Import demand growth robust leading into Lunar New Year

Chart of the Week: Inbound Ocean TEUs Volume Index – Port of Los Angeles, Port of Savannah, Port of New York/New Jersey, Port of Long Beach  SONAR: IOTI.USLAX, IOTI.USSAV, IOTI.USNYC, IOTI.USLGB

Bookings for twenty-foot equivalent units (IOTI) spiked well above last year’s levels for freight bound for the nation’s top four port complexes heading into Chinese New Year (CNY). 

The IOTI is an index that measures container volumes being booked by departure date from the port of origin, about 15-30...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/import-demand-growth-robust-leading-into-lunar-new-year

SONAR Sightings: Illinois reefer volumes spike; Houston port sees record numbers; China imports continue to slide

The highlights from Monday’s SONAR reports are below. For more information on SONAR — the fastest freight-forecasting platform in the industry — or to request a demo, click here. Also, be sure to check out the latest SONAR update, TRAC — the freshest spot rate data in the industry.

Market Watch for Sept. 19:Joliet, Illinois

Reefer volumes out of Joliet, Illinois, reached a six-month high after bouncing back from a Labor Day plunge.

The Reefer Outbound Tender Volume Index is up just over 2 points,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/sonar-sightings-illinois-reefer-volumes-spike-houston-port-sees-record-numbers-china-imports-continue-to-slide

FreightWaves Classics: USCGC Juniper was launched on June 24, 1995

The USCGC Juniper on duty. (Photo: pacificarea.uscg.mil)

The Juniper was the first of its class (the lead ship) of the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) seagoing buoy tenders. 

The USCG seagoing buoy tender is a type of USCG cutter that is “used to service aids to navigation (ATON) throughout the waters of the United States and wherever American shipping interests require.” The Coast Guard has had a fleet of seagoing buoy tenders going back to its origins as the U.S. Lighthouse Service (USLHS).

The Juniper-class ships, which were launched beginning in the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-uscgc-juniper-was-launched-on-june-24-1995

Order lead times plummet as inventories grow and demand uncertainty soars

Shipping lead times fall 23% as companies order less goods with more frequency

Chart of the Week: Ocean TEU Booking Lead Times – All ports to the USA  SONAR: Container Atlas

Order lead times — the time between order placement and expected ship date for containerized imports — have dropped 23% since late April as supply chain managers are forced to change their strategy in an economic environment that is once again in a transitional state. 

Last week, Target reported that it had essentially too...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/order-lead-times-plummet-as-inventories-grow-and-demand-uncertainty-soars

Import demand predicted trucking spot rate increase and decline

Import container volumes continue to point to domestic freight market slowing

Chart of the Week: National Trucking Index – USA, Inbound Ocean TEUs Index – China to USA  SONAR: NTI.USA, IOTI.CHNUSA

Back in the early part of the pandemic, companies began to import goods at an incredible pace, leading to the unprecedented rise in the truckload spot market rates. The connection between imports and trucking is not always this consistent, but the pandemic has strengthened their relationship thanks to...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/import-demand-predicted-trucking-spot-rate-increase-and-decline

FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: Montauk Point Lighthouse was first US public works project

The Montauk Point Lighthouse. (Photo: Pamela Bednarik/U.S. Coast Guard)

William Kidd, also known as Captain Kidd, was a Scottish sea captain who was commissioned as a privateer and was also a pirate. Following a trial that heavily involved politics, he was executed in London in 1701 for murder and piracy. Stories swirl that Captain Kidd buried treasure in two ponds that are near the foot of where the Montauk Point Lighthouse now stands. This supposedly took place around 1699, and the two ponds are called “Money Ponds” today.

Captain Kidd in New York Harbor, in a c. 1920 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. (Image: Wikipedia)Captain Kidd in New York Harbor, in a...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-montauk-point-lighthouse-was-first-us-public-works-project

FreightWaves Classics/Fallen Flags: American Diamond Lines and Black Diamond Steamship Co.

This ship was similar to those owned by Black Diamond. (Photo: uboat.net)

An intertwined history  

The Black Diamond Steamship Company (BDSC) was established in 1919 following World War I by J.E. Dockendorff. He sought to build a line of passenger and cargo ships. 

Meanwhile, the American Diamond Lines was founded at about the same time by the United States Shipping Board (USSB). As noted in an earlier FreightWaves Classics article, the USSB was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act on September 7, 1916. Once the U.S. entered World War I, the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-american-diamond-lines-and-black-diamond-steamship-co

FreightWaves Classics/Fallen Flags: US Shipping Board controlled US shipping for nearly 20 years

U.S. ships in port during World War I. (Photo: National Park Service)

The U.S. Shipping Board (Shipping Board or USSB) was established on April 16, 1917, as an emergency government agency in accordance with the provisions of the Shipping Act of 1916, which was passed by Congress on September 7, 1916. The corporation’s mandate was to “acquire, maintain and operate a fleet of merchant ships to meet the needs of national defense and foreign and domestic commerce.” 

Background

By the 1910s, U.S. vessels had been at a disadvantage to foreign ships and the nation’s...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsfallen-flags-us-shipping-board-controlled-us-shipping-for-nearly-20-years

Chinese lockdowns will create shocks to American supply chains (but China is the biggest loser)

Shanghai's zero-COVID lockdown continues.

What happens in China doesn’t stay in China. And for American supply chains, that is usually a good thing. American businesses have become dependent on low-cost goods coming from Chinese suppliers. But in a post-COVID world that may be entering the Second Cold War, reliance on China means that American businesses are held hostage by an autocratic regime that seems oblivious to the damage it is doing to its own economy, much less the global one. 

Since the earliest days of COVID-19, China has...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/chinese-lockdowns-will-create-shocks-to-american-supply-chains-but-china-is-the-biggest-loser

FreightWaves Classics/Infrastructure: US transferred police powers in Panama Canal Zone 40 years ago

A ship in the canal. (Photo: Panama Canal Authority)

The two Torrijos-Carter Treaties are treaties signed by the United States and Panama in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 1977. The 1977 treaties superseded the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903. The 1977 treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Zone on December 31, 2000, ending the control of the canal that the U.S. had exercised since 1903. 

Between the signing of the treaties and the formal transfer of the Canal Zone, there were intermediate...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classicsinfrastructure-us-transferred-police-powers-in-panama-canal-zone-40-years-ago

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