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<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The board of regional LTL carrier Central Freight Lines agreed to a takeover offer from Jerry Moyes,</div>

The board of regional LTL carrier Central Freight Lines agreed to a takeover offer from Jerry Moyes,

<div>The board of regional LTL carrier Central Freight Lines agreed to a takeover offer from Jerry Moyes, the largest shareholder of the financially troubled trucker, Central announced Monday. Waco, Texas-based Central said Moyes will pay $2.25 per share for the 68.5 percent of the company that he and his family trusts do not already control. The price is a 24 percent premium over Central's closing share price of $1.81 last week but is also a fraction of the better than $19 price Central's stock commanded at its peak in February 2004. That was shortly after the company staged an initial...

The board of regional LTL carrier Central Freight Lines agreed to a takeover offer from Jerry Moyes, the largest shareholder of the financially troubled trucker, Central announced Monday. Waco, Texas-based Central said Moyes will pay $2.25 per share for the 68.5 percent of the company that he and his family trusts do not already control. The price is a 24 percent premium over Central's closing share price of $1.81 last week but is also a fraction of the better than $19 price Central's stock commanded at its peak in February 2004. That was shortly after the company staged an initial public offering with a price of better than $16 and just as a boom in the domestic American economy triggered strong trucking demand. Central has not shown the benefits of the national economic growth, however. The company has reported persistent financial losses, including $27.8 million in net losses through the first nine months of last year. The company's unaudited balance sheet showed $356,000 in cash as of last Sept. 30, down from $2.1 million the previous year, against $60.4 million in debt. Central President and CEO Bob Fasso said the buyout will allow Central to focus on its ongoing attempts to improve service and operating performance. "This transaction represents an endorsement of our ongoing commitment to provide our customers with excellent value and service," Fasso said in a statement.

Trucking News

Central Agrees to Takeover

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Tighter capacity amid the federal government’s crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and English language proficiency among drivers will likely boost rates, the company says.</div>

