Flexport – moving beyond freight forwarding?
This article looking at Flexport now appeared recently under Cathy Morrow Roberson’s byline in The Loadstar. We enjoy hearing about what Flexport is doing now. But the idea that they are changing...
View ArticleCommentary: Cato’s Jones Act numbers wrong
John McCown, a former shipping company CEO and transport hedge fund executive, debunks the faulty calculations in the Cato Institute’s analysis of the Jones Act as it applies to Puerto Rico. Most...
View ArticleNew index to improve liner reliability
Alexander Whiteman mentions that the Shanghai Shipping Exchange (SSE) and Cargosmart are defining a new index of carrier reliability. Current reliability is around 80%. That means 1 in 5 ships are...
View ArticleLiner customers “bewildered” by new low-sulfur fuel charges – FreightWaves
Ocean carriers are confusing their customers again. This time, it’s the low-sulphur fuel charges which are being put in place before the requirement to use it is mandated. Each carrier has different...
View ArticleCryptocurrency TEU token gone
Here was one of the use cases for blockchain that everyone thought was innovative, addressed a real problem, and made some sense. Apparently the users don’t think so. It was designed to provide a...
View ArticleIMO 2020 makes box lines speed up?
Mike King wrote a piece about the risk that the IMO2020 fuel regulations will induce ocean carriers to speed up, thus burning more fuel and causing more emissions. Most carriers are equipping ships...
View ArticleRethinking cluster initiatives
Clusters have been discussed in logistics and maritime circles for many years. We don’t understand fully the dynamics of clusters, or what leads to their formation. some researchers are starting to...
View ArticleMost business incentives don’t work.
We’ve already seen and heard of many instances where business incentives granted by governments to firms moving in have not produced results the politicians wanted. Why is this? Which incentives...
View ArticleONE won’t install scrubbers
The ONE ocean carrier group has decided to arbitrage the price of Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (LSFO) vs High Sulfur Fuel Oil (HSFO) by not installing scrubbers on their vessels. That means they will have to...
View ArticleMaersk invest in ZigZag Returns
It’s clear that Maersk is making bets as a venture capitalist on young firms with unique value propositions. They have made an investment, via Maersk Growth, in ZigZag, a London-based firm. I had never...
View ArticleFuel transition charges flood in
Here are a few of the initial announcements on fuel surcharges to compensate carriers for the IMO2020 rule requiring 0.5% sulfur fuel or equivalent scrubbing equipment. The current gap is $171.00...
View ArticleAssessing tariff impact SKU-by-SKU
The hard but accurate way to figure out the effect of tariffs on your product line draws a page from ABC accounting. Examine each and every SKU. Apparently Home Depot has done this. The results...
View ArticleITF Study on shipping alliances makes EC exemption decision ‘puzzling’
Why did the EU decide to extend shipping alliances’ rights? This article in the Loadstar points to a short piece on Linked in calling attention to a study by Olaf Merk (and others) critiquing...
View ArticleAre carriers boosting low-sulphur fuel surcharges to make up for low rates?
This story is a follow up to one I did a couple of weeks ago. Fuel surcharges are varying wildly. A consultant found that there’s a wide disparity, the rate rationale is not very transparent, and...
View ArticleRail volume down for 9th straight month in November | Supply Chain Dive
There’s a great graphic in this article showing the container and carload bookings on rail by month over the last year. I also was interested by the statement that ag and bulk products, which often go...
View ArticleTranspacific trade volumes set for further decline
Transpacific trade won’t recover for at least a couple of years, says an article in the Loadstar. Most of the tariffs remain in place. And much trade has shifted from China to other Southeast Asia...
View ArticleAsia-Europe rollovers are back
It appears that ocean carriers are again playing fast and loose with delivery dates for cargo. There’s a telling remark by an NVOCC source: “You might be able to book at that rate, but you have...
View ArticleDCSA unveils new era of smarter supply chains with track & trace standards
The Digital Container Shipping Association has unveiled its new T&T standard for tracking containers while en route between shipper and consignee. They are quite detailed and have been planned...
View ArticleCoronavirus sparks possible force majeure
Force majeure is a rarely invoked clause in many contracts. It frees all parties from obligations during the time of some major catastrophe beyond their control, such as war, strikes, riots, crimes,...
View ArticleReefer crisis – stranded perishables rot at Chinese ports
The unprecedented effect of China’s Coronavirus actions on supply chains continues to astound us. Sam Whelan’s article points out that quarantines on drivers moving between cities and/or ports have...
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