SHIPPING

The Trump administration moved this week to bring sanctioned oil tankers back into lawful trade in an effort to curb soaring freight costs. On the transpacific, container lines began cutting capacity as US-bound rates lost momentum. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Monday that the government is developing an approval process that would let investors buy idle sanctioned tankers, refurbish them and use them to carry only non-sanctioned crude. Speaking at a Citadel Securiti

The US maritime regulator moved this week to penalize Spain over its treatment of American-flagged vessels, opening a new front in transatlantic trade tensions. In Georgia, the Port of Savannah cleared the final federal hurdle for its biggest expansion yet. The Federal Maritime Commission on Wednesday proposed a $200,000 fee on every voyage a Spanish-flagged ship makes into a US port. It also outlined possible curbs on Spanish imports, including olive oil, cosmetics, ceramics

The Port of Savannah handled a record number of containers in September, adding to signs that US import demand is holding up even as ocean freight rates come off their highs. The Georgia Ports Authority said Savannah moved 504,015 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, up 3.7% from a year earlier and its busiest September on record. Loaded imports rose 5.5%. Volume for the authority's fiscal first quarter topped 1.5 million TEUs, the second-strongest start to a year

The shipping peak season was supposed to be winding down by now. It isn't. The National Retail Federation now expects September to be the busiest month of the year for U.S. container imports, at 2.31 million twenty-foot equivalent units. That would be 9.6 percent higher than a year ago. The federation has raised its full-year forecast to 25.7 million units. "We thought the peak season would be mostly behind us by now, but that's not the case," said Jonathan Gold, the federati

US container imports are on course for the busiest month in the country's history, and almost none of it is being driven by consumer demand. The National Retail Federation expects September to bring 2.31 million TEU through American ports. The cause is not restocking confidence but a calculation about dates. Washington has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on non-USMCA Canadian goods, Canadian retaliatory measures took effect on 8 September, and duties on Chinese imports are rising

Two things hit American importers this week, and neither has anything to do with how much cargo anyone wants to move. The first is a tariff wall. Fifty per cent duties on Canadian goods falling outside USMCA take effect today, and Washington is widely expected to raise duties on Chinese imports before a Trump-Xi meeting anticipated later this month. Importers are being asked to price landed cost against a schedule that could change twice before their boxes reach a berth. The

A liquefied petroleum gas tanker will pay a record $5.3m to transit the Panama Canal on 1 September, the second record in a fortnight, as drought measures and Middle East diversions collide at the chokepoint that carries US Gulf energy exports to Asia. South Korea's SK Gas agreed the sum in an auction this week for a northbound slot for the G. Spirit, Bloomberg reported, beating the $4.6m paid on 14 August by another Korean-controlled vessel. Before February the median auctio

In May, the Panama Canal Authority told Reuters it had no plans to limit transits this year. As recently as 5 August it repeated that draft adjustments would leave daily crossings untouched. On Thursday it reversed course, capping transits at 34 a day from early September and 32 from the 15th, down from the roughly 35 to 36 the canal has been averaging since June and a normal capacity nearer 40. The trigger is rain that never came. Cumulative rainfall across the canal watersh

American shippers hoping the summer's freight rate fever would break by autumn received a cold dose of reality this week. Fresh market data published Wednesday showed spot rates continuing their seasonal slide from the July 4 peak, down more than 17 per cent over four to five straight weeks, yet still sitting roughly 50 per cent above year-ago levels. The load-to-truck ratio eased fractionally to 18.62, but that compares with 10.34 a year earlier. This is not a market cooling

The longest-running takeover saga in American shipping ended not with a handshake but a parting shot. Diana Shipping withdrew its offer for Genco Shipping & Trading on 14 August, abandoning a nine-month pursuit of the largest US-headquartered drybulk owner after what the Greek suitor branded "outrageous" demands from Genco's board. The numbers tell the story of how far apart the two sides remained. Diana's final offer, adjusted for Genco's recent dividend, comprised $24.80 in

Nearly two years after Houthi attacks emptied the Red Sea of container ships, the traffic is trickling back, and every returning vessel brings the industry's oversupply reckoning a little closer. This week Maersk routed another service back through the Suez Canal, its fourth to switch since early July, even as nine of its services continue the long detour around Africa. The move came as one of CMA CGM's largest ships, with capacity for 24,000 containers, made the first southb

The surge that carried US container ports to a record summer is receding, and the second half of the year is shaping up to be far quieter than the first. The early peak season is winding down, as the retailers who accelerated imports to get ahead of new tariffs run out of reasons to keep pulling cargo forward. For months the calculus was simple: bring it in now, before the duties bite. That window has closed, and the volume that was borrowed from the autumn has already landed

Ocean carriers spent late July telling shippers that rates would jump on 1 August. The week has arrived, and the increases are dissolving on contact. The container lines had lined up General Rate Increases of $2,000 to $3,000 per forty-foot box for the start of the month, an attempt to arrest a steady slide in spot prices. The problem is that they undercut themselves getting there. In the run-up, carriers deliberately cut rates to stimulate demand, and by late July the trend

For months the US import machine ran on a single deadline. That deadline came and went on 24 July, and the freight market is now living in the aftermath it spent all summer front-loading to avoid. The temporary 10 per cent Section 122 surcharge expired as scheduled, replaced by a patchwork of new duties. Importers are already revising landed-cost models, with some tariff lines running 2.5 percentage points higher than the measures they replaced, depending on country of origin

The 10 per cent global import surcharge that has underpinned American trade policy since February lapsed at 12:01 a.m. last Friday, and the administration had nothing ready to take its place. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 gives a president 150 days and no more. Signed on 20 February and effective four days later, the surcharge hit its statutory wall on 24 July. Only Congress can extend it, and no extension legislation is pending. The replacement is late. USTR blew thro

For six weeks, US importers pulled cargo forward to beat a date. The date arrived, and almost nothing got cheaper. Section 122's 10 per cent global surcharge — the stopgap imposed in February after the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs — expired by operation of law at 12:01am on 24 July, and a replacement took effect at the same minute: new Section 301 duties of 10 to 12.5 per cent covering roughly 80 countries and about 99.4 per cent of US imports. USTR grounded th

The 10 per cent global import surcharge that has underpinned American trade policy since February lapses at 12:01 a.m. Friday, and the administration has nothing ready to take its place. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 gives a president 150 days and no more. Signed on 20 February and effective four days later, the surcharge hits its statutory wall on 24 July. Only Congress can extend it, and no extension legislation is pending. The replacement is late. USTR blew through

The most consequential fight in American shipping is no longer about congestion or freight rates. It is about a century-old law, and whether President Trump lets his own emergency waiver of it expire next month. Granted in March 2026 and later extended through August 16, the waiver permits qualifying foreign-flag vessels to move certain cargoes between US ports, traffic ordinarily reserved for ships that are American-built, owned, flagged and crewed. It is the longest and mos

American importers are barrelling into the busiest month in the history of US container shipping, and the driving force has little to do with consumer appetite and everything to do with a date on the calendar. The NRF and Hackett Associates Global Port Tracker projects 2.47 million twenty-foot equivalent units moving through US ports in July, the highest monthly total ever recorded. That eclipses the previous high of 2.4 million TEUs set in May 2022 at the peak of the post-pa

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