Tighter capacity amid the federal government’s crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and English language proficiency among drivers will likely boost rates, the company says.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">Truckload shippers should expect their annual contract rates to rise by low-to mid-single-digit percentages due to the likelihood of tighter capacity this year, according to Knight-Swift Transportation. Negotiations are ongoing or about to begin with many truckload customers. The company said the momentum that propelled rates upward in December had trickled into the first couple of weeks of January, while more shippers are shifting their business from non-asset brokers to asset-based carriers. Shippers are making the move because of uneasiness about the federal government’s crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and English language proficiency among drivers, Knight Swift said. Shippers who have spoken to the Journal of Commerce have generally said truckload rates are rising 1.5% to 3% in their 2026 bids, although some have been able to lock in unchanged rates by switching away from incumbent carriers. “What we’d be pushing for would be low-to mid-single-digit improvements in contract rates and maybe closer to mid than low,” Knight Swift CEO Adam Miller said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday. “Maybe that may not align with what our customers want to see in a pre-bid. Some of this stuff is going to go into a bid to see where the market is from a balance standpoint.” Despite what Knight Swift said was a disappointing peak season, it believes capacity is fragile, as the December spot market surge in truckload showed, and more capacity will come out this year. If a disruption occurred, or manufacturing and industrial demand pick up, then capacity might become tight quickly. Knight-Swift, similar to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/truckload-at-a-tipping-point-intermodal-still-lagging-jb-hunt-6153949">J.B. Hunt Transport Services last week</a>, was careful not to call the end of the freight recession. “We’ve seen head fakes before, but I think we’re feeling better about where this market is headed,” Miller said. “And we do feel better about what the [US Department of Transportation] is doing to clean up capacity in our industry.” The US Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a sub-agency, have cracked down on non-domiciled CDLs issued to non-citizens who have certain types of visas, including asylum seekers. Miller also pointed out that temporary protective status is ending for countries such as Ethiopia, Haiti, and Somalia, which would disqualify those drivers from continuing to operate a truck here. “Also, there were 3,000 [driving] schools recently removed because of noncompliance and another 4,000 schools that have placed on notice for noncompliance,” Miller said. “Two of our schools at Swift were audited, and we passed with flying colors, as we’d expect. So, it is real. It is happening.” <h3>Consolidating LTL business </h3>Knight Swift said it saw some “softness” in less-than-truckload (LTL) demand toward the end of the fourth quarter. The company’s emphasis in 2026 is uniting all its LTL businesses under one brand, AAA Cooper Transportation. When Knight Swift started its LTL division in July 2021, it kept the AAA Cooper and Midwest Motor Express brands separate. It continued to keep the brands separate when acquiring the LTL division of Dependable Highway Express in 2024. Nevertheless, it has reversed course because the company believes it has caused confusion among existing and potential LTL shippers. “We had integrated systems from a back-end perspective between the three businesses that we have combined, [but] it was creating confusion in our sales efforts,” Miller said. “We’ve already seen [a united brand] really help us in our sales efforts to present a single face to our customers and get them comfortable with our ability to deliver across our network in a way that meets their needs.” The company’s intermodal volumes decreased 6% year over year in the fourth quarter, but revenue per load rose 2.8%. Nevertheless, the company highlighted that the division’s operating ratio was 100.1%, still losing money, but only barely, after years of significant operating losses in the business. Swift Intermodal and Hub Group are the two companies who would most benefit if federal regulators approved a deal for Union Pacific Railroad to acquire Norfolk Southern Railway. They are the only two asset-owning intermodal providers in the US who are already exclusive partners to both railroads, making any transition in 2027 relatively seamless. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="mailto:ari.ashe@spglobal.com">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Truckload shippers should expect their annual contract rates to rise by low-to mid-single-digit percentages due to the likelihood of tighter capacity this year, according to Knight-Swift Transportation. Negotiations are ongoing or about to begin with many truckload customers. The company said the momentum that propelled rates upward in December had trickled into the first couple of weeks of January, while more shippers are shifting their business from non-asset brokers to asset-based carriers. Shippers are making the move because of uneasiness about the federal government’s crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and English language proficiency among drivers, Knight Swift said. Shippers who have spoken to the Journal of Commerce have generally said truckload rates are rising 1.5% to 3% in their 2026 bids, although some have been able to lock in unchanged rates by switching away from incumbent carriers. “What we’d be pushing for would be low-to mid-single-digit improvements in contract rates and maybe closer to mid than low,” Knight Swift CEO Adam Miller said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday. “Maybe that may not align with what our customers want to see in a pre-bid. Some of this stuff is going to go into a bid to see where the market is from a balance standpoint.” Despite what Knight Swift said was a disappointing peak season, it believes capacity is fragile, as the December spot market surge in truckload showed, and more capacity will come out this year. If a disruption occurred, or manufacturing and industrial demand pick up, then capacity might become tight quickly. Knight-Swift, similar to J.B. Hunt Transport Services last week , was careful not to call the end of the freight recession. “We’ve seen head fakes before, but I think we’re feeling better about where this market is headed,” Miller said. “And we do feel better about what the [US Department of Transportation] is doing to clean up capacity in our industry.” The US Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a sub-agency, have cracked down on non-domiciled CDLs issued to non-citizens who have certain types of visas, including asylum seekers. Miller also pointed out that temporary protective status is ending for countries such as Ethiopia, Haiti, and Somalia, which would disqualify those drivers from continuing to operate a truck here. “Also, there were 3,000 [driving] schools recently removed because of noncompliance and another 4,000 schools that have placed on notice for noncompliance,” Miller said. “Two of our schools at Swift were audited, and we passed with flying colors, as we’d expect. So, it is real. It is happening.” Consolidating LTL business Knight Swift said it saw some “softness” in less-than-truckload (LTL) demand toward the end of the fourth quarter. The company’s emphasis in 2026 is uniting all its LTL businesses under one brand, AAA Cooper Transportation. When Knight Swift started its LTL division in July 2021, it kept the AAA Cooper and Midwest Motor Express brands separate. It continued to keep the brands separate when acquiring the LTL division of Dependable Highway Express in 2024. Nevertheless, it has reversed course because the company believes it has caused confusion among existing and potential LTL shippers. “We had integrated systems from a back-end perspective between the three businesses that we have combined, [but] it was creating confusion in our sales efforts,” Miller said. “We’ve already seen [a united brand] really help us in our sales efforts to present a single face to our customers and get them comfortable with our ability to deliver across our network in a way that meets their needs.” The company’s intermodal volumes decreased 6% year over year in the fourth quarter, but revenue per load rose 2.8%. Nevertheless, the company highlighted that the division’s operating ratio was 100.1%, still losing money, but only barely, after years of significant operating losses in the business. Swift Intermodal and Hub Group are the two companies who would most benefit if federal regulators approved a deal for Union Pacific Railroad to acquire Norfolk Southern Railway. They are the only two asset-owning intermodal providers in the US who are already exclusive partners to both railroads, making any transition in 2027 relatively seamless. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Truckload

Surface

Shippers will see rates climb as truckload capacity tightens: Knight Swift

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The LNG market is cementing its position as the alternative fuel of choice for the container shipping industry with significant expansion in ship orders and global bunkering infrastructure, a SEA-LNG report has found.</div>

The LNG market is cementing its position as the alternative fuel of choice for the container shipping industry with significant expansion in ship orders and global bunkering infrastructure, a SEA-LNG report has found.

