<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The forwarder Flexport is edging toward a broader imprint on the shipping industry through the development of customizable interfaces for its customers and increased access to its systems for agent partners.</div>

The forwarder Flexport is edging toward a broader imprint on the shipping industry through the development of customizable interfaces for its customers and increased access to its systems for agent partners.

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<div>Flexport on Thursday unveiled new system customization features for its shipper customers that signal a growing desire by the San Francisco-based logistics provider to build technology beyond that which would be typically associated with a forwarder.With the release of the new features, which focus on configurable views of the metrics shippers use to manage shipments booked with Flexport, the company appears to be morphing into a hybrid of a third-party logistics provider (3PL), a neutral software provider, and a broader trade platform.Although the new features don’t yet allow shippers to manage non-Flexport shipments within Flexport’s systems, that is an eventual...

Flexport on Thursday unveiled new system customization features for its shipper customers that signal a growing desire by the San Francisco-based logistics provider to build technology beyond that which would be typically associated with a forwarder. With the release of the new features, which focus on configurable views of the metrics shippers use to manage shipments booked with Flexport, the company appears to be morphing into a hybrid of a third-party logistics provider (3PL), a neutral software provider, and a broader trade platform. Although the new features don’t yet allow shippers to manage non-Flexport shipments within Flexport’s systems, that is an eventual goal, both James Chen, chief technology officer, and Frank te Pas, senior product manager, told JOC.com. “Ultimately we want to create a single platform for trade, a unified experience across all their shipments,” Chen said. “As you go upmarket to BCO [beneficial cargo owner] customers, they have their own contracts [with container lines], so they are looking for a technology provider.” The specific product update announced Thursday allows users of the Flexport platform to design their view of information around a configurable “widget marketplace” of 15 applications at present. Flexport assigns pre-configured views of that information based on whether the customer is a large importer, a small importer, or an exporter. Those pre-configurations were based on input from 120 Flexport customers and their usage of the system, te Pas said. Te Pas said the pre-configured views for importers with smaller supply chains focus on highlighting industry thought leadership from Flexport executives, and a dashboard with all shipments, sorted by delivery date. The template for larger importers has an emphasis on “managing large volumes of transactions and us being able to uncover those shipments that need attention,” he said. The exporter view is pre-configured around completing tasks required to ensure cargo is available for pickup. He added that uptake of the dashboard customization feature has so far shown promise, with 70 percent of 45 beta testers configuring their dashboards within two weeks of getting access to it. Te Pas attributed the relatively high adoption rate in part to the fact that the customization feature takes no training or onboarding to use. Among the new widgets added Thursday that shippers can add to their preferred system views are a carbon emissions estimator, a COVID-19 insights hub, and a duty drawback calculator. Te Pas said the goal is to build out that application marketplace over time, as well as to build more granular pre-configurations of the website based on the type of company, the region, and the specific user. “Someone in trade compliance is going to want a different view of the data than someone in finance, whereas a logistics manager will want a more analytics- and reporting-oriented view,” he said. One step closer to a larger goal The customizable nature of the system points at a future state that Flexport has long targeted: one where global logistics and trade compliance is a product manageable via a web browser. Chen hinted at this in an online conversation with JOC.com in early March. “Does something exist in the industry already, and can we use it?” he said when asked if Flexport prioritizes building technology or using pre-existing software to solve a problem. “If there’s an existing platform today that’s already connected, the goal is to integrate it and [make it interoperable] with other systems. But a lot of our tech is designed to help our operational flow. Our resources are spent on those issues and productizing it.” The arrival of Chen in mid-2019, from a technology leadership role at Amazon Global Logistics, has had a catalyzing effect on Flexport’s software development, with a clear focus on becoming a platform as much as a forwarder with proprietary technology. His arrival came months after Flexport got a $1 billion investment led by the Softbank Vision Fund. According to LinkedIn data, the company’s hiring has slowed down significantly in 2020 (even prior to COVID-19), more reflective of a software company than a forwarder that invests in having boots on the ground in various regions. “Being the forwarder itself is a huge advantage,” Chen said this week. “We get to see what is actually happening.” That is translating to what Chen described as an environment where Flexport is making up to 100 product updates to its platform on a daily basis, something that would have been all but impossible using legacy technology. Currently, the platform extends only to customers and to Flexport’s network of partner 3PL agents, which have access to some of the Flexport system. Chen said that whereas those agents previously had access to about 10 percent of the system, they will now be able to use about half of the functions in the system, specifically those around data digitization and sharing. “There’s a lot of internal tech we’d like to open to partners,” he said. The system update comes as Flexport’s forwarding competitors large and small are endeavoring to provide better user experiences to customers, including features such as instant quoting, predictive estimated times of arrival, and intuitive shipment management portals. If Flexport does indeed have broad platform aims beyond the traditional forwarding market, it will invariably enter the orbit of bigger commerce and software platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, Shopify, and Salesforce, all of which have varying ambitions when it comes to serving the logistics industry. Chen sees those companies as complementary to Flexport’s ambitions. “There are not any [platforms] dedicated to forwarding or the global trade space,” he said. “Hopefully we can provide an integrated service end to end because if you’re a logistics manager, I’m not sure you want to be logging into Salesforce. I hope we can work with one another really well.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @LogTechEric .

