ocean container shipping

The U.S. supply chain has dodged a bullet. A new dockworker labor deal will keep the peace at West Coast ports.

“Patience is wearing thin. Neither side imagined it would take this long,” says the head of the Port of LA on dockworker contract talks.

This year’s peak season could see West Coast labor disruptions coincide with Panama Canal water levels impeding cargo flows to the East Coast.

Dockworkers who keep West Coast cargo flowing are highly paid. Their bid for even higher pay is starting to affect the cargo flow.

Demand remains tepid, yet shipping lines have pushed spot rates off the bottom and secured contract rates above spot levels.

The dockworkers’ union and terminal employers are still sparring over wages and benefits more than a year after contract talks began.

Older ships are being kept in service longer in pursuit of profits, heightening the risk of accidents and spills.

Not all cargo markets are back to pre-COVID “normal.” Container shipping rates to South America remain elevated.

Bed Bath & Beyond “failed to manage its own supply chain” and “exacerbated the bottlenecks faced by other shippers,” alleges OOCL.

Zim outperformed competitors on the way up and is falling faster than other carriers on the way down.

Trans-Pacific spot rates have pared earlier gains and remain at loss-making levels. Demand has yet to rebound.

Outsize profits are still flowing to companies like Danaos and Costamare that lease ships to container lines.

The container shipping party is over — that’s old news. Yet headlines continue to focus on comparisons to the peak.

The CEO of shipping line Hapag-Lloyd argues that current freight rates are unsustainable and will correct upward over time.

Is the sharp decline in shipping stocks a canary in the coal mine or an opportunity for investors to buy the dip?

America’s imports are not signaling a recession, at least not yet. Inbound volumes are rising from the bottom.

Inventory destocking is the biggest container shipping headwind, says Maersk. Its data shows no evidence of inventory pressures alleviating yet.

Bed Bath & Beyond got pummeled by the supply chain crisis. The company is now targeting shipping lines for allegedly compounding its woes.

The Europe-U.S. trade held up a lot longer than the Asia-U.S. trade, but trans-Atlantic premiums are now fading away.

As new container ships flood the market amid weak demand, Drewry expects low freight rates to persist through 2024.