Latest news with #freightrates
Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Cannes-winning filmmaker Panahi backs Iran truckers' strike
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi backed week-long nationwide strikes by truckers Wednesday as a 'loud call' to the authorities, after arriving home from his triumph at the Cannes film festival. Truck drivers across Iran were striking for a seventh day on Wednesday in a stoppage rare in its length and magnitude, seeking better conditions in a sector crucial for the economy in the Islamic Republic. After starting last week in the southwestern port city of Bandar Abbas, the strike action has spread across the country, according to reports by monitoring groups on social media and Persian-language media based outside Iran. The truck drivers are protesting a rise in insurance premiums, poor road security, high fuel prices and low freight rates, according to union statements cited by these media. 'They are fed up. They have no choice but to go strike,' Panahi wrote on Instagram, having returned to Iran on Monday after winning the Palme d'Or for his latest film 'It Was Just an Accident.' 'When thieves and illiterate people are put in charge, the result is this terrible situation: corruption and mismanagement in everything, from the economy and culture to the environment and politics,' added Panahi. The acclaimed director was long banned from filmmaking and unable to leave Iran, having also spent time in prison due to his political stances. 'This strike is a loud call to the government saying: 'Enough! Stop all this oppression and plunder',' he said. Persian-language television channels based outside Iran, including Iran International and Manoto, which are critical of the government, said the strike was continuing Wednesday, broadcasting images of deserted roads sent from inside Iran. Tankers carrying fuel from the major refinery in Abadan in western Iran have now joined the strike, Manoto said. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the images. The same outlets also indicated that there have been strikes in other sectors in Iran, notably by bakers who are angered by early morning power cuts when they are baking bread.
Bloomberg
20-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
A Feared Tsunami of Cargo From China Looks More Like a Swell
Let's go ahead and dispel this myth: US importers will scramble to bring in goods from China and other countries before President Donald Trump's 90-day pause on tariffs expire, and a surge of cargo will overwhelm the logistics supply chain, causing freight rates to skyrocket. Certainly, front-loading similar to what caused April port imports to spike will take place. But it won't be a tsunami of goods. If shippers accelerate peak-season orders this year, that demand will only take the place of much of the summer seasonal merchandise that was already pulled forward. The feared tsunami may turn out to be more of a minor swell.
Wall Street Journal
15-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Shipping Rates Rise as U.S.-China Trade Truce Drives Import Surge
The cost to ship a container of Chinese-made goods to the U.S. is jumping as importers race to pull cargo across the Pacific during a three-month trade-war truce. Freight rates from China to the U.S. West Coast have risen about 8% this week as bookings have boomed, shipping executives and brokers in Singapore and London say. Ocean carriers are jacking up that rate by as much as 50% in the coming 10 days or so, they added. This means shipping a container from Shanghai to Los Angeles in the coming weeks could cost over $3,000 per twenty-foot equivalent unit, or TEU, the standard industry gauge. Forwarders in Singapore and Shanghai said big carriers are quoting rates for sailings through the end of May at about $900 per TEU higher than this week. Confirmation of the rates' trajectory will come with the release of the new Shanghai Containerized Freight Index next week. 'As the tariff pause comes with a definitive and eroding timeline, it increases the pressure on U.S. importers to ship as much as they can,' said Jonathan Roach, a container analyst at London maritime consulting firm Braemar Shipbroking. 'We expect the freight market to respond upwardly and quickly.' A swift increase in liner capacity and high vessel use through the summer are likely, he added. The rollback in tariffs has effectively pulled forward the industry's peak season, which typically runs from July to October, when big retailers such as and Walmart load up for back-to-school and holiday shoppers. Some analysts say freight rates could approach Covid-era peaks of about $20,000/TEU over the next three months. Competitive pressure often drives carriers to cut or withdraw such unilateral rate increases, but that isn't likely this time, and increases scheduled for May and early June will likely stick, HSBC analysts said in a report. 'There is already a large amount of cargo ready to go as U.S. importers have been adopting a wait-and-see' approach, said Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen, who advises big carriers. 'The truce also expires in the middle of the usual peak season and we expect a possible pull-forward of cargo creating a shorter, sharper peak season from basically right now.' Other industry officials, including Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, say the 90-day tariff rollback may not be enough to fuel sustained growth in trans-Pacific cargo volumes after they plummeted 25% to 40% in April. Even with the rolled-back tariffs, prices for consumer goods are rising as retailers charge more, which could damp demand and hold back a continued surge in bookings and rates. Still, freight rates, at least in the short term, are also buoyed by continued uncertainty about when it will be safe to return to the Red Sea. The critical passage to the Suez Canal has largely been a no-go zone for big carriers for more than a year as Yemen's Houthi militants attack commercial ships and tankers. So far, a truce in that conflict announced by the U.S. following weeks of airstrikes hasn't been enough to quell shipowners' fears. Write to Costas Paris at
