News & Insights

Our alerts, news and guides embrace all transport modes and explore global developments across all aspects of the supply chain, to keep you informed and guide decision making.

EU reduce ‘red-tape’ but food exporters face new barriers

The EU is to drop ‘Meursing codes’ from import declarations for manufactured food products coming from the UK in a major reduction of post-Brexit red tape, but new EU legislation covering multi-ingredient food products is expected to increase UK export health certificates by up to 3... Read more

Latest market update ; The new EU trading relationship

While the EU/UK vaccine spat has underlined the interconnectivity of supply chains, Boris Johnson is putting an invisible trade barrier between France and the UK and 25% of UK SMEs have stopped exporting to the EU altogether. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is... Read more

Metro prepare for digitalisation with key role appointment

Metro’s drive towards increased digitising of all business operations and customer interfaces is accelerating with the appointment of industry tech leader, Claus Rasmussen to the technical solutions team, in the new role of Director of Information Systems. Claus will take the quality, resili... Read more

Maintaining time-critical supply chains post-Suez Canal blockage

There has been only one story in town for the last week! Even though the Ever Given has been re-floated and the Suez Canal is working to clear the backlog of waiting vessels, a huge amount of uncertainty remains and we should still expect a shortage of containers at many origins, vessel diversion... Read more

Metro move quickly to maintain visibility of freight movements after the Suez episode

One of the first casualties of the Ever Given’s grounding in the Suez Canal was vessel visibility and shipping line schedule integrity. With so many vessels delayed, out of position or diverted, visibility of their cargo’s location was critical for shippers but, with most shipping lines unabl... Read more

Suez Canal Closure Latest – Important Operational Update – Please Read

At approximately 15:00 today The Ever Given has been successfully refloated within the Suez Canal and is currently leaving the grounding site with the assistance of tugboats. As soon as she is clear of the Canal, the authorities will resume normal operation and start to clear the hundreds of vess... Read more

Day 3 ; Blocked Suez Canal could unleash even more congestion on the main Europe/ Asia/ Europe trade

As of noon today the ultra large container vessel Evergreen Ever Given remains lodged sideways in the main channel, blocking vessels in both directions along the Suez Canal, creating one of the worst shipping jams seen in years and threatening even more chaos, when the grounded vessel arrives in ... Read more

Q2 sea freight market report

With the 2nd quarter (Q2) of 2021 just a week away, we review five key issues, that are likely to impact maritime logistics platforms over the next three month period and the actions that you can take to protect your cargoes and the integrity of your supply chains. Equipment, space and congest... Read more

Lines set to impose new round of increased fuel surcharges for Q2

The sea freight bunker industry has been undergoing significant change since the introduction of the IMO2020 rule and the impact of measures taken in response to the Coronavirus pandemic have contributed to major shifts in oil market dynamics, with rising prices encouraging shipping lines to incr... Read more

Join Fracht USA webinar for the BIG answers and market updates

With our joint venture partner Fracht, Metro plan, organise and manage the protection, handling and global transportation of large, heavy, high value, and complex pieces of equipment. Project movements are all about attention to detail, effective briefing and the proven audit and planning proc... Read more

Air Freight Update ; Potential Heathrow April strikes

Industrial action at London’ Heathrow Airport by workers in the engineering, fire service, security, terminal operations, airside and landside sectors, will run from from the 2nd to 25th April, with the union Unite predicting “a massive effect” on cargo handling operations. The Heathrow ... Read more

Ocean Container Carriers supply & demand gamble

Global lockdowns continue to drive consumer demand for goods, keeping ships full, sea freight rates high and leading shipping lines to take ever more desperate measures to increase their capability to take revenue opportunities. But, have they got their calculations right, or will their drive to ... Read more