Numerous issues on shippers’ radar to start year

ILA and USMX come to the table

While it’s still unclear what will happen in the middle of this month, a report from CNBC noted that the two sides in the East and Gulf Coast port labor dispute are meeting, which is a step in the right direction. That is a contrast to the days leading up to the strike deadline this past fall, when it appeared to the United States Maritime Alliance (and most others) that the International Longshoremen’s Association had already decided to strike. That said, the two parties still have major differences. The union wants human workers to be added to payrolls to complement added automation/semiautomation, while the employers say that automating/semiautomating repetitive tasks is one of the methods for paying for the wage increase the parties agreed to this past fall.
For details, see these CNBC and FreightWaves articles. 

Ocean rates moving higher near term but may fall later in Q1

Trans-Pacific eastbound spot rates have risen to start the year. The spot rates to move a 40-foot container from China to the U.S. West Coast and U.S. East Coast are shown in white and red, respectively. (Chart: SONAR)

It stands to reason that containership capacity that is set to come into the industry this year and next – Flexport estimates the added capacity will total 8% and 6% of total capacity in 2025 and 2026, respectively – will put pressure on ocean rates. However, the near-term fundamentals point to higher rates in the immediate term. JP Hampstead describes why in a FreightWaves article. In short, general rate increases took hold at the start of the year combined with a volume pull-forward ahead of Lunar New