There are three international shipping news stories making headlines this week that shippers should know about. These are the kind of stories that affect U.S. importers and exporters' bottom [...]
Freight is an essential part of your business. You need to get your products to your customers, but you rely on various shipping methods to get the job done. That makes freight shipping rates a [...]
This is a guest post by Victor Harper. Logistics, as we know it today, is an essential part of every successful business. You can see its wide application in commercial, non-commercial, [...]
It was hoped the high freight rates we've been seeing for about a year now in the international shipping industry would finally start easing back down at this point; however, it appears reprieve [...]
She's afloat once again. The Ever Given, which was stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, has been freed. While one of the companies hired to get the ship free said it could take weeks, in actuality, [...]
You thought port congestion at U.S. ports – the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach especially – is bad. You're right. But at least it's possible for ships to get in and out of the ports (it just [...]
This is a guest post by Maggie Simpson. As the backbone of the global economy, international trade has its own history and quirks. Buckle up as we get the lowdown on some of the most bizarre [...]
It’s early to talk about the 2021 peak season for the international shipping industry; however, with severe congestion at U.S. ports expected to last at least into the summer, 2021’s [...]
This post concludes our long Jones Act blog series, recapping the major points of the debate we covered and putting them all in one easy reference point. We began this series after President [...]
71 U.S. agricultural industry groups teamed up to write a letter to President Biden, informing him of the injury ocean freight carriers are doing to US agriculture, food, and forestry product [...]
We're now deep in a series covering the debate over the 100-year-old piece of legislation known as the Jones Act. The controversial Merchant Marine Act of 1920, as it is formally named, has [...]
Does the Jones Act have a negative impact on the economies of noncontiguous U.S. states and territories? We'll look at arguments concerning just that, with an eye specifically on Hawaii, in [...]
Among the flurry of executive orders from the new administration (President Biden had already signed 40 executive orders and actions as of a week ago) is an order in which the president reaffirms [...]
We continue today with a series taking a deep dive into the outlook of international shipping in 2021. Part 1 focused on high ocean freight rates, cargo volume trends, and the potential for a [...]
Today we continue our examination of freight rates and the outlook of the international shipping industry for 2021. Part 1 of this series looked at the high freight rate prices the international [...]
This is a guest post by Jake Rheude. The final days of 2020 ended with some of China's highest container rates in recent memory coupled with port congestion, space demands, and other metrics [...]
International shipping in 2021 continues right where 2020 left off. That sentence sounds obvious, but what it means is an abnormal start to the year when it comes to ocean freight shipping, and [...]
I've typed the words "ocean freight carriers are notoriously unreliable" so many times over the last decade of writing in Universal Cargo's blog that I should probably have the statement [...]
Shippers importing goods from anywhere in the world – but especially China and other Asian countries – should expect to experience delays and fees. Right now, ports in Asia and the U.S. are [...]
Furniture demand shot up in 2020, and the increase in demand does not look like a momentary spike ready to plummet. Demand for furniture should continue to be high for the next few years. While [...]