Logistics Technology News

Flexport new configurability tools hint at broader aims

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Shaun Stevenson, who guided development of Prince Rupert’s Fairview Container Terminal and the port’s intermodal services to Chicago and eastern Canada, is leaving at year’s end after 28 years with the port, including the last seven as CEO. </div>

Shaun Stevenson, who guided development of Prince Rupert’s Fairview Container Terminal and the port’s intermodal services to Chicago and eastern Canada, is leaving at year’s end after 28 years with the port, including the last seven as CEO.

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<div class="phx-topic">Shaun Stevenson is ending a 28-year tenure at the Prince Rupert Port Authority, where as CEO and president for the last seven years he oversaw major infrastructure projects and guided the port through post-pandemic challenges. Stevenson is retiring at year’s end, the port authority announced Monday, adding it will initiate a comprehensive search for a new CEO. He was instrumental in the development of the port’s Fairview Container Terminal, which opened in 2007, and in developing and diversifying the port’s cargo base. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together with our partners, including over $3 billion in transformative trade development currently underway at the gateway,” Stevenson said in a statement. Stevenson guided Prince Rupert’s efforts to develop import and export <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/prince-rupert-promoting-transload-operations-to-improve-logistics-efficiency-5937532">transloading facilities to diversify the port’s cargo base</a>, as well as construction of a <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/aro-2020-canadian-ports-preparing-for-strong-cargo-growth-5223107">second berth at Fairview</a> and expansion of the railyard to increase intermodal capacity. “Under Shaun’s leadership we’ve experienced unprecedented growth and diversification at the Port of Prince Rupert,” said Peter Lantin, chairman of the Prince Rupert Port Authority Board of Directors. Since it attracted the first Cosco Shipping service in 2007, Prince Rupert steadily grew its volumes until container lines began dropping calls during the pandemic in a bid to restore ocean reliability. The port has yet to fully recover those lost volumes. A British Columbia <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/bc-ports-to-reopen-but-longshore-union-plans-challenge-to-back-to-work-order-5810473">port strike in 2024</a> hurt the reputation of the gateway that is used for US-bound cargo to Chicago. Prince Rupert is a key trans-Pacific gateway for Canada and the US, with Canadian National’s intermodal services to Chicago and Canadian load centers in the eastern half of the country. The port handled 404,225 laden TEUs year-to-date through August, up 5% from 383,458 TEUs during the same period last year, according to the port’s website, but down 44.7% compared to the first eight months of 2020. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Shaun Stevenson is ending a 28-year tenure at the Prince Rupert Port Authority, where as CEO and president for the last seven years he oversaw major infrastructure projects and guided the port through post-pandemic challenges. Stevenson is retiring at year’s end, the port authority announced Monday, adding it will initiate a comprehensive search for a new CEO. He was instrumental in the development of the port’s Fairview Container Terminal, which opened in 2007, and in developing and diversifying the port’s cargo base. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together with our partners, including over $3 billion in transformative trade development currently underway at the gateway,” Stevenson said in a statement. Stevenson guided Prince Rupert’s efforts to develop import and export transloading facilities to diversify the port’s cargo base , as well as construction of a second berth at Fairview and expansion of the railyard to increase intermodal capacity. “Under Shaun’s leadership we’ve experienced unprecedented growth and diversification at the Port of Prince Rupert,” said Peter Lantin, chairman of the Prince Rupert Port Authority Board of Directors. Since it attracted the first Cosco Shipping service in 2007, Prince Rupert steadily grew its volumes until container lines began dropping calls during the pandemic in a bid to restore ocean reliability. The port has yet to fully recover those lost volumes. A British Columbia port strike in 2024 hurt the reputation of the gateway that is used for US-bound cargo to Chicago. Prince Rupert is a key trans-Pacific gateway for Canada and the US, with Canadian National’s intermodal services to Chicago and Canadian load centers in the eastern half of the country. The port handled 404,225 laden TEUs year-to-date through August, up 5% from 383,458 TEUs during the same period last year, according to the port’s website, but down 44.7% compared to the first eight months of 2020. Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Port News

