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

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

John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump’s national security advisor from 2018–19, said China is gauging its next global moves through how the US responds to the war in the Ukraine.

Digital forwarders that emerged over the past decade are coming of age in the era of AI, but not all will make it to the other end.

The cost of the US Trade Representative’s proposal for levying fees on Chinese ships and ocean carriers would fall to US shippers, who would also face fewer service options, the analyst says.

Acquisition activity in the truckload space continues, with price benchmarking vendor Greenscreens.ai the latest to sell.