<div class="phx-topic">Ocean carriers operating and ordering liquefied natural gas (LNG)-capable vessels are effectively “inoculating” themselves against ongoing regulatory uncertainty, according to industry coalition SEA-LNG. The shift to LNG as an interim alternative fuel reduces emissions to comply with European Union rules and has a lower cost of compliance with EU regulations and potential future decarbonization regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) compared with alternative fuels, SEA-LNG noted in its “View from the Bridge” report released this week. “It is clear LNG is on a runway to the future,” Peter Keller, chairman of SEA-LNG, told the Journal of Commerce in London following publication of the report. "Most of the alternative fuel ships in the container shipping order book are LNG-capable and our direction could not be clearer.” Despite uncertainties caused by the IMO’s decision to delay the adoption of its net-zero framework, the container shipping industry has continued to invest heavily in dual-fuel vessels and bunkering infrastructure. The swelling order book growth in 2025 was dominated by the container sector, which accounted for 88% of LNG dual-fuel orders, with 61% of those orders for vessels with a capacity of 14,500 to 24,000 TEUs. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="e8be4ac1-33cb-4758-93c4-1d0f92f52e7d"></dynamic-object></div>Data from Sea-web, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global, shows that just over 4 million TEUs of capacity for LNG dual-fuel ships was on order in 2025, compared with 2 million TEUs of methanol-capable vessels. The SEA-LNG report estimated that investment in LNG dual-fuel vessels and associated fuel supply chains over the past 10 years has amounted to more than $150 billion. A large portion of that is going into the supply side, with fuel availability at scale crucial for the global shipping industry. <h3>Surge in European demand </h3>The report said bunkering of liquefied biomethane has surged in Europe over the past year, driven by increasingly stringent EU regulations and voluntary, customer-related commitments. “Demand for LNG as a marine fuel has grown significantly over the past year, driven not only by regulatory developments like FuelEU Maritime but also by the growth of the LNG dual-fuel fleet,” Michael Schaap, commercial director of Titan Clean Fuels, said in the report. In 2024, the LNG market size was about 406 million metric tons, or approximately 100 times the current consumption of LNG as a marine fuel, the report noted. There is over 1 billion metric tons per annum of LNG import terminal capacity with terminals in or near all major bunkering ports. As demand from shipping grows for green methane, biomethane and e-methane, their production facilities can plug into the existing infrastructure. LNG bunkering is currently available in 222 ports worldwide, with plans underway to add a further 622. By the end of 2025, there were 62 LNG bunker vessels operating in hubs such as Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Barcelona, Singapore, Shanghai, and the US East Coast, and 38 LNG bunker vessels on order. Shell is forecasting an LNG bunker market size of more than 15 million metric tons per annum by 2030, driven by the rapid growth in the LNG dual-fuel fleet and projected declines in LNG prices. Future LNG prices are forecast to drop with approximately 170 million metric tons per annum of new liquefaction capacity coming on stream by 2030, representing about a 42% increase in LNG supply. Regulatory uncertainty reached a head in October last year when the IMO decided to <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/imo-punts-on-pivotal-net-zero-shipping-regulation-6099141">postpone the adoption of its global net-zero framework</a> for a year following robust US-led opposition to the proposed pricing and fuel intensity measures. The IMO will focus on building consensus around its net-zero framework this year before a reconvened Marine Environment Protection Committee meets in October to finalize the legally binding measures. While many member states and non-governmental groups were frustrated, the SEA-LNG report said the delay offered an opportunity for the IMO to find the right way forward. “We need certainty because without that we risk other components getting in the way,” SEA-LNG's Keller told the Journal of Commerce. “Regulations can bring unintended consequences, especially when you are dealing with 176 countries that all have their own ideas of what should be in the regulations.” <h3>Avoiding double compliance costs </h3>The SEA-LNG report called on the IMO to ensure a single global decarbonization framework for maritime, with any local or regional regulations converging with IMO regulations to avoid double compliance costs. The industry coalition wants the net-zero framework to be based on regulations that were goal-based and technology-neutral, protecting first movers and incentivizing solutions that were practical, scalable and investable. “If the IMO makes any fuel prescriptive it could hurt the early movers and we don’t want that,” Keller said. The SEA-LNG report also addressed “methane slip” from ships under power from LNG and “fugitive emissions” in the LNG supply chain, with climate activists pointing out that methane from fossil LNG is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 emissions. SEA-LNG said methane slip had to be resolved if LNG was going to become a long-term and viable solution toward net-zero, and the coalition and other industry groups were making progress in addressing the issue. The report stated that across the global LNG fueled fleet, methane slip in the latest low-pressure engine technologies had fallen by 60% and would be resolved by 2030. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Ocean carriers operating and ordering liquefied natural gas (LNG)-capable vessels are effectively “inoculating” themselves against ongoing regulatory uncertainty, according to industry coalition SEA-LNG. The shift to LNG as an interim alternative fuel reduces emissions to comply with European Union rules and has a lower cost of compliance with EU regulations and potential future decarbonization regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) compared with alternative fuels, SEA-LNG noted in its “View from the Bridge” report released this week. “It is clear LNG is on a runway to the future,” Peter Keller, chairman of SEA-LNG, told the Journal of Commerce in London following publication of the report. "Most of the alternative fuel ships in the container shipping order book are LNG-capable and our direction could not be clearer.” Despite uncertainties caused by the IMO’s decision to delay the adoption of its net-zero framework, the container shipping industry has continued to invest heavily in dual-fuel vessels and bunkering infrastructure. The swelling order book growth in 2025 was dominated by the container sector, which accounted for 88% of LNG dual-fuel orders, with 61% of those orders for vessels with a capacity of 14,500 to 24,000 TEUs. Data from Sea-web, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global, shows that just over 4 million TEUs of capacity for LNG dual-fuel ships was on order in 2025, compared with 2 million TEUs of methanol-capable vessels. The SEA-LNG report estimated that investment in LNG dual-fuel vessels and associated fuel supply chains over the past 10 years has amounted to more than $150 billion. A large portion of that is going into the supply side, with fuel availability at scale crucial for the global shipping industry. Surge in European demand The report said bunkering of liquefied biomethane has surged in Europe over the past year, driven by increasingly stringent EU regulations and voluntary, customer-related commitments. “Demand for LNG as a marine fuel has grown significantly over the past year, driven not only by regulatory developments like FuelEU Maritime but also by the growth of the LNG dual-fuel fleet,” Michael Schaap, commercial director of Titan Clean Fuels, said in the report. In 2024, the LNG market size was about 406 million metric tons, or approximately 100 times the current consumption of LNG as a marine fuel, the report noted. There is over 1 billion metric tons per annum of LNG import terminal capacity with terminals in or near all major bunkering ports. As demand from shipping grows for green methane, biomethane and e-methane, their production facilities can plug into the existing infrastructure. LNG bunkering is currently available in 222 ports worldwide, with plans underway to add a further 622. By the end of 2025, there were 62 LNG bunker vessels operating in hubs such as Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Barcelona, Singapore, Shanghai, and the US East Coast, and 38 LNG bunker vessels on order. Shell is forecasting an LNG bunker market size of more than 15 million metric tons per annum by 2030, driven by the rapid growth in the LNG dual-fuel fleet and projected declines in LNG prices. Future LNG prices are forecast to drop with approximately 170 million metric tons per annum of new liquefaction capacity coming on stream by 2030, representing about a 42% increase in LNG supply. Regulatory uncertainty reached a head in October last year when the IMO decided to postpone the adoption of its global net-zero framework for a year following robust US-led opposition to the proposed pricing and fuel intensity measures. The IMO will focus on building consensus around its net-zero framework this year before a reconvened Marine Environment Protection Committee meets in October to finalize the legally binding measures. While many member states and non-governmental groups were frustrated, the SEA-LNG report said the delay offered an opportunity for the IMO to find the right way forward. “We need certainty because without that we risk other components getting in the way,” SEA-LNG's Keller told the Journal of Commerce. “Regulations can bring unintended consequences, especially when you are dealing with 176 countries that all have their own ideas of what should be in the regulations.” Avoiding double compliance costs The SEA-LNG report called on the IMO to ensure a single global decarbonization framework for maritime, with any local or regional regulations converging with IMO regulations to avoid double compliance costs. The industry coalition wants the net-zero framework to be based on regulations that were goal-based and technology-neutral, protecting first movers and incentivizing solutions that were practical, scalable and investable. “If the IMO makes any fuel prescriptive it could hurt the early movers and we don’t want that,” Keller said. The SEA-LNG report also addressed “methane slip” from ships under power from LNG and “fugitive emissions” in the LNG supply chain, with climate activists pointing out that methane from fossil LNG is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 emissions. SEA-LNG said methane slip had to be resolved if LNG was going to become a long-term and viable solution toward net-zero, and the coalition and other industry groups were making progress in addressing the issue. The report stated that across the global LNG fueled fleet, methane slip in the latest low-pressure engine technologies had fallen by 60% and would be resolved by 2030. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Container Shipping News