North American ports

Maritime

Prince Rupert searching for new CEO after Stevenson announces retirement

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Upheaval in global trade is putting more pressure on forwarders to invest in automation to price their services quickly and more effectively, an area that startup Nexcade is targeting.</div>

Upheaval in global trade is putting more pressure on forwarders to invest in automation to price their services quickly and more effectively, an area that startup Nexcade is targeting.

<div class="phx-topic">A new automation software vendor catering to forwarders said Tuesday it landed a $2.5 million funding round, a further sign of the venture capital industry’s interest in supporting platforms that target inefficiency in global logistics. The company, Nexcade, has a customer list that includes Zencargo, Cardinal Global Logistics and XPO, and said it intends to use the funding to grow its customer base by 10 times over the next 12 months. Nexcade builds digital agents for logistics teams to automate pricing, quoting and procurement. That essentially allows those teams to grow capacity without adding headcount and also lets them pull unstructured data from emails and PDFs into decision-making tools. “While the [transportation management system] is the system of record for our customers, many of the conversations, decisions and data that drive freight never make it inside,” Nexcade CEO Dan Bailey said in a statement. “That missing information is where revenue is lost and service breaks down. Bridging that gap is the only way to unlock real automation and enable the revenue growth and operational resilience forwarders need in today’s market.” Bailey added that Nexcade is initially focusing on rate and contract automation because they are the core activities that underpin the forwarding business. Bailey was a former operations executive with Sedna, a software vendor that helps maritime and logistics companies organize tasks across their organizations. Co-founder Tasho Kjosev previously served in technical roles at artificial intelligence (AI) specialists UnlikelyAI and Palantir. Nexcade enters a market awash in AI, automation and agentic solutions from startups founded over the last decade like Raft to decades-old incumbents like WiseTech Global. A crop of agentic workflow providers catering to logistics companies has also emerged in the last two years, signaling their ability to create agents to tackle simple tasks or connect systems and data synchronously. The advent of AI agents comes as the forwarding industry is reckoning with the impact that US tariffs and economic uncertainty are having on container trade volumes. Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com.</a></div>

