Category: Supply Chain

Metro has been innovating leading-edge supply chain management, tracking and business-process technology for 20 years and in 2024 we will continue to increase our ability to integrate with stakeholders, share real-time data, accelerate workflows, automate processes and optimise our customers’ s... Read more

With 5% of global maritime trade and 40% of US container traffic using the Atlantic-Pacific shortcut, the Panama Canal is a critical link in global supply chains and the drought-driven disruption which started last year is finally relenting, with the key waterway expected to be operating at full ... Read more

The post-COVID environment, geopolitical uncertainty, protectionism, climate-change events and now the Red Sea crisis have all put pressure on global supply chains and as we discovered at TPM, companies are increasingly considering the evolution of their global supply chains to minimise risk and ... Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shippers’ concerns about Red Sea supply chain delays, plus an early Lunar New Year, pushed up air cargo volumes by 10% in January, but the availability of capacity has kept a lid on spot rates on most routes. While there has been no definitive immediate increase in air cargo demand due to th... Read more

Transpacific container shipping lines are imposing surcharges and higher freight rates due to the ongoing Suez and Panama Canal disruptions, with the cost burden felt most by small volume shippers, but the biggest cargo owners are also feeling the heat.  Since the major container shipping lin... Read more

In addition to fast-rising ocean freight rates and extended transit times, as the container shipping lines divert around Africa, shippers have been struggling to understand what (if any) insurance is in place, with insurance companies massively increasing war risk premiums and no longer willing t... Read more