One of the factors investigators are looking into surrounding the Dali cargo ship crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is “dirty fuel.” An officer aboard the ship recounted the presence of a heavy smell of burning fuel in the engine room after one of the engines shut down. Dirty or contaminated fuel can create clogging issues with a vessel’s principal power generators.

Before the pandemic, US factories hired eight to nine people for every ten openings. That number has now dropped to six, and the ratio is at its lowest level since 2000. With flex-work, plants are beginning to target segments of the population that had not traditionally been employed in the customary 12-hour plant shifts. These included young parents and those who care for aging parents or have similar obligations that make traditional set hours difficult to work.

Roughly 18% of global trade volume passed through the two canals in 2023. Volvo and Tesla already halted vehicle production for two weeks in January due to parts shortages. Many apparel companies are turning to air delivery to ensure spring fashions arrive on time. In 2020 and 2021, shippers passed higher costs to consumers, fomenting inflation across an expansive basket of goods.

Ships like the MSC Seascape are a big reason why Rees is having so much fun. “The difference in the cruise business from a few years ago is that now the attraction is the ship,” Rees notes. Galveston is home to some of the newest and most beautiful ships sailing today, including the newly built Carnival Jubilee, the Norwegian Prima and Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class Harmony of the Seas.

Online grocery delivery services are experiencing exponential growth. The ease and convenience of ordering from the comfort of a couch is understandably attractive, yet, as with anything, there are costs associated with this convenience. The last mile of e-commerce grocery delivery carries a hefty carbon burden, most notably from inefficient packaging, a reliance on traditional carbon-polluting transportation, and the dependence on large brick-and-mortar stores to supply e-commerce customers. Consumers are actively seeking brands that incorporate sustainable practices. In this article, we address the common challenges to sustainable last-mile grocery delivery and offer actionable and proven practices to lessen the environmental impact.

Agricultural commodity ETFs invest in principal farmland commodities such as wheat, corn, soybeans, and cattle. Most use derivative products like options or futures, while others invest directly in the commodities. Commodity performance is not typically in harmony with the broader stock market, so during market downturns, positions in commodity-based agricultural ETFs can provide a nice cushion.

If we zoom out and look at global trade growth, there is little evidence to suggest we are in a deglobalization moment. At the onset of the pandemic global trade growth slowed, but it has since rebounded and is arguably at its highest value ever. Yet, viewed solely as a share of GDP, here is where we see a dip. Most of the dip can be explained by China and India. From roughly 2003 to 2010 both economies were exporting goods and services at a steady clip. India continued to climb but eventually began declining by 2013 while China has experienced an unvarying decline since 2010.

Minimizing carbon emissions was never going to be easy. The industrialized world is uncomfortably wed to said emissions so finding alternatives – that are cost-friendly – is the challenge. Hydrogen continues to be one of the leading contenders, but a lesser-known chemical compound has officially entered the conversation. A 2021 International Energy Agency report posits that while cars will likely depend on batteries, and planes on biofuels, it is the shipping industry that will require ammonia to eventually curb emissions.

The warehouse sector is the latest to embrace gig workers. App-driven companies like Instacart and Uber work hand-in-hand with the gig economy as their businesses hinge on flexibility and efficiency. More traditional sectors such as logistics and warehousing have been more rigid in terms of workloads and schedules, yet a tight market for blue-collar workers is shifting the landscape. During recession times, blue-collar workers generally face steeper job losses than their white-collar peers. This bears out according to an analysis of Labor Department data surrounding the recessions of 1990-91, 2001, 2007-09, and 2020.

While shipping losses were at a record low in 2022, cargo and hull fires, economic uncertainty, and “dark” tanker fleets are safety challenges on the horizon for the maritime sector. Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) is a corporate insurance carrier providing risk consultancy and insurance solutions worldwide. The company’s annual Safety & Shipping Review looks at loss trends and risks for the maritime sector and the 2023 version is officially out. The most notable headline of the report is the continued decline in shipping losses. Thirty years ago it was common for 200-plus vessels to go missing every year. It has been six years since triple-digit losses have been registered and last year there were fewer than 40.

US ports are falling behind their European and Asian counterparts when it comes to automation. The culprits vary, but opposition from organized labor is a key bottleneck. Everything from self-driving vehicles to automated cranes is being opposed by the dockworkers’ union. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents roughly 22,400 dockworkers amongst 29 ports along the West Coast. Some automation had been agreed to in contract negotiations in 2008 and 2014, but in practice, implementation has been slow. Meanwhile, Singapore now boasts arguably the world’s largest fully automated port. The Asian giant joins Yangshan and Ningbo, China, Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia, and Khalifa Port, Abu Dhabi as the most efficient ports in the world.

