After two weeks of heavy fog covering Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta area, visibility is finally clearing up. Operations at both WaiGao Qioa & Yangshan terminals in Shanghai are gradually resuming after almost 1,550 barges and ships have been delayed due to the weather. The Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration [...]
As the first quarter comes to a close, airfreight capacity is becoming strained in some fast-growing, region-specific markets. Similar to the issues shippers are experiencing at U.S. ports, air carriers are struggling to position equipment on imbalanced trade lanes to meet increasing demands of ecommerce and industries such as pharmaceuticals. [...]
Economies hang in the balance as China and the United States begin a tit-for-tat dance on the international stage over technology and international property rights. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published the list of approximately 1,300 proposed products imported from China that may be subject to additional [...]
On Monday, April 2, 2018, China announced import duties on U.S. goods such as pork, fruit, nuts, wine, ginseng, aluminum, ethanol and pipes. Responding within World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines, the retaliatory measure by the United States’ largest trading partner comes as a swift response to Washington’s March 8thexecutive order [...]
After a seven-month investigation by U.S. Trade Representatives into China’s unfair trade practices, the U.S. signed an executive order imposing retaliatory import tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese imports. Covering 1,300 product lines, the final list of targeted products will be published 15 days after the Thursday announcement and [...]
Weeks after 76 containers fell off a cargo ship off of the North Carolina coast, the Coast Guard is still warning mariners to look out for missing containers from March 4th incident. Deemed hazardous due to toxic materials and overall size of the containers floating, shippers are once again reminded [...]
It’s no secret that ocean carriers have been struggling to turn a consistent profit in the past decade. Over time, steamship lines have phased out chassis ownership and invested in mega vessels to hedge against market risks, but the current U.S. trucking environment has created an impossible door delivery expectation, [...]
As the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th, the global trade community watched 11 countries, excluding the United States, sign on to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in Santiago, Chile, removing up to 98% of tariffs for member-nations trading across Asia. Minutes later, U.S. President Donald [...]
With temperatures 40 degrees below zero, extreme weather in Northern Corridor of Canada continues to disrupt rail lines. The impact affects the ability for locomotives to generate enough air flow for the train’s braking system. WHAT SHIPPERS CAN EXPECT: capacity, train lengths, and velocity have decreased; ocean port terminals Halifax, [...]
Service contract season is just around the corner, and international shippers are asking themselves the age-old question, “are direct carrier contracts right for us?” Chances are, you’ve either hedged your bets by pairing with an NVOCC for flexibility, or are still weighing the advantages of fixed, annual pricing with a [...]
