Category: Supply Chain

After the longest period of attack-free shipping in the Red Sea since December, the situation in the region is escalating, with an increase in Houthi attacks, fears that the ‘danger area’ may be expanding into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean and an Iranian vessel hijack off the Gulf of Oman.... Read more

Metro’s main board recently completed a multi-city tour across India, as part of a strategy to fortify existing partnerships with key suppliers and to carve out new avenues for growth, by direct engagement with prospective customers. The visit spanned several major cities including Mumbai an... Read more

ICS2 advance filings will be used by EU customs to identify high-risk shipments from the 3rd June, while post-Brexit import charges which come into effect on the 30th April have raised fears of UK food price inflation. The UK Common User Charge (CUC) The CUC will apply to each commodity line ... Read more

The last three months of 2023 were some of the worst for liner shipping’s finances in recent years, while early volume indications for this year suggest the coming months could bring stronger trading conditions for shipping lines, especially with the Red Sea diversions and capacity management t... Read more

In Baltimore work to remove the 9,662 TEU vessel Dali and damaged bridge has begun, with seven floating cranes and 30 vessels on scene, but with 4,000 tons of steel pinning the ship to the riverbed port officials suggest vessel diversions could last three months. The bridge collapse will mean ... Read more

The Dali, a time chartered Maersk container vessel with two pilots onboard, crashed into a support pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early hours of Tuesday 26th February, collapsing a large section of the 1.6 mile bridge into the Patapsco River. The Francis S... Read more

Organised by the Journal of Commerce, TPM (Transpacific Maritime Conference) is the premier global shipping and supply chain conference, attracting senior executives from all areas of the industry. Held annually in the port city of Long Beach, California, TPM brings together shippers, carriers... Read more

Metro has been innovating leading-edge supply chain management, tracking and business-process technology for 20 years and in 2024 we will continue to increase our ability to integrate with stakeholders, share real-time data, accelerate workflows, automate processes and optimise our customers’ s... Read more

With 5% of global maritime trade and 40% of US container traffic using the Atlantic-Pacific shortcut, the Panama Canal is a critical link in global supply chains and the drought-driven disruption which started last year is finally relenting, with the key waterway expected to be operating at full ... Read more

The post-COVID environment, geopolitical uncertainty, protectionism, climate-change events and now the Red Sea crisis have all put pressure on global supply chains and as we discovered at TPM, companies are increasingly considering the evolution of their global supply chains to minimise risk and ... Read more

New research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has found that over half of importing manufacturers and retailers (53%) have been impacted by the disruption to shipping caused by the Red Sea crisis, with over half of exporters (55%) also experiencing increased costs and delays. The issu... Read more

Many US companies, including big retailers, were successful over the course of 2023 in clearing out the stockpiles of inventory, that they built up during the pandemic to cope with shipping disruptions and changing buying patterns. During the pandemic many retailers and manufacturers flipped f... Read more