A new automation software vendor catering to forwarders said Tuesday it landed a $2.5 million funding round, a further sign of the venture capital industry’s interest in supporting platforms that target inefficiency in global logistics. The company, Nexcade, has a customer list that includes Zencargo, Cardinal Global Logistics and XPO, and said it intends to use the funding to grow its customer base by 10 times over the next 12 months. Nexcade builds digital agents for logistics teams to automate pricing, quoting and procurement. That essentially allows those teams to grow capacity without adding headcount and also lets them pull unstructured data from emails and PDFs into decision-making tools. “While the [transportation management system] is the system of record for our customers, many of the conversations, decisions and data that drive freight never make it inside,” Nexcade CEO Dan Bailey said in a statement. “That missing information is where revenue is lost and service breaks down. Bridging that gap is the only way to unlock real automation and enable the revenue growth and operational resilience forwarders need in today’s market.” Bailey added that Nexcade is initially focusing on rate and contract automation because they are the core activities that underpin the forwarding business. Bailey was a former operations executive with Sedna, a software vendor that helps maritime and logistics companies organize tasks across their organizations. Co-founder Tasho Kjosev previously served in technical roles at artificial intelligence (AI) specialists UnlikelyAI and Palantir. Nexcade enters a market awash in AI, automation and agentic solutions from startups founded over the last decade like Raft to decades-old incumbents like WiseTech Global. A crop of agentic workflow providers catering to logistics companies has also emerged in the last two years, signaling their ability to create agents to tackle simple tasks or connect systems and data synchronously. The advent of AI agents comes as the forwarding industry is reckoning with the impact that US tariffs and economic uncertainty are having on container trade volumes. Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com.

Supply chain

New automation provider emerges to tackle forwarder quoting inefficiencies

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">But if current rate competition doesn’t possess the edge it did in prior years, the question is why and whether that matters if the overall effect is to substantially lower rates for shippers in a down market, writes Peter Tirschwell. </div>

But if current rate competition doesn’t possess the edge it did in prior years, the question is why and whether that matters if the overall effect is to substantially lower rates for shippers in a down market, writes Peter Tirschwell.