Clear direction set for LNG amid ongoing regulatory uncertainty: industry group 

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The feeling that an arms race for bigger ships and a rush for alternative fuels has overtaken purely rational decision making is strong, writes Jeremy Masters.</div>

The feeling that an arms race for bigger ships and a rush for alternative fuels has overtaken purely rational decision making is strong, writes Jeremy Masters.

<div class="phx-topic">If you look at Alphaliner’s data on the cellular newbuilding order book, there are some striking numbers at both ends of the spectrum. The most obvious place to start is the 18,000- to 24,000-TEU range because that is where the biggest impacts are made in overall capacity injection, and there are multiple knock-on effects through cascading. According to Alphaliner in December, the total TEUs on order in the 18,000- to 24,000-TEU range as a percentage of the existing fleet size was a staggering 81%. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6156554_0.1.jpg"></img></div>If we look at where 18,000- to 24,000-TEU ships are deployed today, based on the capability to handle the vessels, the biggest concentration by far is in the Far East to North Europe and Mediterranean lanes. Given that the trade is already tending to an oversupply position, even just upgrading existing loops is going to severely test the limits of absorption. A return to Suez routing — and thus fewer ships required for the same weekly services — would seem to guarantee a severe overhang of capacity. Given this reality, some of the carriers’ options are: 1.	Tying up whole strings of expensive high-spec ships versus tinkering with blank sailings. This is a tough call, but the economics stack up if the supply/demand position moves enough in favor of the carriers and rates can be significantly increased. 2.	Retaining some loops around the Cape of Good Hope is a justifiable reaction to an unpredictable Middle East situation and would indeed be welcomed by a portion of clients not wishing to be caught with all their fish in the wrong basket. 3.	Super slow-steaming is an option, but of course this will extend transit times and has the potential to create competitive problems if it is not universally applied. Ironically, a reopening of the Suez routing would allow carriers to test the limits on slow-steaming without extending clients’ transit times. 4.	Scrapping is sometimes touted by carrier executives as one of the key cures for overcapacity. But the reality is that the oldest ships are in the smaller sizes, so even if they are scrapped, the impact will not be great unless it’s on a very big scale, and those size ships are currently in great demand. Almost 1.3 million TEUs in capacity for ultra-large container ships was on order in 2025, according to Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. <h3>‘Arms race’ for bigger ships? </h3>Of the options above, pulling full strings of large ships is clearly the most radical and impactful, but may be sidelined because it’s difficult to explain internally and externally could provoke a barrage of complaints and regulatory investigation. As it is likely that the other measures plus some blank sailings simply will not be enough to steer supply down to demand, the next area of attention will be expanding the number of trades where we see 18,000-plus TEU ships. Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s West Africa Express is instructive because it serves two new areas MSC has opened for big ships — West Africa and India. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="83f8b939-db16-47a4-b70a-8715aaf729ec"></dynamic-object></div>West Africa has four ports on that service, but India has only one — Vizhinjam. But there is connectivity at Vizhinjam to both local feeders and other deep-sea services (hub-and-spoke) where the spokes can be short and long. Given that there are several geographies similar to India where there are only a small number of ports able to take the very biggest ships, it could well be that the surplus of big ships creates more hub-and-spoke systems as carriers push these ships into more trades and the limited number of ports that can handle them. These may not initially be the 24,000-TEU ships that would be natural to use to upgrade European services (even if it means having fewer services), but there will be a cascading of capacity and thus a desire to deploy bigger ships in more places. If you are a port or port operator in a region where there are size constraints, there has never been a better time to positively differentiate yourself by upgrading or finding greenfield sites that can accommodate the biggest ships. The feeling that an arms race in the bigger sizes and a rush for alternative fuels has overtaken purely rational decision making is strong. That is reinforced by looking at the smaller-size ships which have been in very heavy demand, so one might expect strong newbuild ordering. Alphaliner reported in December that the order book as a percentage of existing capacity for 4,000- to 5,099-TEU ships was 10.4%, and for 5,100- to 7,499-TEU ships was 7.3%. This has gone up quite a bit in recent months but is still relatively sane. If there is a disconnect today with freight markets, it’s not as widely advertised in the charter market, but in the newbuild market. Jeremy Masters is managing director of Shipping Masters. Contact him at <a href="mailto:jeremy@shippingmastershk.com">jeremy@shippingmastershk.com</a>.</div>

