Ag shippers feel pain from lack of ocean containers

A photograph of railcars passing by a railroad crossing.

A perfect storm of container unavailability, labor shortages and lack of chassis and warehouse space is wreaking havoc for U.S. agricultural shippers this fall, according to panelists participating in the Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s (AgTC) virtual meeting Tuesday.

“This is one of the most difficult seasons we’ve been facing trying to move our cargo out of the United States,” said Maria Zermeno, logistics manager for Hughson Nut, a coalition member.

Zermeno said her bookings with ocean...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/ag-shippers-feel-pain-from-lack-of-ocean-containers

TuSimple sets sights on autonomous truck goal — Midday Market Update (with video)

MMU 11/24

Michael Vincent and Andrew Cox discuss what a deal with TRATON Group means for self-driving truck technology

Andrew cox fills in for Kevin Hill to talk autonomous vehicles and todays latest headlines

Headlines

KLLM announced a pay raise for drivers, bumping the earning potential by over 9%. KLLM follows Werner, Heartland and others hiking wages and sign-on bonuses for drivers to try and keep up with growing demand and a continued driver shortage. 

Data from Wall Street shows shipping stocks...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tusimple-sets-sights-on-autonomous-truck-goal-midday-market-update-with-video

When pigs fly

St. Louis International Airport

St. Louis Lambert International Airport celebrated the departure of a special export cargo this week: 200 breeding hogs destined for Sao Paulo.

The hogs were shipped on board an Atlas Air 747-400 freighter on Wednesday from the Midwestern airport to Sao Paulo’s Viracopos International Airport. The shipment marked the airport’s first attempt at conducting a large livestock shipment.

Seven years ago, the St. Louis airport authority began developing its program to transport U.S. livestock shipments...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/when-pigs-fly

Container return date upheaval by the numbers

ocean container schedules

U.S. agriculture and forest product exporters are counting the ways and dollars it costs them when ocean carriers without warning change the dates for container arrivals at marine terminals.

The Washington-based Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) and supply chain technology firm TradeLanes recently reached out to hundreds of American shippers to survey the operational and financial impacts of earliest return date (ERD) fluctuations on their businesses.

The AgTC and TradeLanes have...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/container-return-date-upheaval-by-the-numbers

Mexico’s agri-food exports top $20 billion in first half of 2020

Mexican agri-food exports rose 4.26% to $20.68 billion during the first half of the year, Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) reported.

The Mexican agri-food product with the highest demand in international markets was beer, with sales of more than $2 billion in that period, according to the Friday report.

Mexico’s other top agri-food exports included:

  • Avocados, $1.8 billion.
  • Tomatoes, $1.4 billion.
  • Tequila and mezcal, $1.04 billion.
  • Sugar and sweeteners, $949 million.
  • P...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/mexicos-agri-food-exports-top-20-billion-in-first-half-of-2020

Commentary: 20-foot container crunch may impact harvests

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.  

The U.S. agriculture industry has faced numerous headwinds during the COVID-19 pandemic, and with harvests just around the corner, there is a trend developing that could impact the availability of the industry’s desired 20-foot containers.

Wheat waving in the breeze.
(Photo: Melissa Askew/Unsplash)

Containership lines’ blank sailings over the past few months...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-20-foot-container-crunch-may-impact-harvests

Savannah tops in agricultural exports in 2019

A photograph of five long lines of containers lined up next to each other.

The Port of Savannah was the top U.S. port in terms of containerized agricultural exports in 2019, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) said Thursday.

Agricultural products exported totaled more than 843,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in calendar year 2019, GPA said. Those agricultural volumes accounted for 60% of the port’s exports. Forest products such as wood pulp, paper and logs, as well as clay, cotton and poultry are under the agricultural products umbrella.

GPA drew on IHS Markit’s...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/savannah-tops-in-agricultural-exports-in-2019