Freight rates, particularly Asia to U.S. West Coast (USWC) freight rates, have increased by more than 100% since June. That's not too surprising, since we're in the peak season, and freight rates [...]
Controversy continues to swirl around the Federal Maritime Commission's (FMC's) proposed rules on "unreasonable refusal to deal or negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodations provided [...]
Chain reaction. Noun. A series of events where one event causes another, then another, and so on. Example: there's a drought happening in Panama. The drought lowers the water level of Gatun Lake. [...]
A hot topic just popped up in international shipping. It revolves around the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) potentially getting involved in regulating pricing when it comes to importing and [...]
We’re still only beginning to see how the changes to U.S. shipping law will affect businesses’ imports and exports as well as carriers' and other industry stakeholders' operations within maritime [...]
Both the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) said they will not work containerships diverted to U.S. ports because of the ILWU [...]
If there was a war over freight rates, whoever ocean freight carriers' version of Paul Revere is would be riding out, yelling, "The ships are coming! The ships are coming!" Back in February, I [...]
We're still only beginning to see how the changes to U.S. shipping law will affect businesses' imports and exports as well as carriers and other stakeholders operations within in the maritime [...]
Introduction What exactly does the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) say and do? This blog series goes through it section by section, so you can see exactly what our lawmakers changed in [...]
What exactly does the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) say and do? This blog series goes through it section by section, so you can see exactly what our lawmakers changed in the U.S. Code [...]
International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) labor action shut down port terminals up and down the West Coast on Friday. The labor action actually started on Thursday evening and has [...]
Approaching a year after the bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) was signed into law, we've only barely begun to see its impact. It's been loftily described as crucial and the [...]
It's no secret that the international shipping industry, even for all the supply chain disruptions and bottlenecks, did very well during the pandemic. There was a shipping demand boom, but now [...]
As always, we here at Universal Cargo are keeping an eye on international shipping news, so you don't have to. Two big items in shipping news right now are the upcoming peak season and the fight [...]
Want to know what's happening with international shipping right now? You're in the right place. Today's post hits top international shipping news stories affecting shippers' import and export [...]
One of the things we often do in Universal Cargo's blog is give shippers an outlook for how the international shipping freight rate market is behaving and looks to behave. Over the years, [...]
Last week, four witnesses representing U.S. and international supply chain stakeholders appeared before the House's Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee to speak and be questioned [...]
A group of 238 state, local, and federal trade associations sent a letter to President Biden, imploring him and his administration to mediate the International Longshore & Warehouse Union [...]
Shippers may find themselves uneasy when they realize North American dockworker unions coast to coast will be negotiating contracts at the same time. As port disruption from labor slowdowns is [...]
This is a guest post by Geoff Whiting. Freight rates can fluctuate wildly, and those fluctuations can have a significant impact on your bottom line. For manufacturers, these are even more [...]