As many are aware, international trade relies on documentary credit instruments such as letters of credit, which serve as the backbone of transactions. The Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) has been the governing body for letter of credit transactions worldwide for over 85 years under the International Chamber of Commerce. The UCP 600 introduced provisions in transport,…
Almost all countries around the world import fruit and fresh produce at various stages but fresh produce invariably comes with harmful pests foreign to the importing country potentially putting agricultural activity in that country at risk by their arrival and proliferation.. It may also be the case that the importing country has no effective natural predator of the insects from…
A vessel that’s set to be the world’s biggest cruise ship has completed construction at a shipyard in Finland and has made its first foray into open water for sea trials ahead of likely delivery in October this year. Royal Caribbean International’s Icon of the Seas is a mammoth 365 meters long (nearly 1,200 feet) and will weigh a projected…
The tumultuous pace of ocean freight volatility, obscene profits by carriers, post-COVID price surges, inventory bottlenecks, and the drastic shifts toward digital initiatives in the ocean freight industry have been the order of the day since 2020. This analysis takes a look at the turn of events in global freight markets especially in the ocean freight sector and how it…
Maersk will retrofit dual-fuel methanal power into one of its container ships in 2024 – a first for the shipping industry. The engine retrofit will be carried out by MAN Energy Solutions and is intended to be the first in a series; sister vessels of the retrofit candidate are expected to undergo similar conversions as they go for special survey…
Everyone knew the container shipping boom would end — it was a one-off spike driven by a pandemic and government stimulus, not a permanent change in fundamentals. But no one knew how container shipping markets would play out after the boom. The consensus soon after the market peaked was that consumer demand would sink after stimulus was withdrawn and the…
California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule does not go into effect for another six months, but it is already having unintended consequences for the drayage industry tasked with moving cargo in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Speaking at FreightWaves’ Future of Supply Chain even in Cleveland on Thursday, Harbor Trucking Association CEO Matt Schrap said that under…
The Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani) announced that Maersk’s AE12 and AE7 shipping services now call at Jeddah Islamic Port. Maersk confirmed that AE7 first called Jeddah on June 8, and AE12 first called Jeddah on June 2, 2023. AE7 has an 18,000 teu capacity with 12 vessels and calls 15 ports: Ningbo-Zhoushan, Shanghai, Nansha, Yantian, Tanjung Pelepas, Colombo, Tangier, Hamburg,…
According to a recent Container xChange survey, 69% of freight forwarders expect demand recovery in 2023, with 51% of those not sure when that will happen. 18% of respondents expect recovery in the next one to three months, and 31% do not expect recovery this year. An approaching peak season usually raises container prices as companies prepare to ship goods,…
99.24% of ILWU union workers in Canada voted to strike at the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert in Canada which could happen as early as the 24th of June 2023.. This proposed strike action could negatively impact the US West Coast as around 15% of US trade flows through the Port of Vancouver.. This announcement could not have…