News & Insights

Our alerts, news and guides embrace all transport modes and explore global developments across all aspects of the supply chain, to keep you informed and guide decision making.

Sustainable business growth

Differentiation, innovation, technology, profitability, customer focus and partnership building are all key components in business growth and are all inherently linked to sustainable businesses, which underlines the value that environmental strategies can add to your business. Sustainability i... Read more

Research uncovers scale of Red Sea disruption

New research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has found that over half of importing manufacturers and retailers (53%) have been impacted by the disruption to shipping caused by the Red Sea crisis, with over half of exporters (55%) also experiencing increased costs and delays. The issu... Read more

Driving road freight excellence

Into his second year Metro’s European Director, Richard Gibbs, updates us on his mission to develop the infrastructure, systems and services that will provide the best European transport solutions, for effectiveness and cost efficiency.  “Metro has expanded its European road freight platfor... Read more

US importers face inventory replenishment quandary

Many US companies, including big retailers, were successful over the course of 2023 in clearing out the stockpiles of inventory, that they built up during the pandemic to cope with shipping disruptions and changing buying patterns. During the pandemic many retailers and manufacturers flipped f... Read more

Sea/Air growth undiminished

The latest air cargo data is showing a clear upswing in volumes at key sea/air hubs, as shippers from Asia seek to avoid the extended ocean freight transit that has resulted from the Red Sea shipping crisis. Over the first two months of the year, volumes to Europe from Dubai, Colombo and Bangk... Read more

OCEAN Alliance seek stability

Although there was market speculation that a member of the OCEAN Alliance might be tempted to leave and join THE Alliance in 2027, a new agreement by the remaining members makes it very unlikely this decade. Seeking to send a clear message of stability, after Hapag Lloyd’s defection to the G... Read more

Red Sea crisis; situation report

The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) is already reporting multiple new Houthi attacks on vessels, following two missile strikes on the British registered general cargo vessel “Rubymar” on Sunday, which the crew had to abandon on Monday. The Rubymar attack was followed by a merchant ves... Read more

Bangkok and Dubai air cargo handling delays

The ramping up of air cargo demand in Asia has led to ground handlers in Bangkok and Dubai announcing temporary embargoes on imports, with delays still being experienced.  The unprecedented volumes of air cargo are largely due to modal shifts from sea to air and sea/air because of the Red Sea... Read more

Transpacific container shipping

If we were to try and define a single factor that defined transpacific container shipping (along with most other routes) in 2023, it would probably be shipper complacency brought about by the rebalancing and normalisation of supply chains, following the unprecedented disruption of the COVID years... Read more

China dumping fears growing

The United States is voicing increasing concerns that Chinese manufacturing overcapacity will hit world markets, while the EU launched an anti-dumping investigation into China’s EV industry last year. Senior US Treasury officials told the Financial Times this week that a visiting US delega... Read more

Metro’s Business development Director

With over ten years in commercial management, we are very pleased to welcome our new Business Development Director, Emiliano Muco BSc (Finance). Since graduating from the University of Hertfordshire Emiliano has held a variety of roles with some of the biggest names in freight forwarding and brin... Read more

Our unique transatlantic shipping line

We have been supporting bi-lateral UK/USA trade, with air and sea freight services, for over four decades, which is why we are so excited by our in-house shipping line, Ellerman City Liners, transatlantic capacity deal with the world’s biggest shipping line, MSC. Ellerman’s weekly sailing ... Read more