<div class="phx-topic">Does the recent rate plunge in the eastbound trans-Pacific — with trade from Asia to the US West Coast down 28% since mid-September after having fallen 66% since June amid a deepening sense of gloom among carriers — qualify as a “rate war?” Before answering, it might help to define “rate war” in a container shipping context. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6093418_0.1.jpg"></img></div>Although the term has surfaced in recent weeks to describe rates in the vicinity of loss-making for carriers, it was more common in the 1990s. Back then, it described not just downward rate adjustments by carriers to reflect realities of supply and demand, but predatory moves by one carrier on another’s book of business, a result of animosity and carriers’ single-minded focused on market share. Many believe that the market has moved on from those days. While it’s as price competitive as ever despite significant consolidation, animosity among carriers has subsided over the years despite well-known rivalries, particularly among family-owned European carriers. For example, it would be unusual for a carrier CEO to make remarks today similar to this one from Nils Smedegaard Anderson of Maersk during the Great Recession in 2009, as reported by American Shipper: “We will not allow anyone to take market share from us by systematically undercutting our prices. If it comes down to that we’re ready to fight it out on prices.” “If a rate war is to be defined as 1) lowering the rate to below break-even level and 2) that is with the intent to harm another player with the potential goal of forcing consolidation, then I agree that today’s situation is not a rate war,” said Nils Roche, former deputy general manager for operations at PIL who wrote about the topic <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/y25m9-war-new-normal-nils-roche-7nrjc/">in his newsletter</a>. “Carriers no longer follow the traditional path of predatory pricing,” said Jon Monroe, the veteran carrier, non-vessel-operating common carrier and technology executive. “I believe the carriers have too much at stake to play the oldest games of predatory pricing. That does not mean they won’t drop their rates for more business.” For some, that is the point — it doesn’t matter what you call it when rates are headed south amid overcapacity and evaporating volumes, and the mantra from on high is “My ship must be full, do as you must,” as Roche said. But if current rate competition lacks the edge it did in prior years, the question is why and whether it matters if the overall effect is to substantially lower rates for shippers in a down market. <h3>Recent carrier experiences are more shared than divergent </h3>The atmosphere among carriers has changed in part due to recent experience, which is more shared than divergent. On one hand, carriers are going their separate ways in acquisitions and business models, pursuing more holistic relationships with shippers covering a range of logistics services. But having said that, the accumulation of record profits during COVID-19 and the subsequent discovery after years of self-doubt that making money is within their reach, solidified a shared view among carriers that actions contrary to the interests of their customers — such as blank sailings, slow steaming at scale or imposing multi-thousand-dollar rate increases at the first sign of market tightness — are no longer regrettable, but desirable in pursuit of profits that for decades had been elusive. One factor that could accrue to shippers’ benefit is in some ways the best of both worlds: a free and transparent market in freight rates occurring in parallel with efforts by several carriers to build deeper partnerships with shippers that in a down market they will struggle to be fully compensated for. The first half-year of the Gemini alliance of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd largely delivered the very high on-time reliability initially promised, but they are struggling so far to translate that into premium pricing. “I don’t think customers have experienced this long enough that they’re ready to entertain such a discussion, but it is something that is going to come,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc told investors on Aug. 7. In other words, as the market deteriorates in the fall of 2025, Gemini is mirroring earlier carrier struggles to translate reliability into profitability, similar to Daily Maersk launched in 2011 or APL maintaining high schedule reliability in the trans-Pacific. Until the market rebounds, they may have to settle for stickiness in regard to customer relationships and cargo on their ships, but not pricing. Contact Peter Tirschwell at <a href="mailto:peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com">peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Does the recent rate plunge in the eastbound trans-Pacific — with trade from Asia to the US West Coast down 28% since mid-September after having fallen 66% since June amid a deepening sense of gloom among carriers — qualify as a “rate war?” Before answering, it might help to define “rate war” in a container shipping context. Although the term has surfaced in recent weeks to describe rates in the vicinity of loss-making for carriers, it was more common in the 1990s. Back then, it described not just downward rate adjustments by carriers to reflect realities of supply and demand, but predatory moves by one carrier on another’s book of business, a result of animosity and carriers’ single-minded focused on market share. Many believe that the market has moved on from those days. While it’s as price competitive as ever despite significant consolidation, animosity among carriers has subsided over the years despite well-known rivalries, particularly among family-owned European carriers. For example, it would be unusual for a carrier CEO to make remarks today similar to this one from Nils Smedegaard Anderson of Maersk during the Great Recession in 2009, as reported by American Shipper: “We will not allow anyone to take market share from us by systematically undercutting our prices. If it comes down to that we’re ready to fight it out on prices.” “If a rate war is to be defined as 1) lowering the rate to below break-even level and 2) that is with the intent to harm another player with the potential goal of forcing consolidation, then I agree that today’s situation is not a rate war,” said Nils Roche, former deputy general manager for operations at PIL who wrote about the topic in his newsletter . “Carriers no longer follow the traditional path of predatory pricing,” said Jon Monroe, the veteran carrier, non-vessel-operating common carrier and technology executive. “I believe the carriers have too much at stake to play the oldest games of predatory pricing. That does not mean they won’t drop their rates for more business.” For some, that is the point — it doesn’t matter what you call it when rates are headed south amid overcapacity and evaporating volumes, and the mantra from on high is “My ship must be full, do as you must,” as Roche said. But if current rate competition lacks the edge it did in prior years, the question is why and whether it matters if the overall effect is to substantially lower rates for shippers in a down market. Recent carrier experiences are more shared than divergent The atmosphere among carriers has changed in part due to recent experience, which is more shared than divergent. On one hand, carriers are going their separate ways in acquisitions and business models, pursuing more holistic relationships with shippers covering a range of logistics services. But having said that, the accumulation of record profits during COVID-19 and the subsequent discovery after years of self-doubt that making money is within their reach, solidified a shared view among carriers that actions contrary to the interests of their customers — such as blank sailings, slow steaming at scale or imposing multi-thousand-dollar rate increases at the first sign of market tightness — are no longer regrettable, but desirable in pursuit of profits that for decades had been elusive. One factor that could accrue to shippers’ benefit is in some ways the best of both worlds: a free and transparent market in freight rates occurring in parallel with efforts by several carriers to build deeper partnerships with shippers that in a down market they will struggle to be fully compensated for. The first half-year of the Gemini alliance of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd largely delivered the very high on-time reliability initially promised, but they are struggling so far to translate that into premium pricing. “I don’t think customers have experienced this long enough that they’re ready to entertain such a discussion, but it is something that is going to come,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc told investors on Aug. 7. In other words, as the market deteriorates in the fall of 2025, Gemini is mirroring earlier carrier struggles to translate reliability into profitability, similar to Daily Maersk launched in 2011 or APL maintaining high schedule reliability in the trans-Pacific. Until the market rebounds, they may have to settle for stickiness in regard to customer relationships and cargo on their ships, but not pricing. Contact Peter Tirschwell at peter.tirschwell@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Trans-Pacific

