Are Freight Rate Indices & Carrier Fees Useless?
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 [...]
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 [...]
This is a guest post by Jake Rheude. The core lesson of 2020 and 2021, so far, is that many global supply chains are one bad day away from breaking. An outbreak at a single fulfillment location, [...]
The Journal of Commerce (JOC) published a very interesting article by Larry Gross. Gross is president and founder of Gross Transportation Consulting and a JOC analyst. Despite the dramatic growth [...]
In the midst of an early peak season and port congestion, carriers suspend containership calls to the Port of Oakland, according to Bill Mongelluzzo's reporting in the Journal of Commerce [...]
One of the factors adding to port congestion is backups with getting shipping containers onto trains. Railroads point to inland supply chain constraints, such as shortages of chassis at inland [...]
I made a prediction in Tuesday's blog post about this year's peak season. That post wasn't actually about predicting what will happen with international shipping in the upcoming months, so the [...]
From the West Coast to the East Coast, congestion has been a problem at the ports all year. Congestion at the country's busiest ports – the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – has been [...]
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 [...]
For years, ocean carriers struggled with overcapacity. It pushed freight rates low, and they lost billions. Over the last couple years, carriers learned more discipline with capacity. Over the [...]
Maritime research firm Drewry is predicting the same thing we've been saying here in Universal Cargo's blog for a while: high freight rates aren't going away with the pandemic. Mike Wackett [...]
As ports are congested on both coasts of the U.S., there's a fully capable terminal at the Port of Charleston where carriers are not sending their ships. Rather than call at this terminal, [...]
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 [...]
Freight rates from Asia to the U.S. are still very high. In fact, still historically so according to Greg Miller's American Shipper article published on Tuesday. However, they have come down 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 [...]
This is a guest post by Brad Smith. In 2012, to better get the edge over the competition, Maersk teamed up with Ericsson, the Swedish telecommunications company, to create a remote container [...]
She's afloat once again. The Ever Given, which was stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, has been freed. While one of the companies hired to get the ship free said it could take weeks, in actuality, [...]
You thought port congestion at U.S. ports – the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach especially – is bad. You're right. But at least it's possible for ships to get in and out of the ports (it just [...]
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 [...]
This is a guest post by Maggie Simpson. As the backbone of the global economy, international trade has its own history and quirks. Buckle up as we get the lowdown on some of the most bizarre [...]