Category: International Trade

The large scale shift of finished cars to container shipping, due to roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) capacity restraints may be faltering as the Red Sea diversions have sent Asia-Europe spot rates surging and increased transit times by 10-14 days.   The disruption of the container shipping option th... Read more

The British International Freight Association (BIFA) is the trade association for the freight, logistics and supply chain management sector. Their annual Freight Service Awards are the industry’s most contested and highly sought trade awards, because peer recognition is the ultimate accolade. ... Read more

The US and UK carried out eight strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on Monday, as the Iran-aligned armed group continues to target commercial shipping in the Red Sea, with no sign that the conflict will de-escalate anytime soon. While many hoped that the situation in the Red Sea might be a shor... Read more

Since December 2023, nearly 30 commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea have faced missile strikes or near misses from the Yemen-based Houthis, including container ships owned by Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM. As of last week, 550 container ships have been diverted away from the Suez Canal or are p... Read more

For the UK and Europe fears are growing that any prolonged denial of access to the Suez Canal could impact faltering economies and derail plans to start cutting interest rates later this year. Despite the confidence of European and UK central banks, uncertainties about the Red Sea crisis' impa... Read more

Carmakers had been struggling with a lack of car carrier RoRo capacity before the Houthi attacks began in the Red Sea and now with NYK and K Line suspending sailings via the Suez Canal nearly all big car car-carrier operators are diverting round the Cape of Good Hope, further reducing already squ... Read more

Despite coalition military action, Houthi rebels continue to attack commercial shipping and with container shipping line’ schedules showing Cape of Good Hope routing for vessels into early February and beyond, it is clear that they do not expect short-term access through the Suez Canal and Red ... Read more

Following the sharp escalation of attacks on container ships in the Bab-al-Mandeb strait off the coast of Yemen last week, major container shipping lines are diverting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, rendering the Suez routing unavailable for an unknown period. With the Suez route c... Read more

With over 20 years' experience in freight and logistics, the majority of which has been in the ocean freight environment and specifically the LCL product, in the UK and overseas, we are pleased to introduce our new Senior LCL Commercial Manager, Jane Kenny, who is leading this critical service ar... Read more

Leading retailers including IKEA and NEXT have warned that the diverting of vessels aways from the Suez canal and around southern Africa will result in delays and may restrict the availability of certain products. Re-routing container ships around Africa adds 3,500 nautical miles to a typical ... Read more

The UK government launched a new preferential trading scheme, The Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) last year, to provide tariff concessions for developing countries exporting to the UK market. The DCTS replaces the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and extends tariff cuts to hu... Read more

In our 2023 supply chain review we said that we were hopeful that the formation of a coalition naval task force to patrol the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden would restore maritime security quickly, but Sunday’s two attacks on the Maersk Hangzhou suggest it could be some time before the route... Read more