Monthly Archives for August 2018

It’s time everyone considered the true cost of tariffs The latest round of tit-for-tat tariffs between the United States and China is hitting the trans-Pacific trade, and although it’s too soon to determine the impact on container volume of this wave and past ones affecting a range of goods including steel, the true costs of tariffs is […]

US shippers, businesses, consumers will soon feel true cost of tariffs One impact of tariffs: if US tariffs remain in place, the price of home building materials, including appliances, would rise substantially – pushing housing construction and home purchase prices higher – and that would price some potential US home buyers out of the market. […]

Why container lines should fear the low sulfur rule With each passing day, the realization grows that the sulfur cap on bunker fuel will have a profound effect on shipping. The rule, imposed by the International Maritime Organization, will reduce permissible sulfur emissions from vessels to 0.5 percent from 3.5 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2020. Container carriers, […]

MPV/HL sector attracting investment interest once again Improving demand, tightening capacity, and lessening competition from other segments is brightening the outlook for the multipurpose and heavy-lift fleet. And there are other signs of recovery. (Above: A crane elevates a heavy lift item onto a ship for transport.) Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. Improving demand, tightening capacity, and […]

Brazil’s Wilport doubles Lake of Ducks feeder capacity on rising demand Brazil’s Wilport Portuarias Operadores, part of the diversified Wilson, Sons shipping group, has already handled more than 20,000 TEU this year, thanks in great deal to its popular feeder service between Porto Alegre/Triunfo and Tecon Rio Grande (TRG). And there are strong indications that […]

US import scarcity grants trans-Pac carriers pricing control Space is so tight today in the eastbound Pacific, and ocean carriers have been so clever in managing it, that some BCOs are paying higher than spot rates to get their shipments on vessels leaving Asia. However, there is qualifier to that trend shippers should know about. […]

Container lines should fear the low sulfur rule Unless ocean carriers radically change the paradigm on how they go to market, the Jan. 1, 2020 sulfur cap on bunker fuel will represent another cost that carriers fail to pass on to customers. How many other industries operate this way? (Above: Container ships at the Port […]

Are US railroads missing out on intermodal volume? In an era in which considerable, new, intermodal business is there, US railroads argue they need to balance the interests of investors and shippers. Shippers argue there hasn’t been a balance. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. The demand is there for Class I railroads as US shippers are desperate […]

Indian transshipment at foreign hubs jumped last fiscal year Transshipment traffic is the cargo that is transported between an Indian port and an international “hub” port, when direct mainline connections are not available. (Above: Visakhapatnam Port, India.) Photo credit: Shutterstock.com. An analysis of the latest, provisional Indian transshipment trade data obtained by JOC.com appears to […]

IBM-Maersk blockchain effort builds with nearly 100 users   Maersk and IBM have fleshed out their designs for an industry-wide blockchain solution – an open-source platform called TradeLens. There are a host of other blockchain initiatives in development, but as one stakeholder noted, they joined the Maresk-IBM venture based of Maesk’s history of innovation and […]