For more than a year, many shippers who have always shipped by sea have turned to air freight for their heavy lifting. There's a reason 90% of goods are transported around the world by ship. [...]
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 [...]
President Biden is about to sign a piece of legislation into law: The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA). The president claims that this "will solve a big piece of [inflation]." The [...]
Ocean freight rates are falling. Yes, they're still extremely high, but they're moving in the right direction. Greg Miller reported this week in Freight Waves that global spot rates for ocean [...]
It seems like every time you turn around there's a new fee announced at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Sometimes those fees are merely threats in a less-than-successful attempt to speed [...]
It's generally accepted that World War II ended the Great Depression. Could the Russia conflict end America's supply chain crisis? Or at least mitigate it? Hmmm... Greg Miller wrote an American [...]
There are many world events affecting current and upcoming ocean freight rates. Sanctions on Russia with its aggression on Ukraine obviously affects cargo movement to and from that region, and [...]
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 [...]
You know all that bragging the Biden Administration has done over the last four months about getting the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to go 24/7 to fight congestion? Yeah, the ports are [...]
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 [...]
Let’s talk rail and what’s happening with getting shipping containers out of the Port of Los Angeles, so your goods can get to your businesses around the U.S. Universal Cargo’s [...]
It feels like we've been talking about the international shipping industry's sky-high freight rates non-stop for the last year and a half. With freight rates breaking record after record over [...]
Today, we continue our look at governmental pressure on the international shipping industry. Having watched carrier competition shrink over the last decade until reaching the point we're at now, [...]
International shipping, with its ocean freight sector in particular, is a volatile industry. Freight rates go up and down like a roller coaster. But not in the last year. Ocean freight rates have [...]
High freight rates have become a motif in Universal Cargo's blog over the last year. That's not surprising as freight rates have climbed and climbed, breaking record after record, much to the [...]
Over the last year, international shipping has been marked by container and equipment shortages, port congestion, high demand, lost containers, rolled containers, and – of course – outrageously [...]
| 
| 
