Port of Savannah’s Evening Hours Cut

coracle News

The Georgia Port Authority (GPA) discontinued its evening truck hours at the Port of Savannah in February as a result of reduced utilization of evening gate hours as well as decline in volumes. GPA also closed several temporary inland storage yards.

3600 CN Workers Vote for Strike

coracle News

CN Unifor Local 100 and Unifor Council 4000 represents roughly 3600 clerical, mechanical, intermodal, and facility management employees, and they have voted in favour of strike action as early as March 21, 2023.

French Ports Disrupted by Pension Strikes

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Workers across France have been protesting all week against pension reforms that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. There were 1.28 million people protesting on Tuesday, which was the sixth day of protest this year. Our partners in France are reporting that ports are impacted. Some empty container depots and logistics warehouses are blocked and inaccessible. Some …

9 Ocean Carriers Commit to 100% eBL by 2030

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The nine ocean carriers that are members of the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) have committed to 50% adoption of an electronic bill of lading (eBL) within 5 years and 100% by 2023. Their commitment accelerates the digitization of original bills of lading.

Automated Machines that Unload Containers

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The future is here. Robotics design company Boston Dynamics has created a versatile and automated mobile robot that they named Stretch™. This robot was designed to automate box moving tasks in warehouses and distributions centres. For example, their video shows Stretch unloading boxes from a container and placing them on a conveyer belt.

Zim Expands Asia-US East Coast Service

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Zim is adding larger ships to their Southeast Asia to US East Coast expedited ocean service next month. Zim’s eCommerce Baltimore Express (ZXB) started as a fortnightly service last year, but will now become a weekly service by the end of February. This comes as Asian imports to the US East Coast in 2022 have seen modest gains, up 6.2% …

Air Cargo return to Pre-Pandemic Levels

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Global air freight levels for 2022 were 1.6% lower compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to data released by International Air Transport Association (IATA). 2022 levels were down 8.2% compared to the extraordinary demand in 2021. Capacity in 2022 was 4.5% above 2021, but 9.0% below 2019.

U.S. East Coast Port Workers Begin Contract Talks Before Sept 2024 Expiry

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The union locals that represent workers from 36 ports from Maine to Texas have started contract talks with employers before the September 30, 2024 expiry date. Both sides are eager to work on a new contract in the midst of difficult labour-management relations across industries, which includes the U.S. West Coast ports that have been without a contract for 7 …

Industrial Demand Remains High in North America

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The continued robust demand for industrial construction in North American has driven up overall costs and material lead times. The construction industry is still feeling the lingering effects of the pandemic.

The End of the 2M Alliance between MSC and Maersk

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MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Co.) and Maersk announced that their 10-year 2M Alliance will end in January 2025. The two carriers currently have a complex partnership that covers 30 loops and strings on all major trade lanes.

19% of Sailings Cancelled between Jan 30 – March 5

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According to Dewry’s cancelled sailings tracker, 131 blank sailings have been announced between between Jan 30 – Mar 5 (week 5 to week 9). This is out of a total of 693 scheduled sailings across the major trade routes of Transpacific, Transatlantic and Asia-North Europe & Med.

Trucking in 2023 bottoming out

coracle News

Analytics are predicting that trucking rates are bottoming out. Some key leading indicators like internal truckload freight index and a spot rate data set, have stopped falling. Morgan Stanley’s forecasting tool is now showing that truckload spot rates will move 15% higher over the next 12 months. FreightWaves National Truckload Index shows spot rates have increased 20% from a mid-November …

How much does ChatGPT know about shipping?

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ChatGPT is all the rage these days. If you haven’t heard of it, it is a prototype artificial intelligence chatbot which specializes in dialogue. Journalist Hariesh Manaadiar decided to test ChatGPT’s knowledge about global shipping by asking it, “What to do if I lose my original ocean bill of lading?”

ZIM Invests in Fintech to Provide Easy Financing for SMEs

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Israeli carrier ZIM has teamed up with venture capital firm Team8 to invest in Tel Aviv-based fintech company 40Seas, with $111 million in funding. 40Seas is creating a global commerce solution for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) to access digital financing.

Logistical Bottlenecks to Fully Normalise by April 2023

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The global pandemic in 2020-2022 disrupted normal operations in global logistics. The 100 vessels waiting outside the Los Angeles ports and other disruptions reduced global capacity by 13.8% in January 2022. During normal circumstances, only 2 percent of capacity is held up.

Chinese New Year to Cause a Slowdown in Shipments

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Chinese New Year begins on January 22, launching China into its longest holiday of the year and creating a slowdown in shipping for the next two weeks. This year is the Year of the Rabbit, which symbolizes longevity, peace, and prosperity.