One of the things we often do in Universal Cargo's blog is give shippers an outlook for how the international shipping freight rate market is behaving and looks to behave. Over the years, [...]
Shippers have long complained about unfair detention and demurrage fees at the ports. A particular point of contention is getting charged for days when port terminals are closed, and it's [...]
What goes up must come down. Despite many experts saying we would never see pre-pandemic-level freight rates again when the cost of ocean shipping skyrocketed out of control during and after the [...]
After a couple years of out of control, skyrocketing freight rates, ocean freight pricing finally came tumbling down. Freight rates have gone from peaks, including cargo routes getting carriers [...]
Ocean freight rates have fallen, for which U.S. importers can rejoice. Readers of Universal Cargo's blog certainly don't need a recap of how freight rates skyrocketed during the pandemic, thanks [...]
On Thursday, Universal Cargo's blog was about MSC and Maersk announcing they're ending the 2M Alliance. The world's top two shipping lines said they're doing this to "pursue individual [...]
A few of the smaller unions of rail workers reached a deal on Monday (August 29th) with the U.S. railroad carriers. This is a good step toward avoiding a rail strike that would cripple supply [...]
West Coast ports, East Coast ports, Gulf Coast ports... we're seeing congestion all over. A great deal of the focus lately has been on congestion at East and Gulf Coast ports as many shippers are [...]
In the last blog, we looked at how – with the slowing economy – retailers and shippers are decreasing their imports and expected to keep doing so in 2023. As discussed, that should mean [...]
It's kind of a good news, bad news situation. Or more accurately, bad news, good news situation. Because of the slowing economy (bad news), freight rates should see decline (good news) in the [...]
On Friday, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) served its initial decision, fining Hapag-Lloyd over $800,000 for violating the Shipping Act by assessing unfair detention fees against a drayage [...]
In case you haven't heard, Evergreen has had another costly and public debacle. No, this isn't a story about Hilary Clinton; Evergreen being her code name from the secret service is just [...]
On Tuesday (March 15th, 2022), the Biden Administration put out a "fact sheet" in announcing a freight data exchange program with the intention of improving the still badly congested supply [...]
Ocean freight carriers, which have been in the driver's seat for the last couple years when it comes to freight rates, are utilizing their leverage right now to negotiate enormous contracts with [...]
One of the top stories in the Journal of Commerce (JOC) yesterday (January 31st, 2022) was CMA CGM acquiring "a majority stake in European last-mile logistics specialist Colis Privé, a parcel [...]
Keith Wallis reported in a Journal of Commerce article this week that South Korea's Fair Trade Commission fined ocean freight carriers over $80 million for collaborating in setting freight [...]
In July, I went out on a limb as seemingly the only one in the shipping industry to predict ocean freight rates could fall by the end of the year. I turned out to be right. YAY! Headlines like [...]
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced another postponement in the assessment of the enormous fees they originally announced were going into effect on November 1st. When announced, the [...]
It appears the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and their partners think they can climb out of congestion by charging hefty fines on cargo containers stuck on the docks. Big surcharges, [...]
This is a guest post by Jake Rheude. Global supply chains and disruptions have gone hand-in-hand for the past few years, and many companies are hoping 2022 will be different. The best way to [...]
