carriers

On Sunday (June 14th), President Trump announced a peace deal with Iran via a Truth Social post: The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully [...]

Halted Strikes on Iran Today could have been a day of war escalation. President Trump posted on Truth Social that there was a military attack on Iran scheduled, but he held it off at the request [...]

Ocean freight rates have been elevated since the start of the Iran War. However, as we’ve covered in Universal Cargo’s blog, international shipping’s capacity is not stretched [...]

Last week, we blogged on the opening of the Hormuz Strait, but with the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran feeling tenuous and Iran warning of possible mines in the water and [...]

Yesterday (Monday, March 24th), the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) said no to carriers requesting waiver of the 30-day notice period before hitting shippers with fees related to the Iran War. [...]

2025 is drawing to a close, and that means it’s time to look back at the Top 10 Universal Cargo blog posts of the year! It’s always a fun exercise to count down the top 10 – David [...]

Barely more than a week ago, Universal Cargo’s blog post was about falling freight rates. Freight rates had seen 16 consecutive weeks of decline and were at their lowest since January of [...]

International shipping questions concerning freight rates, shipping demand, and tariffs. Find out about it by reading in Universal Cargo's blog.

There's a big shakeup happening right now with the carrier alliances that dominate global ocean freight shipping, but the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) may throw a wrench in some of the major [...]

It's been a little while since we've checked in on what's happening with freight rates. So let's check out current freight rate changes and trends for U.S. businesses that import goods. See [...]

 This is a guest post by Charlotte Sanders. Peak season freight surcharges have become a major issue for firms in the logistics and supply chain management industry as they navigate the year's [...]

It’s not the economy that drove up shipping demand. Not consumer spending. It was logistical considerations. Importers were trying to get ahead of supply chain disruption risks. Risks like [...]

The situation in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, forcing ocean freight carriers to route ships away from the Suez Canal, got worse yesterday (Wednesday, March 6th). Antisemitic, Iran-backed Houthi [...]

You wouldn't know it by watching the news, but the water conditions at the Panama Canal have improved. More ships can transit the canal than restrictions had been and were planning to allow. With [...]

Many shippers feel like ocean freight carriers are unfairly taking advantage of recent global events for financial gain. In particular, many believe the Red Sea-related surcharges carriers are [...]

Big changes are happening in the international shipping landscape, or waterscape (?), as the 2M, Ocean, and THE carrier alliances are reshuffling. These three carrier alliances, tying all of [...]

Missile Strikes U.S. Cargo Ship A CBS News video reports that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been attacking ships in the Red Sea, hit the U.S. cargo ship Gibraltar Eagle with a missile [...]

What should shippers expect when it comes to freight rates in 2024? Predicting trends is never an easy thing, as international shipping's freight rates have always been highly volatile. Shippers [...]

Anti-Israel, Iranian-backed Houthi rebel attacks on container ships in the Red Sea. Freight rates spiking. Cargo delays. That's what has dominated international shipping news over the last few [...]

We’re still only beginning to see how the recent and ongoing changes to U.S. shipping law will affect businesses’ imports and exports as well as carriers’ and other industry stakeholders’ [...]