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 [...]
Several news stories in recent days report COVID cases discovered in China and worry about port shutdowns and more disruption rippling through global supply chains. There's plenty of reason for [...]
Air cargo delays, ocean shipping delays, and bad COVID policies. What's new? Beijing Olympics! Wait, didn't Beijing host the Olympics just a couple cycles ago? Well, not in combination with Covid [...]
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 [...]
If you're interested in prolonging the world's supply chain woes, follow China's example. With its Covid Zero policies, China won't allow crew changes for foreign crew on ships and imposes [...]
Universal Cargo has long helped shippers move freight by air; however, the freight forwarder is now, for the first time, launching a full air freight division. Classically, one of the biggest [...]
When will it end? There are plenty of things people could be saying that about nowadays, but for U.S. shippers, unbelievably high freight rates; terribly congested ports; and disrupted, [...]
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 [...]
Mike Wackett wrote an article in the Loadstar that might make shippers consider ocean freight spot rate indices and the fees ocean freight carriers have been charging to guarantee service as [...]
It’s a classic case of good news, bad news. After Tuesday’s bad news blog about Yantian Port’s partial shutdown lingering and creating a “worse-than-Suez” level of [...]
We've been watching freight rates rise to new heights, breaking record after record, for a year. Is it possible for freight rates to get worse? Yes. And they have. After a period of months with [...]
Soaring freight rates for the last year plus have significantly cut into shippers' profits. Not surprisingly, these sky-high freight rates have had the opposite effect for carriers. But just how [...]
Over the last year, Universal Cargo has posted so many blogs about the astronomical freight rates the international shipping industry has been seeing, shippers are probably tired of reading about [...]
Freight is an essential part of your business. You need to get your products to your customers, but you rely on various shipping methods to get the job done. That makes freight shipping rates a [...]
If you thought freight rates couldn't get any higher, carriers responded with, "Hold my beer." We often focus on transpacific freight rates, with the prevalence of importing from China, which [...]
Some shippers are looking at Gulf Coast ports like the Port of Houston as possible alternatives to the severely congested ports along the East and West Coasts. Port congestion like we're seeing [...]
71 U.S. agricultural industry groups teamed up to write a letter to President Biden, informing him of the injury ocean freight carriers are doing to US agriculture, food, and forestry product [...]
We continue today with a series taking a deep dive into the outlook of international shipping in 2021. Part 1 focused on high ocean freight rates, cargo volume trends, and the potential for a [...]