The World’s Most Bizarre Exports
This is a guest post by Timothy Clark. When you think about a country's top export, what comes to your mind? It probably creates and connects mental images of Italy and pasta, Belgium and [...]
This is a guest post by Timothy Clark. When you think about a country's top export, what comes to your mind? It probably creates and connects mental images of Italy and pasta, Belgium and [...]
Chinese authorities shut down a terminal at the third busiest container port in the world after a single positive COVID test. Yesterday, Eric Kulisch reported in American Shipper: Chinese [...]
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, [...]
A couple blogs ago, I wrote about three ways ocean freight rates could see a significant drop. One of those ways was if regulators break up the carrier alliances that now dominate international [...]
While shippers have been complaining and accusing ocean freight carriers of profiteering and unfair practices since the pandemic hit (and for years before that as well), there have not been major [...]
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 [...]
This is a guest post by Marcus Dokken. International trade was, and still is, one of the main drivers of economic expansion. We might even say that it's directly responsible for shaping the [...]
A couple months ago, we blogged about carriers making billions with these high freight rates shippers are being forced to choke down. Well, that was nothing. Wait until you hear this.... If [...]
This is a guest post by Brad Smith. Cryptocurrencies, and the underlying technology, blockchain, have made waves around the world over the past few years. News headlines have highlighted 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 [...]
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 [...]