If you look at Alphaliner’s data on the cellular newbuilding order book, there are some striking numbers at both ends of the spectrum. The most obvious place to start is the 18,000- to 24,000-TEU range because that is where the biggest impacts are made in overall capacity injection, and there are multiple knock-on effects through cascading. According to Alphaliner in December, the total TEUs on order in the 18,000- to 24,000-TEU range as a percentage of the existing fleet size was a staggering 81%. If we look at where 18,000- to 24,000-TEU ships are deployed today, based on the capability to handle the vessels, the biggest concentration by far is in the Far East to North Europe and Mediterranean lanes. Given that the trade is already tending to an oversupply position, even just upgrading existing loops is going to severely test the limits of absorption. A return to Suez routing — and thus fewer ships required for the same weekly services — would seem to guarantee a severe overhang of capacity. Given this reality, some of the carriers’ options are: 1. Tying up whole strings of expensive high-spec ships versus tinkering with blank sailings. This is a tough call, but the economics stack up if the supply/demand position moves enough in favor of the carriers and rates can be significantly increased. 2. Retaining some loops around the Cape of Good Hope is a justifiable reaction to an unpredictable Middle East situation and would indeed be welcomed by a portion of clients not wishing to be caught with all their fish in the wrong basket. 3. Super slow-steaming is an option, but of course this will extend transit times and has the potential to create competitive problems if it is not universally applied. Ironically, a reopening of the Suez routing would allow carriers to test the limits on slow-steaming without extending clients’ transit times. 4. Scrapping is sometimes touted by carrier executives as one of the key cures for overcapacity. But the reality is that the oldest ships are in the smaller sizes, so even if they are scrapped, the impact will not be great unless it’s on a very big scale, and those size ships are currently in great demand. Almost 1.3 million TEUs in capacity for ultra-large container ships was on order in 2025, according to Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. ‘Arms race’ for bigger ships? Of the options above, pulling full strings of large ships is clearly the most radical and impactful, but may be sidelined because it’s difficult to explain internally and externally could provoke a barrage of complaints and regulatory investigation. As it is likely that the other measures plus some blank sailings simply will not be enough to steer supply down to demand, the next area of attention will be expanding the number of trades where we see 18,000-plus TEU ships. Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s West Africa Express is instructive because it serves two new areas MSC has opened for big ships — West Africa and India. West Africa has four ports on that service, but India has only one — Vizhinjam. But there is connectivity at Vizhinjam to both local feeders and other deep-sea services (hub-and-spoke) where the spokes can be short and long. Given that there are several geographies similar to India where there are only a small number of ports able to take the very biggest ships, it could well be that the surplus of big ships creates more hub-and-spoke systems as carriers push these ships into more trades and the limited number of ports that can handle them. These may not initially be the 24,000-TEU ships that would be natural to use to upgrade European services (even if it means having fewer services), but there will be a cascading of capacity and thus a desire to deploy bigger ships in more places. If you are a port or port operator in a region where there are size constraints, there has never been a better time to positively differentiate yourself by upgrading or finding greenfield sites that can accommodate the biggest ships. The feeling that an arms race in the bigger sizes and a rush for alternative fuels has overtaken purely rational decision making is strong. That is reinforced by looking at the smaller-size ships which have been in very heavy demand, so one might expect strong newbuild ordering. Alphaliner reported in December that the order book as a percentage of existing capacity for 4,000- to 5,099-TEU ships was 10.4%, and for 5,100- to 7,499-TEU ships was 7.3%. This has gone up quite a bit in recent months but is still relatively sane. If there is a disconnect today with freight markets, it’s not as widely advertised in the charter market, but in the newbuild market. Jeremy Masters is managing director of Shipping Masters. Contact him at jeremy@shippingmastershk.com .

Could the ocean carrier order book be a matter of ‘irrational exuberance’?

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The carrier consortium released details of its new network showing a slight uptick in port calls primarily from Southeast Asia and small rotation changes on the US East Coast.</div>

The carrier consortium released details of its new network showing a slight uptick in port calls primarily from Southeast Asia and small rotation changes on the US East Coast.

