It’s feels like the pendulum has swung—from boom to bust. The last few years had segments of the industry beside themselves in glee as they raked in huge profits. But the boom is bust, and it’s time to stop swaggering. The party is over for ocean carriers especially, and they’re preparing for things to get even worse. To the extent that major trade lanes canceled 100 sailings between Dec. 12 and J...
While lockdowns in China have contributed to a 40% drop in the country’s GDP, there’s also been a drop of 31% in container volumes out of the country this month alone. And the longer lockdowns continue, the worse things will get. Unfortunately, when lockdowns are lifted and all that pent-up demand is released, there’ll be further havoc in the industry. A return to the backlogs of last year will be...
East Coast ports are starting to make the news—thanks to an overflow from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the west, as carriers deployed smaller ships during the peak season. As of March 18, there were 63 container ships waiting in queue at East and Gulf Coast ports. And unfortunately, things are expected to get worse. Capacity on services from Asia-East is expected to jump 40% from las...