Container Shipping News

Current trans-Pacific price plunge lacks the echoes of prior ‘rate wars’

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Shippers and their forwarders will soon be launching long-term contract tenders for 2026 as the spot market — which heavily influences the contract market — slides closer to pre-Red Sea attack levels. </div>

Shippers and their forwarders will soon be launching long-term contract tenders for 2026 as the spot market — which heavily influences the contract market — slides closer to pre-Red Sea attack levels.

<div class="phx-topic">Asia-Europe ocean carriers are under mounting pressure to raise rate levels on the westbound trade, while shippers can expect aggressive capacity management action by carriers as the annual contract negotiation season draws closer, forwarders on the trade lane say. Shippers and their forwarders will soon be launching long-term contract tenders for 2026 as the spot market — which heavily influences the contract market — slides closer to pre-Red Sea attack levels. Helge Neumann-Lezius, global head of full container load (FCL) at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, said “loads of tenders” will go out in the next two months, with the expectation that long-term rates will come down for the next season. “There is already a rate war [on Asia-Europe], and I think the only part that helped the industry not end up in a race to the bottom is that we have very few tenders out,” Neumann-Lezius told the Journal of Commerce. “A lot of people are counting on that, which means tenders will start to be launched, some of them with the pressure of their companies being in difficult situations,” he added. “That is the context behind the new tender launches — the companies themselves are having a difficult time, and their volumes will be more unpredictable.” Asia-North Europe spot rates are at $1,300 per FEU, down 57% year over year, while Asia-Mediterranean rates of $1,600 are down 53.5%, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. The spot market has plummeted since reaching $3,340/FEU in July on Asia-North Europe and $4,660/FEU on Asia-Mediterranean in June. Average long-term rates for China to North Europe signed in the last three months were at $3,582/FEU as of Monday, down 56% compared with the same time last year, data from industry analyst Xeneta shows. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="73f31d19-63a1-4d2b-950b-193943809ae3"></dynamic-object></div>Still, with no guarantee that rates will continue to decline through the fourth quarter, Sanjay Tejwani, CEO of consulting firm 365 Logistics, warned shippers to expect aggressive capacity and rate-managing action from carriers in October and early November in the run-up to contract talks. “We have seen the push by carriers to implement rate increases — the next one is mid-October — and there will be some additional ad hoc blank sailings on top of the 17% blanks already announced,” he said. Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will be setting Asia-North Europe freight-all-kinds (FAK) rates at between $2,400/FEU and $2,660/FEU as of Oct. 15, with Asia-Mediterranean rates between $3,500/FEU and $4,600/FEU. Capacity removed through blank sailings in October has reached 195,116 TEUs, up from 109,000 TEUs in September, Xeneta data shows. But deployed capacity is up from 988,600 TEUs in September to just shy of 1.2 million TEUs in October. That number drops sharply in November to 1 million TEUs, with blank sailings announced for the month standing at 108,720 TEUs thus far. “It’s extremely important for carriers to manage capacity and supply versus demand in this quarter, otherwise they are doomed in terms of the contracting season for next year,” Tejwani said. <h3>Annual contracts ‘not all about rates’ </h3>Just how the negotiating environment will shape up remains uncertain, with carriers facing a widening capacity overhang and demand undermined by weak European economies. Drewry Supply Chain Advisors noted in a market update this week that as inflationary pressures on freight rates stemming from Red Sea disruptions, frontloading and tariff-related issues begin to ease, shippers are likely to negotiate more favorable contract rates and improved terms with carriers and forwarders for 2026. But the contract talks should not only be about rates, warned Chantal McRoberts, director of Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. “Other than the prospect of lower contract rates for shippers, the other important aspect of bid strategy for 2026 contracts is risk management and resilience,” she said. Drewry is advising its shipper customers to review their carrier contract language to include longer payment terms, more service quality commitments and clauses to control surcharges such as detention and demurrage. In some cases, Drewry is also recommending that shippers include a clause where a rate review is triggered if market prices collapse. Tejwani told the Journal of Commerce that if cargo owners wanted to avoid having their contracts torn up should the tide turn, they would sign annual rates above loss-making levels for the oversupplied carriers. “Some carriers may blink first and sign deals at very low rates, but the minute you have a rush coming in, those contracts are not going to be worth the paper they’re written on, and I think a lot of shippers realize this,” he said. “If shippers really want to have a smooth supply chain for all of 2026 and access to capacity when the crunch comes, those smart shippers will agree to reasonable rate levels and not push carriers for the last single dollar,” Tejwani added. