Christian Pedersen, head of ocean product and revenue management at Maersk, discusses the uncertainty created by trade tensions between the U.S. and its global partners.
The “IMO Scramble” isn’t the name of a new breakfast dish at a fast-food restaurant. It describes the plight of ocean carriers, who find themselves woefully unprepared for a new mandate on switching to cleaner-burning fuel.
President Trump wants to allow natural gas to be shipped in railroad cars, a move that would open new markets hungry for the fuel but could risk catastrophic accidents if one were to derail.
As global warming creates shipping routes that can cut across the northern tip of the planet, a new port is being built on the fringe of the Arctic circle.
Challenge: A U.S. furniture importer with over 100 shipments per month from China experienced costly demurrage and delays due to untimely entry filings. Lengthy and complex invoices made it difficult to determine whether the goods — which included bed parts and other furniture components — should be classified as individual parts, complete beds or other complete furniture items. These time-consuming entries resulted in late filings, and the delays put the company at risk for chargebacks from big-box retailers.
The international shipping industry is wrestling with a spate of fires aboard vessels at sea in recent months that have cost companies and their customers hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.