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Pricing for refrigerated truckload service is shooting up along the US-Mexico border and outbound from California, in some cases by more than 20 cents per mile from April’s averages, as fruit and vegetable crops start moving to market.

Taiwan-based Wan Hai is adding a call to Colombo, a busy transshipment hub for Indian exporters, on its AA7 loop between Asia with the US East Coast.

A deteriorating container shipping market made the first quarter one to forget for the Israel-based carrier, but its full-year outlook remains positive.

Price volatility, economic uncertainty and China’s ongoing efforts to keep adulterated scrap products out of the country held back US exports of recyclable materials for the third straight year in 2022.

Trailer marketplace technology provider vHub estimates a quarter of truckload trailers are out of network for the nation’s carriers, with an abrupt shift in demand exacerbating that dislocation.

A decrease in US housing construction from the fever pitch seen during the COVID-19 pandemic is reducing demand for imports of furniture, appliances and other household goods.

The carrier will pay the penalty to avoid the Federal Maritime Commission launching a formal investigation into whether it violated US detention and demurrage shipping laws.

With a proposed baseball stadium at the terminal location off the table, the Port of Oakland is considering options to expand maritime support activities at the 50-acre site to complement overall growth at the port.

Forwarders do not expect prices to stabilize or trend up any time soon, with carriers increasingly struggling to secure steady booking levels to fill their export allocations out of India despite capacity readjustments.

A “perfect storm” of poor schedule reliability, persistently high electricity prices, weak demand and cheaper diesel for trucking continues to undermine Europe’s rail-dominated combined transport sector.

Greater demand for manufactured goods, especially automotive parts, is spurring Mexico-to-US cross-border trucking, with more nearshoring of production on the horizon.

Customers were largely satisfied with intermodal service in early 2023, citing CSX and J. B. Hunt as the top overall providers in North America, according to a Journal of Commerce biannual survey.

Flexport has lured a key figure in the development of Uber Freight and Coyote Logistics in a move likely to shake up the domestic third-party logistics market.

The bipartisan legislation does not identify specific countries that manufacture the cranes that would be subject to inspection, but a statement from the co-sponsors specifically mentions China.

Some paper products remained in high demand last year, but a decline in China’s real estate economy and a ban on a certain type of pine logs put additional downward pressure on forest products exports.

Quarterly earnings reports reveal that wind turbine manufacturers are slowly recovering from a pandemic market battering as orders and revenues ramp up.

Rail storage has been at the forefront of recent regulatory discussion as the FMC solidifies its final rulemaking on detention and demurrage, with shippers wanting ocean carriers to be the billing party for such charges.

Challenging economic conditions, compounded by sanctions against one of its largest trading partners, led to a sharp drop in first-quarter volumes at Europe’s third-busiest container port.

With import volumes sharply lower than last year, trans-Pacific carriers are more willing to consider requests for fixed-rate pricing and inland transportation bookings in 2023-24 service contracts, sources say.

Virtually no ships have been scrapped in the past two years as high demand and port congestion kept all available capacity in use, but that is about to change significantly, according to the shipping association.

Global vehicle manufacturers are still recovering from widespread semiconductor shortages, while domestic automakers and body shops face ongoing delays in components ranging from rear suspensions to front bumpers.

The railroad will start a twice-weekly service to Dallas and once-weekly service to Denver, but no ocean carrier as yet is offering inland moves from Houston.

Asian imports into the US last month reached their highest level since October 2022 as freight rates rose, but further import gains look unlikely as shippers take a wait-and-see approach to consumer demand.

When operational in 2025, a plant in Sweden will be able to produce 50,000 tons of green methanol annually for the shipping industry, making it Europe’s largest methanol plant.

US exports of plastic resins rebounded in 2022 after an uncharacteristic decline in 2021, but increased production in China and an uncertain global economy could dampen demand this year.

The International Longshoremen’s Association should be able to sue ocean carriers that do not abide by work preservation rules, according to several briefs filed in support of the union’s dispute involving jobs at the Port of Charleston’s new terminal.

The growth in participation in FLOW is a signal that the private sector views the voluntary nature of the project as more amenable than governmental data-sharing mandates or legislation.

Many businesses are being forced to tighten controls over how goods are shipped and who they ship them with, but the technology that helps them may also be used against them, according to industry sources.

Unlike last year, when apparel importers front-loaded volumes in the first half, apparel shippers are waiting for more clarity on consumer spending before they bring back-to-school and holiday inventory into the US.

The South Korea-based liner became the latest carrier to illustrate the post-pandemic crash in container shipping, posting a 91% drop in net profit for the first quarter.

Traditional 3PL provider CEVA plans to lease four new hybrid ro-ro vessels chartered by parent company CMA CGM.

The influx of new drivers to the New York-New Jersey port helped it handle record volumes in 2022, but the downturn means less work and possibly more turnover.

Excess capacity is lingering in US freight markets because fewer carriers than expected have gone bankrupt so far this year, analysts say.

The Taiwan-based carrier is the latest container shipping line to have its extreme profitability of recent years slashed by a slowdown in demand and excess capacity.

A surge in volume from Asia to the Mediterranean in March has carriers injecting capacity into the trade to capture growing demand from southern Europe.

Rail storage fees continue to be a point of contention for shippers and the National Shipping Advisory Committee wants the FMC to step up and take ownership.

Hapag-Lloyd believes an increase in demand on east-west trades in the third quarter, together with rising carrier costs and IMO emissions rules, could mitigate the impact of surplus capacity flooding into the market.

US imports of beer, wine and spirits could have been even stronger over the last two years if not for widespread supply chain disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision by ocean carriers to not charge per diem fees when gates are closed will result in money remaining in the pockets of importers and exporters rather than flowing to carriers and terminal operators — and anyone who thought that would happen without a fight is dreaming, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Multipurpose and heavy-lift carriers expect short-term rate pain but a rising market further out, analysts say.