March and April are critical months for ocean carriers looking to ink annual freight contracts with shippers, including the world’s biggest retailers, but this year contract season is turning into a waiting game. The $2,500 spread between spot market rates and long-term freight contract rates for Asia to U.S. West Coast containers has reached its … Read more
A tanker truck sits near a Parker Drilling Co. oil rig in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017. Four decades after the Trans Alaska Pipeline System went live, transforming the North Slope into a modern-day Klondike, many Alaskans fear the best days have passed. Photographer: Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images … Read more
The Toronto Express container ship, operated by Hapag-Lloyd AG at the Port of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. Maria Feck | Bloomberg | Getty Images Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest ocean carrier, tells CNBC he has an improved view on trade for the rest of 2024. Conversations … Read more
The potential for a strike by the largest union of maritime workers in North America, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is beginning to rise on the list of concerns among logistics decision-makers and advisors in a year already fraught with a multitude of trade uncertainties. Red Sea diversions and Panama Canal drought restrictions are already influencing … Read more
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The transports industry remains under a cloud of uncertainty. The Covid boom fueled a major stock rally, but it was followed by a freight recession, overcapacity in ocean shipping and trucking, and now a sector rebound in a strong economy. All the companies involved in the movement of global … Read more
The battle for the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea has expanded with the entrance of a European Commission naval defense effort in the past week, and more U.S. and allied strikes against Houthi land targets over the weekend, but to date, combined military efforts have not deterred rebel attacks. On Saturday evening, United … Read more
PUNTLAND, SOMALIA – JANUARY 29: Puntland Maritime Police Forces (PMPF) are patrolling against the recently increasing pirate attacks off the coast in Puntland, Somalia on January 29, 2024. (Photo by Abuukar Mohamed Muhidin/Anadolu via Getty Images) Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images Somali pirates are back on the attack, with piracy around the Horn of … Read more
Camille Delbos/art In All Of Us | Corbis News | Getty Images The sharp, sudden spike in supply chain inflation caused by the Red Sea crisis and ongoing attacks on shipping vessels by Houthi rebels may have peaked on key global trade routes, based on analysis of the latest data from Xeneta, a leading ocean … Read more
A cargo ship crosses the Suez Canal, one of the most critical human-made waterways, in Ismailia, Egypt on December 29, 2023. Fareed Kotb | Anadolu | Getty Images The world’s largest shipping company, MSC, and several retail and trade experts warned Congress on Tuesday that if the Red Sea chaos caused by Houthi rebel attacks … Read more
Cargo ships dock at the Longtan Container Terminal of Nanjing Port to load and unload containers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, Sept 6, 2023. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images A slowdown in demand for products manufactured in Asia has ocean carriers reducing freight rates on shipping routes from China to the West Coast and … Read more
