Montreal
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Prince Rupert
The dilution of so-called premium services — which range from truly guaranteeing equipment and drayage to simply increasing chances but not guaranteeing cargo is loaded as booked — have driven frustration among forwarders and shippers.
“The pricing is dynamic,” says anonymous source. “If you’re booking 4-6 weeks out, you’re not getting a great rate but a decent one. But …
Ocean carriers are becoming creative with the names for huge surcharges they are loading on top of colossal FAK rates. The latest is Hapag-Lloyd’s ‘value-added surcharge’ ex China to the US and Canada. The carrier said this was due to “extraordinary demand from China and the operational challenges along the transport chain”.
“It’s outrageous, of course,” said anonymous contact. …
Global shipping has been facing erratic consumer demand, factory shutdown, and pandemic restrictions that have hampered port operations for months. As an outcome, empty containers are scarce where they are needed.
The Ever Given mishap has compounded the shortage as half of products passing through the canal are container ships. Due to the high volume of traffic, unloading has …
Highest ever sea freight rates, lowest service quality. Try explaining that to your boss, says Sebastian Wagner, Regional Category Buyer for EMEA Procurement.
However, it helped that the problems with shipping were becoming more prominent in the mainstream news, the image of the Suez Canal blockage demonstrated the sort of unforeseen incidents that could never be planned for.
“The …
Bangladeshi apparel makers are partly blaming the over-reliance of buyers on Maersk Line for the large volumes of export cargo stuck in Chittagong.
Some containers had been waiting for a month, said Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, normally, only around 6,000 TEU would be stored at the 19 off-docks close to Chittagong.
Shippers …
Ocean carriers are being accused of “arm-twisting” to coerce shippers to purchase extra products, such as customs clearance and insurance to increase their prospects of shipment.
“We will focus our main priority on shipments offering us pre-carriage, customs brokerage, on-carriage and our new cargo protection cover” says Maersk. The message implied that without buying these add on products, shippers …
The Federal Maritime Commission plans to audit nine largest container carriers to find out if they are using their market power to overcharge shippers.
The Vessel-Operating Common Carrier Audit Program, launched by FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei, will also “provide additional information beneficial to the regular monitoring of the marketplace for ocean cargo services.”
The top nine carriers included in …
CN is still recovering from a nearly two-week outage of a bridge that is part of a key route to Vancouver. The impacts of the outage remain to be seen, as the bridge outage, as well as wildfire conditions, have contributed to a backlog at the Port of Vancouver.
Wildfires damaged a bridge between Kamloops and Boston Bar, putting …