For shippers, by a shipping container (and a human named Michael).
Today’s newsletter edition is brought to you by our very own FFS Load Board. Do you want access to freight and specialty cargo leads that come in each week?
Check out the Load Board here. Onward…
📈 BY THE NUMBERS: Important numbers impacting freight and logistics
⛽ Diesel: $4.524 / gal (⬇️ from $4.549 last week) – Source: EIA
✈️ Air Cargo Index: 199.9 (⬆️ from 192.4 in November ‘22) – Source: FRED
🚢 Global Container Index: $2,238 (⬆️ from $2,168 last week) – Source: Freightos
🌍🌎🌏TOP NEWS HEADLINES from this week
😎 U.S., Canada, and Mexico to collab on supply chain improvements
On Jan. 10, the White House announced that the major economies of North America (the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) would collaborate on five initiatives to strengthen interconnected supply chains across the continent’s mainland. One of the initiatives is to focus and coordinate efforts on the semiconductor industry. This will be done through supply chain mapping efforts to develop a trilateral understanding of the industry’s unmet needs.
The official White House fact sheet was published on Jan. 10.
💾 DNV confirms cyber attack impacting 1,000 ships using ShipManager software
DNV, a major shipping registrar and classification society, announced that its ShipManager software was the victim of a cyber attack. Now, according to the company, the attack has breached data on more than 1,000 ships running ShipManager. DNV identified the cyber attack on Jan. 7, 2023, forcing ShipManager servers to be shut down. This is a developing story. 7,000 vessels owned by 300 customers use ShipManager.
Read more at GCaptain and DNV’s corporate blog.
😅 Consumer inflation expectations are the lowest in two years
Consumers in the U.S. believe that price pressures will ease over the next 12 months. A survey published recently indicates that consumers see one-year near-term inflation as falling. This is the lowest level of fear over consumer inflation since the spring of 2021. Low inflation remains a bumpy ride, given that other indices show import prices increasing in December of 2022 after a five-month span of monthly decreases to 6.5% in December 2022 from a peak monthly CPI print of 9.5% in June.
Read at Reuters.
📉 Emirati-owned DP World tells Davos 2023 to expect freight rate fall
DP World, a carrier in the United Arab Emirates, told global leaders at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, they expect freight rates to drop by a further 15 to 20 percent in 2023, “with the worst still to come as demand shows,” via the Saudi-owned Arab News outlet.
Read on the alarming prediction at Arab News.
🔥Global recession fears at Davos
Some economists have noted that the world is facing ongoing economic recession fears leading into the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A survey of prominent economists found that the majority believe a global economic crisis is likely in 2023. The economists surveyed “expect weak or very weak growth in 2023 in Europe,” while others said they expect “weak or very weak growth in the U.S.”
More at The Guardian.
💲Climate risks to ports could cost billions of dollars: Oxford study
The Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford has recently conducted research that revealed that almost 90 percent of the major ports around the world are vulnerable to hazardous climate conditions, leading to a mounting economic toll on international trade.
University of Oxford press release.
⚠️ Other stories we are reading…
- “Climate Rules Are About to Become Real for International Trade” – Maritime Executive
- “Baltic Index Falls To New Multi-Year Low” – Reuters via GCaptain
- “Maritime progress at risk over fears of digitalization” – Hellenic Shipping News
- “MSC loses contract case with US furniture shipper ‘by default’” – The Loadstar
- “Tracking the speed, dwell and cars of Class I railroads” – Supply Chain Dive
Thanks for reading the latest edition of Freight Forwarding Weekly. Stay tuned for more! If a colleague has forwarded you this email and you’d like to sign up to get future issues, click here.
The current edition of our newsletter was written by Michael M., Freight Forwarding Weekly’s chief news analyst. Do you have a tip or do you want us to cover something? Tell us by replying.