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41 Days... Tuesday's blog had a positive tone regarding the situation with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) at East and Gulf Coast ports. The union's praise for President Trump [...]

If there's one word shippers hate to hear in relation to the dockworkers and their unions that control the jobs up and down the U.S. coasts, it's strike. We're a little under a year away from the [...]

Here we go again. Two weeks ago we were talking about China putting a whole province, millions and millions of people, on lockdown. This week, China put Shanghai on lockdown. Keith Wallis [...]

On Tuesday (March 15th, 2022), the Biden Administration put out a "fact sheet" in announcing a freight data exchange program with the intention of improving the still badly congested supply [...]

There are two news stories worthy of shippers' attention today. The first pertains to air freight while the second has to do with ocean freight. On the air side, we have a story about suspended [...]

The Port of Ningbo – the third busiest container port in the world – was supposedly going to start a phased reopening yesterday (Wednesday, August 18th) after its Meidong Container Terminal [also [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

It’s early to talk about the 2021 peak season for the international shipping industry; however, with severe congestion at U.S. ports expected to last at least into the summer, 2021’s [...]

We're not completely bereft of signs that port congestion, which is so costly to shippers, could start easing soon; however, congestion is at record-setting levels and what's probably the biggest [...]

Happy Chinese New Year! This year, the Chinese New Year falls on February 12th, and though it is still February 11th here as I'm typing these words, it is already February 12th in Beijing. [...]

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 [...]

There's a bigger ship backup at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with more than a score and a half of container ships anchored and waiting to birth off the coast of Southern California [...]

I've typed the words "ocean freight carriers are notoriously unreliable" so many times over the last decade of writing in Universal Cargo's blog that I should probably have the statement [...]

U.S. shippers and truckers are being hit with detention and demurrage fees for reasons beyond their control. Again. Or maybe I should say still. For those who are unsure or unaware of what these [...]

'Tis the season for congestion. No, I'm not talking about whatever bug your kid brought home from school, although there is plenty of that. I'm talking port congestion. [...]

Hurricane Florence and Super Typhoon Mangkhat struck over the weekend, bringing tragedy with them. This article gives an update on the aftermath of these two devastating storms that took [...]

In this age when people and businesses are more and more dependent upon technology, it seems no company–no matter how big–is invulnerable to cyber attack. Or is it cyberattack? Or [...]

Shippers were worried about potential delays or disruptions that April first’s carrier alliance reshuffle might bring. It turns out, those fears were well founded. Major congestion is [...]

In two weeks, the Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF) at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are going to increase. TMF is part of the PierPass OffPeak program designed to reduce congestion at the [...]