Newsweek #41: No Mercy for the Forwarders

It is not a secret that shipping lines were using the mess in surcharges as a tool to trick their customers to follow the desired contracts and agreements, however, as soon as the tables turned, they flipped off and were quick to penalize the forwarders that have been taking contract rates, of some $4,000/feu from Asia to Europe, and reselling to customers for a price that is more than double. It does not feel good to be on a losing side, especially when some ports are going back to the pre-pandemic levels of throughput with no changes in capacity and elevated levels of worldwide congestion. The pressure from the environmentalists also does not add up to the table, as they demand to speed up the transition to an emission-free future. Will synchro-modality save the game? The transportation industry is becoming more and more like a web, so some experts believe that the key to faster recovery and following agility will be in transparency and cooperation among international terminals.

Embracing the interconnection has a strong potential, especially since one sector is doing better than the others and can become a much-needed catalyst for the change of the weaker ones. The railway industry has welcomed a new freight service launched from China to Russia, new electric locomotives that will be especially useful during heavy train operations, and much more that can be found on MAXMODAL. Sign up for the updates.