<div class="phx-topic">Carriers in the Ocean Alliance will be offering North American shippers more connections from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent as part of their 2026 network. Ocean Alliance carriers will also make their first return to the Port of Jacksonville in seven years with a new call on their Gulf Coast service. CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping and Evergreen Marine each announced this week the launch of the Ocean Alliance’s “Day 10” product covering 14 services to the North American West Coast and eight to the East Coast. The new network will go into effect as of April. While the number of services to North America did not change compared with the alliance’s 2025 network, the 2026 network to and from the US and Canada does feature new port rotations that highlight the ongoing shift of US importers away from China. The Port of Haiphong will see the biggest increase in North American connectivity. Calls to the Vietnamese port, where <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/cma-cgm-signs-deal-to-develop-600-million-haiphong-terminal-complex-6012131">CMA CGM plans to build a $600 million terminal</a>, will be added to four trans-Pacific services to North America, according to Cosco’s Day 10 schedule. On the West Coast, those services include the Pacific Southwest 9 (PSW9) service to Long Beach and the Pacific Northwest 2 (PNW2) to the ports of Vancouver and Seattle. Haiphong remains a call for Ocean Alliance’s PSW1 service into Long Beach. However, another Long Beach service, PSW10, that previously called Haiphong as part of the 2025 network, appears to have been dropped in favor of the Port of Laem Chabang in Thailand. Ocean Alliance’s 2025 network previously had no regular service between Southeast Asia and the Pacific Northwest. On the East Coast, Haiphong will be added as a call to the USEC3 and 5 services. Haiphong was previously a call only on the Ocean Alliance’s USEC8 service into Norfolk as of 2025, but that call has been replaced with Vietnam’s Cai Mep as of the 2026 network. Laem Chabang will also be on the new rotation for the PSW7 service into Los Angeles. The Laem Chabang call appears to have replaced a call to Malaysia’s Port Klang featured on the 2025 network. The transshipment port of Colombo in Sri Lanka will also be added to the USEC5 service that makes first call at Savannah, adding a second Ocean Alliance service from the Indian subcontinent along with the current USEC3 service rotation. In addition, Ocean Alliance added Taiwan’s Kaohsiung as a backhaul on three West Coast trans-Pacific services, along with a westbound call to South Korea’s Busan. Chinese port rotations will also see small changes in the 2026 network. The southern China port of Yangpu, across the Beibu Gulf from Haiphong, will be added to the front-haul for the PSW9 and PNW2 services to the West Coast. Tianjin will also be added to the PSW5 service, while Hong Kong will be added to the PNW2 service.China’s Xiamen port will get a second service with a new call on the USEC4 service, adding to an existing call on the USEC2 service. But a previous Xiamen call on the USEC5 appears to have been dropped in favor of the new Haiphong call. Amid the ongoing sourcing shift away from China, container volumes from Southeast Asia to the US saw year-over-year gains in every month last year, with 10 of those months seeing double-digit gains, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global.<div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="021af9b6-860f-45a6-99eb-549dc05cabfe"></dynamic-object></div><h3>Jacksonville gets Far East service</h3>Jacksonville this year will be on the rotation for Ocean Alliance’s USEC6 service that covers the US Gulf Coast. The USEC6 previously featured a call to New Orleans, but it’s not included in the 2026 network. While Jacksonville already has Asia services through the Premier Alliance, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Zim Integrated Shipping, the <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/jaxport-optimistic-on-growth-despite-service-loss-5236112">Ocean Alliance has not been a regular caller to the port since 2019</a> when it dropped Jacksonville on the same service. Other US rotation changes include dropping Charleston from the USEC4 service, while keeping the port on rotation for three other Ocean Alliance services. The USEC4 will replace the Charleston call with a call to Baltimore, but that port will be dropped from the USEC5 service. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Carriers in the Ocean Alliance will be offering North American shippers more connections from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent as part of their 2026 network. Ocean Alliance carriers will also make their first return to the Port of Jacksonville in seven years with a new call on their Gulf Coast service. CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping and Evergreen Marine each announced this week the launch of the Ocean Alliance’s “Day 10” product covering 14 services to the North American West Coast and eight to the East Coast. The new network will go into effect as of April. While the number of services to North America did not change compared with the alliance’s 2025 network, the 2026 network to and from the US and Canada does feature new port rotations that highlight the ongoing shift of US importers away from China. The Port of Haiphong will see the biggest increase in North American connectivity. Calls to the Vietnamese port, where CMA CGM plans to build a $600 million terminal , will be added to four trans-Pacific services to North America, according to Cosco’s Day 10 schedule. On the West Coast, those services include the Pacific Southwest 9 (PSW9) service to Long Beach and the Pacific Northwest 2 (PNW2) to the ports of Vancouver and Seattle. Haiphong remains a call for Ocean Alliance’s PSW1 service into Long Beach. However, another Long Beach service, PSW10, that previously called Haiphong as part of the 2025 network, appears to have been dropped in favor of the Port of Laem Chabang in Thailand. Ocean Alliance’s 2025 network previously had no regular service between Southeast Asia and the Pacific Northwest. On the East Coast, Haiphong will be added as a call to the USEC3 and 5 services. Haiphong was previously a call only on the Ocean Alliance’s USEC8 service into Norfolk as of 2025, but that call has been replaced with Vietnam’s Cai Mep as of the 2026 network. Laem Chabang will also be on the new rotation for the PSW7 service into Los Angeles. The Laem Chabang call appears to have replaced a call to Malaysia’s Port Klang featured on the 2025 network. The transshipment port of Colombo in Sri Lanka will also be added to the USEC5 service that makes first call at Savannah, adding a second Ocean Alliance service from the Indian subcontinent along with the current USEC3 service rotation. In addition, Ocean Alliance added Taiwan’s Kaohsiung as a backhaul on three West Coast trans-Pacific services, along with a westbound call to South Korea’s Busan. Chinese port rotations will also see small changes in the 2026 network. The southern China port of Yangpu, across the Beibu Gulf from Haiphong, will be added to the front-haul for the PSW9 and PNW2 services to the West Coast. Tianjin will also be added to the PSW5 service, while Hong Kong will be added to the PNW2 service. China’s Xiamen port will get a second service with a new call on the USEC4 service, adding to an existing call on the USEC2 service. But a previous Xiamen call on the USEC5 appears to have been dropped in favor of the new Haiphong call. Amid the ongoing sourcing shift away from China, container volumes from Southeast Asia to the US saw year-over-year gains in every month last year, with 10 of those months seeing double-digit gains, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Jacksonville gets Far East service Jacksonville this year will be on the rotation for Ocean Alliance’s USEC6 service that covers the US Gulf Coast. The USEC6 previously featured a call to New Orleans, but it’s not included in the 2026 network. While Jacksonville already has Asia services through the Premier Alliance, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Zim Integrated Shipping, the Ocean Alliance has not been a regular caller to the port since 2019 when it dropped Jacksonville on the same service. Other US rotation changes include dropping Charleston from the USEC4 service, while keeping the port on rotation for three other Ocean Alliance services. The USEC4 will replace the Charleston call with a call to Baltimore, but that port will be dropped from the USEC5 service. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Ocean Alliance adding Vietnam calls to North America for 2026

