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The directive came about 17 hours after Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City locked out more than 9,000 workers early Thursday, snarling supply chains for US and Canadian businesses that rely on trains to transport their cargo.

The Port of Vancouver is still berthing ships for now, but ocean carriers are reviewing future calls due to the potential for congestion caused by the Canadian railroad work stoppage.

Demand for domestic containers in the region has exceeded all other North American markets and intermodal providers believe more volume will be coming their way in September.

There’s not enough truck capacity to haul the volume carried by CN and CPKC in Canada, and that’s causing a dislocation of truck supply across the country and on the US border.

The Cosco subsidiary said its ships on the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe trade lanes are fully loaded with volume secured at high rate levels.

A range of supply chain mapping and risk management tools have emerged in the past decade, many aimed at customs brokers and third-party logistics providers.

Canada’s western ports have little capacity to handle idled intermodal cargo should railroad workers strike, but eastern ports have more space to manage any delays.

Ports along the US Gulf are beefing up infrastructure, equipment, capacity and dock strength to handle king-sized onshore turbines.

Many European shippers are locked into the peak season that will extend the high volume of Asian imports through the third quarter despite the early movement of orders to mitigate disruption from the longer Red Sea routing.

As competitive pressures build from a capacity boost on the trade lane, carriers are said to be extending significantly lower rates to their select customers, generally with a validity of one or two weeks.

A key inland transportation market is growing as companies from Class I railroads to specialized logistics firms chase freight and expand in Arizona’s “Silicon Desert.”

As US trade with Mexico grows, railroads see a chance to challenge the dominance of the Mexican trucking industry — if the railroads’ intermodal partners can lock in new business and deliver reliable service.

A flood of duty-free shipments from Asia has upped the ante on brokers having broad knowledge of the upstream supply chains used by their importer clients.

Slowing trade with China and carriers adjusting port schedules were factors behind a drop in first-half volume at Europe’s third-largest port.

The first signs of US importers beginning to advance shipments from Europe to get ahead of possible terminal closures along the US East and Gulf coasts at the end of September are being reported by carriers and forwarders.

Container lines calling in Tacoma say the congestion is being caused by a surge in import volumes and a shortage of rail cars that is likely to last at least through August.

A prolonged work stoppage at ports along the East and Gulf coasts would put global shipping under stress in a manner similar to the forced vessel diversions around southern Africa, Zim’s Xavier Destriau told the Journal of Commerce.

Most of Freightos’ traction in air and ocean freight procurement has centered around spot pricing, but the purchase of Shipsta will give it access to contract data from enterprise shippers.

A shutdown of Canada’s two freight railroads would not only impact loads in that country, but also cross-border traffic to US destinations such as Chicago.

The fuel that would have been produced at the Ørsted plant was meant to provide a vital contribution to the supply needed in the coming years to power the fast-growing methanol-enabled fleet.

Chinese online marketplaces have hit on a rich vein of business-to-customer volumes, with the current boom in international air freight driven by cross-border e-commerce rather than a recovery of traditional manufacturing.

Major roll-on/roll-off carriers reported climbing net rates in the first half even as demand for machinery and rolling stock faltered and a congested shipping market tightened capacity.

Carriers on Thursday announced general rate increases of $200 to $400 per FEU, although forwarders say the GRIs could deteriorate quickly due to options such as voyage-specific “bullet” rates and lower pricing offered by non-alliance carriers.

Disruption to inland supply lanes and the location of truck capacity would be possible if rail and port strike threats prove real, analysts told a Journal of Commerce webcast.

Canada’s labor minister said he won’t force binding arbitration between Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and their main union, setting the stage for a lockout next week.

Project slowdowns ease pressure on heavy transport service providers and the breakbulk supply chain, injecting realism into schedules, but a buoyant outlook could mask signs of stress, executives say.

A new $54.9 million fund has launched to support climate-focused logistics startups, a rare bright spot amid a larger pull-back in venture capital investment in the wider shipping industry.

After making significant investments in developing its methanol pathway over the past few years, and just a week after making a huge order for LNG-capable ships, the carrier is now looking into the feasibility of using nuclear energy in its vessels.

Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen’s view that the threat of a longshore strike has risen since early 2024 comes after Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said a strike was “highly unlikely.”

Producer price indexes and the Cass Freight Index show slight increases in truck pricing and volumes in July, but not a rapid turnaround.

HHLA’s container volume and financial performance in the first six months has been a marked improvement on a disappointing 2023.

Peak season has come early to air freight markets and with ocean shipping disrupted and e-commerce filling planes out of Asia, the demand is set to extend through the second half and beyond.

The results, the carrier’s strongest since the second half of 2022, follow those of fellow Taiwan liners Yang Ming Marine Transport and Wan Hai Lines, which reported healthy first-half financials on Monday.

Local freight forwarder sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce reported a significant downward correction in spot rates quoted by major carriers for their upcoming sailings in the second half of August.

Not only are several geopolitical scenarios being confronted with much larger stakes, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the possibility of escalation in the Middle East, but economists say there is little in the more than six-month shipping disruption that is cause for serious economic concern.

The carrier is preparing its container shipping network for any shifting cargo flows amid rising geopolitical risks and global trade tensions.

The investments are being made even though Yang Ming warned that the “world economic situation remains precarious,” with trade tensions and economic conditions in the US and Eurozone creating uncertainty.

Maritime employers say they are offering dockworkers along the East and Gulf coasts a better deal than the one received by their West Coast counterparts last year, but the union says the proposal is inadequate.

Acquiring a majority stake in Loconi International continues the Singapore-based terminal operator’s growth strategy designed to expand control of its cargo handling beyond the quay.

An “unbroken faith” in the underlying strength of the breakbulk market is pushing up indices and bolstering the optimism of multipurpose carriers, analysts say.