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Asia-Europe ocean carriers are under mounting pressure to raise rate levels on the westbound trade, while shippers can expect aggressive capacity management action by carriers as the annual contract negotiation season draws closer, forwarders on the trade lane say. Shippers and their forwarders will soon be launching long-term contract tenders for 2026 as the spot market — which heavily influences the contract market — slides closer to pre-Red Sea attack levels. Helge Neumann-Lezius, global head of full container load (FCL) at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, said “loads of tenders” will go out in the next two months, with the expectation that long-term rates will come down for the next season. “There is already a rate war [on Asia-Europe], and I think the only part that helped the industry not end up in a race to the bottom is that we have very few tenders out,” Neumann-Lezius told the Journal of Commerce. “A lot of people are counting on that, which means tenders will start to be launched, some of them with the pressure of their companies being in difficult situations,” he added. “That is the context behind the new tender launches — the companies themselves are having a difficult time, and their volumes will be more unpredictable.” Asia-North Europe spot rates are at $1,300 per FEU, down 57% year over year, while Asia-Mediterranean rates of $1,600 are down 53.5%, according to Platts, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. The spot market has plummeted since reaching $3,340/FEU in July on Asia-North Europe and $4,660/FEU on Asia-Mediterranean in June. Average long-term rates for China to North Europe signed in the last three months were at $3,582/FEU as of Monday, down 56% compared with the same time last year, data from industry analyst Xeneta shows. Still, with no guarantee that rates will continue to decline through the fourth quarter, Sanjay Tejwani, CEO of consulting firm 365 Logistics, warned shippers to expect aggressive capacity and rate-managing action from carriers in October and early November in the run-up to contract talks. “We have seen the push by carriers to implement rate increases — the next one is mid-October — and there will be some additional ad hoc blank sailings on top of the 17% blanks already announced,” he said. Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will be setting Asia-North Europe freight-all-kinds (FAK) rates at between $2,400/FEU and $2,660/FEU as of Oct. 15, with Asia-Mediterranean rates between $3,500/FEU and $4,600/FEU. Capacity removed through blank sailings in October has reached 195,116 TEUs, up from 109,000 TEUs in September, Xeneta data shows. But deployed capacity is up from 988,600 TEUs in September to just shy of 1.2 million TEUs in October. That number drops sharply in November to 1 million TEUs, with blank sailings announced for the month standing at 108,720 TEUs thus far. “It’s extremely important for carriers to manage capacity and supply versus demand in this quarter, otherwise they are doomed in terms of the contracting season for next year,” Tejwani said. Annual contracts ‘not all about rates’ Just how the negotiating environment will shape up remains uncertain, with carriers facing a widening capacity overhang and demand undermined by weak European economies. Drewry Supply Chain Advisors noted in a market update this week that as inflationary pressures on freight rates stemming from Red Sea disruptions, frontloading and tariff-related issues begin to ease, shippers are likely to negotiate more favorable contract rates and improved terms with carriers and forwarders for 2026. But the contract talks should not only be about rates, warned Chantal McRoberts, director of Drewry Supply Chain Advisors. “Other than the prospect of lower contract rates for shippers, the other important aspect of bid strategy for 2026 contracts is risk management and resilience,” she said. Drewry is advising its shipper customers to review their carrier contract language to include longer payment terms, more service quality commitments and clauses to control surcharges such as detention and demurrage. In some cases, Drewry is also recommending that shippers include a clause where a rate review is triggered if market prices collapse. Tejwani told the Journal of Commerce that if cargo owners wanted to avoid having their contracts torn up should the tide turn, they would sign annual rates above loss-making levels for the oversupplied carriers. “Some carriers may blink first and sign deals at very low rates, but the minute you have a rush coming in, those contracts are not going to be worth the paper they’re written on, and I think a lot of shippers realize this,” he said. “If shippers really want to have a smooth supply chain for all of 2026 and access to capacity when the crunch comes, those smart shippers will agree to reasonable rate levels and not push carriers for the last single dollar,” Tejwani added. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Forwarding

