The Trump administration announced Thursday it will impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Mexico and Canada after failing to win concessions from the American allies. Europe and Mexico pledged to retaliate quickly, exacerbating trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions. Financial markets fell amid fears of a trade war.
Author Archives: Jeffrey Goh
U.S. economic growth slowed slightly more than initially thought in the first quarter amid downward revisions to inventory investment and consumer spending, but a robust labor market and income tax cuts are likely to boost activity this year.
Maersk Line has followed its 2M Alliance partner Mediterranean Shipping Company in introducing an emergency bunker surcharge from June 1 on all corridors as rising fuel prices ramp up unit costs and erode profitability. The Danish carrier will impose a $60 per TEU and $120 per FEU bunker surcharge on all cargo globally, effective June 1 on non-Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) corridors, and from July 1 on FMC corridors.
(This article requires a subscription to the Journal of Commerce. To subscribe, please click on the above link.)
Airfreight traffic growth was back on track in April after an “abrupt” slowdown in performance during March. The latest figures from IATA show that freight tonne kms (FTK) increased by 4.1% in April, compared with a “sharp fall” in growth during March to 1.8% – a 23-month low. The end of the restocking cycle, poor weather conditions and the effects of the Chinese New Year were blamed for the performance in March.
More than 3,000 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. workers walked off the job, threatening a wider disruption in freight traffic and setting up the first major labor test for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The strike by conductors and locomotive engineers began at 10 p.m. Eastern time, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said in an e-mail statement May 29. Negotiations with the company are ongoing, Teamsters said minutes after Canadian Pacific reached a tentative three-year agreement with a smaller union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending May 26, 2018. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 565,502 carloads and intermodal units, up 4.4 percent compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending May 26 were 273,226 carloads, up 3 percent compared with the same week in 2017, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 292,276 containers and trailers, up 5.8 percent compared to 2017.
UPS Inc. will increase its over-the-maximum limits and the oversize pallet-handling surcharge to $650 from $500 beginning June 4. The Atlanta-based parcel-delivery company said in a statement to Transport Topics it is raising the rate because many of the items it is being asked to ship are not suited for its small-package network and instead should be moved through its UPS Freight network.
The Western States Trucking Association plans to challenge a California Supreme Court ruling that it says will effectively end the use of trucking owner-operators in the state. In the landmark Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that certain workers, in particular transportation drivers, should be presumed employees instead of independent contractors when evaluating wage and hour classification in class action cases.
Orders for long-lasting durable goods fell in April, but a closely watched proxy of business investment moved higher. And although sales of existing homes declined, consumer sentiment remains strong. The Commerce Department reported on Friday new orders for durable goods fell 1.7% in April from the month before, as demand for new transportation equipment, mainly airplanes, tumbled 6.1%. This drop in new orders is slightly more than analysts were expecting.
US shippers stung by rampant truckload rate increases are looking for alternate routes to customers, but they’re finding capacity is tight and prices high no matter where they look. Higher intermodal spot rates, combined with rail capacity limits and service issues, is turning some freight that would otherwise shift to rail back to the highways, a logistics provider said.