News & Insights

As planes descend into Monterrey airport, an expanse of warehouses and manufacturing complexes stretches out for miles, exemplifying the near-shoring boom that has swept through Mexico in recent years, as Asian companies and their supply chains move closer to the United States. Drivers of Mexi... Read more

With increasing amounts of ocean freight capacity soaked up by COGH (Cape of Good Hope) diversions and port congestion, spot rates are spiking, with indexes up significantly on 2023 and market led spot/FAK rates up by nearly 500%. Now, carriers desperate for ships and more capacity are setting n... Read more

At 22:09 on Wednesday 19th June a GB railway locomotive and loaded wagons en-route to the Port of Felixstowe derailed on the branch line approaching the main Central and Northern railheads, causing significant damage to the track and closing both terminals to train movements. The Central and N... Read more

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) final rule on demurrage and detention billing requirements came into force on the 28th May, except for two provisions that are delayed. The rule applies to ocean common carriers trading to or from the US, including vessel-operating common carriers (VOCCs) ... Read more

Metro’s golf day planners once again selected a perfect day for the annual Metro customer golf tournament. Low winds, plenty of sunshine and highs of 20°C provided the ideal conditions for the day’s competitors to enjoy The Belfy, the world-famous golf resort, which has hosted the Ryder Cup ... Read more

Shipping lines are imposing surcharges and raising freight rates as capacity from India to Europe, North America and The Rest of The World tightens. Indicative of why this is, can be seen with exports to the US up 13% and significant ocean network changes expected on the India-North America trade... Read more

Turkey, Qatar, and the UAE are joining with Iraq to develop a new land corridor - Development Road Project - which will connect the Gulf to Europe. The Development Road Project is a multi-billion dollar land corridor that will stretch 750 miles from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, e... Read more

The Asia export trades are now as challenging as it was during the pandemic, with extremely tight vessel space, equipment shortages and port congestion colliding leading to a surge in spot rates, with analysts speculating it could reach USD 20,000/FEU on the Asia-Europe trade before too long. ... Read more

Significant and sustained terminal congestion in major Mediterranean and Asian ports is soaking up available capacity, which directly impacts freight rates and results in substantial delays to vessel schedules, with reliability dropping and the likelihood that delays will persist through the summ... Read more

Metro’s multi-award winning supply chain management platform, MVT, has been optimising supply chains for over two decades and the latest release of its AI-powered track & trace module is a Masterclass in shipment visibility. MVT is a global operations platform, which has been designed to... Read more

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is taking action to minimise the exploitation of the generous small package, or ‘de minimis' environment. Seizing goods and enhancing enforcement efforts to hold brokers accountable, the CBP’s actions are unsettling the eCommerce and freighter markets, a... Read more

Metro’s mission to develop infrastructure, systems and services to drive the effectiveness and cost efficiency of our European transport solutions is gathering pace. Just three months ago, our European Road Director, Richard Gibbs, said, “Metro has expanded its European road freight platfo... Read more