Asia-Europe

Contract season looms for ocean carriers facing Asia-Europe rate slump

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Micah Mallace, who served for over a decade at the port, will return to take the reins as chief executive. </div>

Micah Mallace, who served for over a decade at the port, will return to take the reins as chief executive.

<div class="phx-topic">The South Carolina Port Authority (SC Ports) picked as its new chief executive a former insider at the port who was key in attracting Walmart to Charleston. On Monday, its SC Ports’ board of directors voted unanimously to approve Micah Mallace as its next President and Chief Executive for a five-year contract. Mallace, who was most recently president of Charleston-based third-party logistics provider Harbor Logistics, worked at SC Ports from 2011 through 2022, where he served in various roles before being named chief commercial officer. SC Ports said in a statement announcing his new role that Mallace “facilitated numerous commercial successes, including attracting Walmart to build a new import distribution center near the Port of Charleston.” “I am humbled by the opportunity to serve as the next President and CEO at SC Ports,” Mallace said in the statement. “The port team and South Carolina’s broader maritime community provide port service that is unmatched, and I know, together, we will further strengthen our competitiveness.” Interim SC President Phil Padgett will resume his role as chief financial officer. Mallace will deliver his first State of the Port address on Oct. 28, where he will provide industry updates and lay out his vision for the future of SC Ports. One issue that Mallace will now face as chief executive is ensuring the success of Charleston’s Navy Base Intermodal Facility, the port’s first on-dock rail. The project’s opening has been delayed due to design changes and budget overruns that <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/charlestons-navy-base-rail-yard-project-faces-delays-big-cost-overruns-6070926">prompted the resignation of SC Ports’ previous chief executive</a>. While the port has committed to fully developing the project, it remains unclear whether it will also pay for necessary track sidings that Norfolk Southern requested for accessing Navy Base. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The South Carolina Port Authority (SC Ports) picked as its new chief executive a former insider at the port who was key in attracting Walmart to Charleston. On Monday, its SC Ports’ board of directors voted unanimously to approve Micah Mallace as its next President and Chief Executive for a five-year contract. Mallace, who was most recently president of Charleston-based third-party logistics provider Harbor Logistics, worked at SC Ports from 2011 through 2022, where he served in various roles before being named chief commercial officer. SC Ports said in a statement announcing his new role that Mallace “facilitated numerous commercial successes, including attracting Walmart to build a new import distribution center near the Port of Charleston.” “I am humbled by the opportunity to serve as the next President and CEO at SC Ports,” Mallace said in the statement. “The port team and South Carolina’s broader maritime community provide port service that is unmatched, and I know, together, we will further strengthen our competitiveness.” Interim SC President Phil Padgett will resume his role as chief financial officer. Mallace will deliver his first State of the Port address on Oct. 28, where he will provide industry updates and lay out his vision for the future of SC Ports. One issue that Mallace will now face as chief executive is ensuring the success of Charleston’s Navy Base Intermodal Facility, the port’s first on-dock rail. The project’s opening has been delayed due to design changes and budget overruns that prompted the resignation of SC Ports’ previous chief executive . While the port has committed to fully developing the project, it remains unclear whether it will also pay for necessary track sidings that Norfolk Southern requested for accessing Navy Base. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

SC Ports taps former commercial executive to lead

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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>

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Filling the Supply Chain Education Gap with LTL Education Courses

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