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Container flows at the railroad’s primary Appliance Park terminal slowed considerably in December and into January after it implemented a new appointment system for truck drivers to pick up import boxes.</div>

Container flows at the railroad’s primary Appliance Park terminal slowed considerably in December and into January after it implemented a new appointment system for truck drivers to pick up import boxes.

<div class="phx-topic">Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) is reopening an idled terminal in Louisville, giving the railroad a second facility to support what is now a congested market. The Buechel Intermodal Facility will reopen on Jan. 26 as NS battles long truck turn times and congestion at Appliance Park, its primary terminal in Louisville. Appliance largely replaced the older Buechel facility that was built nearly 50 years ago. Buechel briefly reopened in 2021 during the pandemic-related freight surge but was idled again as volumes cooled off. But container flows in Appliance Park slowed considerably in December and into January after Norfolk Southern implemented a new appointment system for truck drivers to pick up import boxes, which also coincided with the holidays and some construction on the property. Conditions at Appliance <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/drivers-battling-delays-at-norfolk-southern-terminal-in-louisville-6150589">deteriorated into early January,</a> with some drivers complaining of waits up to six hours. “Right now, we target approximately 20 to 25 appointments per hour at Appliance Park and with the Buechel facility up and running, we’ll basically double the number of appointments available to drivers,” a NS spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce. <h2>NS says dwells improving </h2>The railroad said drive dwell times have dropped to about 30 minutes on average in the last 10 days, which coincides with NS opening a temporary satellite lot at a Louisville depot owned by drayage provider ContainerPort Group. Once Buechel is re-opened, Norfolk Southern will restructure how international containers are handled in Louisville. All import loads will be taken to Buechel and put into container stacks, while all exports will be dropped off at Appliance Park. The move will allow ground crews to concentrate on a single direction for container flow at each terminal. NS will conduct a soft launch this weekend before officially segmenting inbound and outbound ocean containers on Monday. The Appliance Park and Buechel terminals are approximately three miles from one another, which Norfolk Southern said should make it relatively easy for truck drivers to perform a dual mission – dropping off an export container and then picking up an import box during the same trip. Contact Ari Ashe at <a href="ari.ashe@spglobal.com ">ari.ashe@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) is reopening an idled terminal in Louisville, giving the railroad a second facility to support what is now a congested market. The Buechel Intermodal Facility will reopen on Jan. 26 as NS battles long truck turn times and congestion at Appliance Park, its primary terminal in Louisville. Appliance largely replaced the older Buechel facility that was built nearly 50 years ago. Buechel briefly reopened in 2021 during the pandemic-related freight surge but was idled again as volumes cooled off. But container flows in Appliance Park slowed considerably in December and into January after Norfolk Southern implemented a new appointment system for truck drivers to pick up import boxes, which also coincided with the holidays and some construction on the property. Conditions at Appliance deteriorated into early January, with some drivers complaining of waits up to six hours. “Right now, we target approximately 20 to 25 appointments per hour at Appliance Park and with the Buechel facility up and running, we’ll basically double the number of appointments available to drivers,” a NS spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce. NS says dwells improving The railroad said drive dwell times have dropped to about 30 minutes on average in the last 10 days, which coincides with NS opening a temporary satellite lot at a Louisville depot owned by drayage provider ContainerPort Group. Once Buechel is re-opened, Norfolk Southern will restructure how international containers are handled in Louisville. All import loads will be taken to Buechel and put into container stacks, while all exports will be dropped off at Appliance Park. The move will allow ground crews to concentrate on a single direction for container flow at each terminal. NS will conduct a soft launch this weekend before officially segmenting inbound and outbound ocean containers on Monday. The Appliance Park and Buechel terminals are approximately three miles from one another, which Norfolk Southern said should make it relatively easy for truck drivers to perform a dual mission – dropping off an export container and then picking up an import box during the same trip. Contact Ari Ashe at ari.ashe@spglobal.com .

Norfolk Southern reopening second terminal in congested Louisville

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