One of the nation’s preeminent trucking companies has shuttered after 99 years in operation. Yellow Corporation employed approximately 30,000 people of which 22,000 were Teamsters members. In terms of size, it is likely the largest collapse in US trucking. On the heels of its 100th anniversary, Yellow staved off the inevitable for nearly three years. Despite a $700 million Covid rescue loan in 2020, the Nashville, Tennesse firm could not remain afloat. Started in 1924, Yellow had navigated rough waters before 2023 but many point to a merger in 2003 with Roadway as the initial steps that led to the company’s ultimate demise.

After two years of declining availability, the industrial real-estate vacancy rate is up again. According to real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, the first quarter of 2023 posted a 3.6% nationwide industrial real-estate vacancy rate marking the third straight quarter increase. Warehouse space and logistics networks continue to be pared back and the remaining half of 2023 will appear to follow a familiar trajectory. The pandemic fueled a red-hot warehouse hiring spree adding roughly 700,000 workers over a two-year period. Average hourly pay increased by 8% and investment in logistics networks was beefed up.

E-commerce growth has slowed leaving pandemic-fueled firms in a bind. Blue Apron, American Eagle Outfitters, and Shopify are just a few of the companies that ramped up their logistics networks in 2020/21 with customers homebound and purchasing online. Amazon has been the gold standard in this arena, but few firms can achieve scale. Now that online commerce is back to pre-pandemic levels, delivering goods at the same speed to home after home is proving to be a strenuous undertaking. American Eagle was especially aggressive over the last three years having established a logistics subsidiary, Quiet Platforms, to facilitate increased demand.

For cargo carriers, the last quarter of the year is typically the strongest. Yet, the last quarter of 2022 was anything but with overstocked retailers canceling orders and carriers dialing back freight volume expectations. In early 2022 tight capacity and increasing shipping prices yielded significant profits to the larger logistics and transport sector. But consumer spending ended up shifting to services and retailers have been left with excess inventories. This year, Switzerland-based Kuehne + Nagel International is not expecting a rosier panorama. Freight operators are already preparing for a weak shipping season come fall.

A worrisome 41% of merchants indicated shipping costs were their biggest challenge in 2022. According to Shippo, an e-commerce shipping services provider, surveyed retailers were spending north of 10% per order’s value on shipping alone. Couple this with elevated fuel and distribution center costs many retailers are making some sobering changes to their delivery options. In 2019 the average minimum-order threshold to qualify for free shipping was a purchase of $52. As of today, the figure is $64.

The shipping industry offered a collective applause when the International Maritime Organization set its ambitious goal of halving carbon emissions by 2050. Behind the scenes, however, the reception was mixed. While some large operators such as Maersk plan on having a carbon-neutral fleet by 2040, others are beginning to question the viability of such ambition in the face of troubling inflation and elevated operating costs. The price tag for new ships, alternative infrastructure, and fuel production needed to lower emissions over the coming decades is roughly $3 trillion (per shipping-services provider Clarksons). Ocean shipping is responsible for approximately 3% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and methanol has emerged as a potential long-term contender to replace fuel oil.

China’s Covid-19 rebound and elevated crop prices are poised to make 2023 another potent year for US agriculture. US net farm 2022 income reached its highest level since 1973 (adjusting for inflation). Corn and wheat prices skyrocketed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine with some regions noting up to a 19% jump from 2021. This is encouraging news for farming, but high inflation has also increased grocery prices for the rest of the economy. Demand for livestock feed, vegetable oils, and crops (according to grain-trading middlemen Bunge Ltd. and Archer Daniels Midland Co) is expected to remain strong this year. As China continues to open up, imports will naturally rise and keep US farm coffers flush with revenue.

Talks are getting increasingly tense between West Coast cargo-handling companies, container shipping lines, and dockworkers. At the heart of the negotiations are automation and pay, two issues that have driven the core of most negotiations over the past decade. The US’s busiest container port complex is at Long Beach and Los Angeles. The tension is growing, and some importers have already begun to reroute cargo to East Coast ports. Seaports from Washington state to California will be adversely affected if a resolution cannot be ironed out.

The US manufacturing sector owes its standing to Oliver Evans. Not a household name, Mr. Evans built the first automatic flour mill back in 1785. At the time, few would have assumed that factory work in a flour mill would eventually lead to the manufacturing sector accounting for 40% of American jobs at the height of World War II. Work in manufacturing was traditionally viewed as a path to the middle class. Higher levels of education weren’t required and the pay was above average. Yet, over the past thirty years, manufacturing has taken a hit. The sector has witnessed a precipitous drop from its mid-20th century heights, and some are wondering if the golden years are officially behind us.