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Higher interest rates place spotlight on supply chain finance

Longer sales cycles, higher inventory costs and a steady drumbeat of interest rate hikes have buyers and suppliers looking to stretch capital by using supply chain finance programs. Supply chain finance is a short-term financing arrangement that speeds up the settlement of transactions between buyers and suppliers. It allows buyers…

Sep 27, 2022

Feds Trying to Make Sense of Ocean Cargo Data

An ambitious initiative taken on by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) addresses continued calls for data standardization and information sharing in ocean shipping as companies focus on making supply chains as risk-proof as possible. The FMC’s Maritime Transportation Data Initiative is being headed by commissioner Carl Bentzel, who offered the…

Sep 26, 2022

Tentative rail agreement provides medical leave for workers — but there’s a catch

The 2022 tentative national rail agreement includes some guaranteed time off for rail workers as well as the largest wage increase in nearly 50 years, according to a copy of the agreement shared with FreightWaves. SMART Transportation Division’s negotiating committee approved this tentative agreement last week unanimously, averting what could…

Sep 26, 2022

Weaker Demand for Chinese Goods Spells End of Shipping Boom

The cost of shipping goods from China has slumped to the lowest level in more than two years as the world economy stumbles, dimming prospects for container carriers that turned in record profits during the pandemic. A 40-foot shipping box from the world’s largest port of Shanghai to Los Angeles…

Sep 26, 2022

Port of New York and New Jersey Becomes America’s Busiest Box Port

Sep 26, 2022
Last month, volumes at the Port of Los Angeles fell below both Port of Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey, making PANYNJ the top port in North America by container volume for the period. PANYNJ moved more than 843,000 TEU in the month of August, setting a new August record, according to CNBC. Long Beach moved about 807,000 TEU, just barely edging out Los Angeles' 805,000 TEU. The cross-country shift is partly due to shipper anxiety about ongoing talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the employers' bargaining organization for West Coast terminal operators.
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MSC fires back in ongoing spat with Pennsylvania home decor firm

Sep 23, 2022
Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest containerline, shows no sign of giving in on a legal fight it is having with a client in the US. In August last year Pennsylvania-based home decor manufacturer MCS Industries filed a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Washington DC, claiming MSC had contravened the US Shipping Act and not stuck to its agreed shipping commitments. The case has since stretched on and on with neither side backing down. Geneva-based MSC had been given to last night to produce further documents to the FMC, something it failed to do, with the Aponte family controlled line claiming today that Swiss law prevents it from producing certain documents without proper authorisation from the Swiss authorities.
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