SHIPPING

American importers are barrelling into the busiest month in the history of US container shipping, and the reason has less to do with consumer demand than with a date on the calendar. The NRF/Hackett Global Port Tracker projects 2.47 million TEU moving through US ports in July, the highest monthly total ever recorded, as shippers race cargo across the Pacific ahead of an expected August tariff jump. The 10% global tariff imposed under Section 122 lapses at 12:01 a.m. on July 2

American importers are racing the calendar, and the result is poised to be the busiest month in the history of US container shipping. The NRF and Hackett Associates Global Port Tracker projects 2.47 million TEU will move through US ports in July, the highest monthly total ever recorded, as retailers front-load ahead of an expected August tariff jump. The driver is a hard deadline: temporary Section 122 tariffs of 10% expire on July 24, with a fresh round targeting forced-labo

A rare collision of geopolitics, trade policy, and peak-season demand has sent ocean freight rates climbing again this week, and the clock driving it is loud. Transpacific spot prices jumped for another week, with Asia to U.S. West Coast and East Coast rates each rising 8 percent, while Asia to North Europe climbed 10 percent and Asia to the Mediterranean 11 percent. The surge is notable because it is defying the usual logic: falling fuel prices are not being reflected in con

It is not often that House Republicans line up to tell President Trump to stand down. This week they did exactly that, and the fight is over an obscure century-old shipping law that has quietly become one of Washington's sharpest maritime flashpoints. More than 50 Republican lawmakers, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, Oversight Chairman James Comer and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, sent the White House a letter urging the administration to let its sweeping Jones Act waiver expir

The French shipping giant CMA CGM has never been shy about its American ambitions. This week it wrote another cheque to prove it. The Marseille-based container line agreed to acquire FedEx Supply Chain, the third-party logistics arm of FedEx Corp, at an enterprise value of $1.4 billion, in a deal announced Wednesday and expected to close in 2026. The unit folds into CEVA Logistics, CMA CGM's contract-logistics subsidiary — and it is no bolt-on. The acquisition would nearly tr

The most consequential development for the US shipping industry this month is unfolding far from American shores — in the Strait of Hormuz, where a fragile reopening is reshaping global oil and container flows just as the domestic freight market hits historic highs. A 14-point US-Iran memorandum signed June 17, dubbed the "Islamabad Memorandum," set up a 60-day negotiating window and began easing the chokepoint that had throttled tanker traffic through the spring. But the unw

The guns have quieted in the Gulf, yet the bill for America's importers keeps climbing — a reminder that in global shipping, peace arrives faster than price relief. Following the June 14 ceasefire between the US and Iran, Washington has ended its blockade and the Strait of Hormuz threat level has been reduced further. But the path back to normal is fraught. Xeneta's chief air cargo officer warned that full normalisation will only be possible once mine clearance in the strait

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz should have been an unambiguous relief for global shipping. Instead, an Iranian suggestion that it may start charging ships to pass through the waterway has set the industry on edge and exposed how fragile the post-conflict calm remains. Under an interim US-Iran peace deal, the strait is moving back towards normal operation after months of disruption that pushed up fuel prices and rippled through freight rates worldwide. But Tehran has si

The U.S. ocean shipping market entered the week balanced on a knife's edge, with container rates holding near multi-month highs even as a tentative diplomatic breakthrough raised the prospect of relief from the crisis that has reshaped global trade since late winter. Spot prices on the major east-west trade lanes held steady, preserving the sharp increases carriers pushed through at the start of June, when general rate hikes and peak-season surcharges added $1,000 or more per

The Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shut to commercial traffic this week, dragging the global supply-chain crisis past its hundredth day and pushing freight costs facing American importers sharply higher. As of 14 June, the waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil and LNG normally moves was carrying a trickle of vessels, with monitoring services recording transit counts in the low single digits against a pre-crisis baseline near 94 per day. The choke po

Ocean carriers spent this week doing something they could only dream of through a soft spring: raising prices, and making them stick. Rate hikes and a wave of fresh surcharges that took effect June 1 drove Asia-to-U.S. West Coast spot prices up 51% in the most recent week, reaching $4,836 per forty-foot equivalent unit, according to the Freightos Baltic Index. Asia-U.S. East Coast prices increased 25% to $6,336 per FEU. Freightos research chief Judah Levine called the moves t

The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz is reshaping US ocean freight economics, with bunker fuel costs, vessel scheduling and carrier surcharges all under sustained pressure as the standoff with Iran enters a new phase. Brent crude fell 3.8 percent to $97.38 a barrel last week, down from more than $115 earlier in the week, after Pakistan signalled that a US-Iran agreement could be near. The drop follows weeks of acute volatility driven by the closure of the strait, whe

The Trump administration escalated its maritime pressure campaign against Tehran this week, with the Treasury Department rolling out fresh sanctions targeting the network behind Iran's "shadow fleet" kingpin Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, and U.S. Central Command reporting that its blockade of Iranian ports had turned away ten vessels since deployment. The moves came as the global shipping industry continued to absorb the logistical shockwaves of the Iran war, now stretching int

The U.S. shipping and freight industry is navigating one of its most turbulent periods in recent memory, squeezed simultaneously by surging fuel costs, an escalating tariff regime, and the knock-on effects of conflict in the Middle East. Diesel prices have surged past $5.40 per gallon nationally, with California approaching $7.22 per gallon — a level that is distorting transportation economics across the entire western supply chain. The spike is cascading across every mode of

The US shipping regulator fired a warning shot at Beijing this week, putting the world's second-largest economy on notice that its campaign of maritime retaliation against Panama is now squarely in America's crosshairs. Federal Maritime Commission Chair Laura DiBella said the agency is "closely monitoring" a surge in Chinese detentions of Panama-flagged vessels and their effects on global shipping conditions. The statement, issued Thursday, marked Washington's most direct pub

The Trump administration has a messaging problem on oil — and it's sitting at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran last week, the U.S. Navy has rebuffed near-daily requests from commercial shipping companies seeking military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources familiar with the matter. The reason: the attack risk is simply too high. The consequence: roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply is effectively bo

The US shipping industry is confronting a severe disruption to global supply chains following Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow but critical waterway through which approximately one-fifth of the world's oil supply passes each day. Senior commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard announced the strait was closed to all vessel traffic in the wake of US and Israeli military strikes, warning that any ship attempting to pass would be targeted. The declaration has prom

The Trump administration unveiled its Maritime Action Plan on February 13, a sweeping federal blueprint to rebuild America's commercial shipbuilding capacity and reassert dominance over global sea lanes. The plan is ambitious, politically charged — and conspicuously silent on one of the industry's most consequential shifts. Mandated by a 2025 executive order, the MAP lays out a three-pronged strategy: modernise shipyards, expand the mariner workforce, and rewrite regulations

The most consequential standoff in modern US maritime policy is currently on pause. And that's precisely what has the shipping industry nervous. Last November, following the Trump-Xi summit in South Korea, Washington and Beijing agreed to a mutual suspension of the tit-for-tat port fees each had levied against the other's vessels. The ceasefire runs through November 9, 2026 — a deadline now looming over every chartering decision, fleet deployment, and contract negotiation in

The container shipping industry's biggest deal in years landed Monday, as Germany's Hapag-Lloyd signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli rival ZIM Integrated Shipping Services in an all-cash transaction valuing the company at $4.2 billion. The $35-per-share offer represents a staggering premium over ZIM's recent trading price — 58 percent above its closing price on February 13 and 126 percent above its unaffected share price of $15.50 last August, before market specul