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New report underscores rising manual inefficiencies and the necessity of real-time yard visibility in dock and yard management. Montreal, QC –C3 Solutions, a leader in yard and dock management solutions, today announced the release of its annual State of the Industry report for the second year running, providing critical insights into emerging trends and ongoing challenges in dock and yard operations. Based on responses from 149 industry professionals, this comprehensive report confirms significant year-over-year highlights, emphasizing the urgent need for modernization and effective system integration. The report reveals that manual process inefficiencies have intensified, now impacting 40.3% of operations, up from 35.9% in the previous year. This increase is notably linked to challenges further upstream in the operational chain, including overtime and temp labor hiring cost. “Year over year, the true cost of manual processes is becoming harder to overlook. As volumes grow and operations become more complex, more organizations are realizing just how much these inefficiencies are holding them back.” said Greg Braun, Chief Revenue Officer of C3. Real-time yard visibility remains a critical priority, with 59.1% of respondents marking it as essential. However, frustrations related to system implementation effectiveness tops have sharply risen, affecting 55.7% of professionals surveyed. The findings emphasize that how a system is deployed, adopted, and embedded into daily workflows determines whether it delivers value or collects dust “Dock and yard management has reached a pivotal maturity phase,” said Braun. “Our research clearly indicates that companies have moved beyond simply identifying inefficiencies on the ground, to rooting out their causes upstream. We expect this trend to continue going forward, and continue to frame our priorities around this.” In its second year, the report identifies critical shifts from previous findings, underscoring how the industry’s focus is transitioning from symptom identification to targeting root causes of operational challenges. This progression highlights an increased sophistication among operators, who are now more strategic in pinpointing specific areas of improvement. Industry professionals, decision-makers, and stakeholders are encouraged todownloadthe full 2026 State of Dock and Yard Management report to gain comprehensive insights and strategic recommendations for addressing current and future operational challenges. Download the full reporthere.

The Gemini Cooperation appears to be preparing to make a sustained grab for market share on the Asia-Mediterranean trade. According to new analysis from Sea-Intelligence, partners Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk have gradually been withdrawing capacity from the Asia-North America west coast, Asia-North America east coast and Asia-North Europe trades, and diverting it to the Asia-Mediterranean routes. “While tradelane capacity market share data suggests Gemini is losing ground across major east-west trades, volume variance analysis reveals a deliberate reallocation,” the analyst writes this week. “Gemini is actively sacrificing market share on the transpacific and Asia-North Europe tradelanes, to fund a massive, highly targeted capacity offensive, designed to dominate the Asia‑Mediterranean tradelane,” it adds. Taking June 2025 as a starting point – when the roll-out of the Gemini network is considered to have been completed – and using the alliance’s proforma schedules with assigned vessels to measure offered capacity as a way of gauging market share, Sea-Intelligence discovered that its market share on the transpacific to the USWC had declined from 16% then to 12.7% currently. Source: Sea-Intelligence Consulting On the Asia-North America east coast trade, its market share measured by capacity had declined from 20.7% a year ago to 17.9% today, while on the Asia-North Europe trade, its market share peaked at 27.8% last year, but currently stands at 22.5%. This is largely as a result of a vessel-cascading programme which saw the average ship size on its AE3 Asia-North Europe string reduced from 18,900 teu to 17,100 teu at the beginning of this year, and then down again in late May, to 13,200 teu. “This fleet swap trimmed Gemini’s weekly capacity by roughly 5,500 teu, right as the broader market expanded for the summer peak, effectively reducing their lower 22.5% capacity market share,” Sea-Intelligence writes. However, it also noted that the vessels pulled from North Europe are heading for the Asia-Mediterranean trade, where its market share is due to expand from 23.5% in June 2025, to 29.7% next month. Gemini’s AE15 Asia-Mediterranean string is being upgraded from “an average vessel size of 13,100 teu to an average of 18,400 teu, and in April it launched its fourth Asia-Mediterranean string, in the shape of the AE19 service, which also includes a call at the Saudi port of Jeddah, accessed via a southbound passage through the Suez Canal”. “By physically cascading 18,000 teu vessels away from Asia-North Europe into Asia-Mediterranean, while also launching a new service on the latter, Gemini’s net capacity additions on the tradelane vastly outpaced what was needed to maintain their baseline capacity market share. “Ultimately, this indicates that Gemini is approaching network design differently than its competitors – while [the] Ocean Alliance is spreading massive capacity across all major east-west lanes, Gemini is rapidly consolidating, hedging its bets that a more dense, higher-frequency Asia-Mediterranean network will ultimately prove more valuable than the market share willingly surrendered everywhere else,” the analyst added.

A sharp increase in container spot rates on the major east-west trades has propelled freight prices higher this week, but new analysis suggests the latest spike is far more unusual on the transpacific than on the Asia-Europe corridor. According to Sea-Intelligence, spot rates measured by the World Container Index (WCI) recorded exceptionally strong week-on-week gains, prompting questions over whether the latest market movement represents an extraordinary event or a more familiar pattern. The consultancy found that, on the transpacific trade to the US west coast, the latest weekly increase of $1,092 per 40ft ranks among the largest recorded since the WCI data series began, in 2012. While a handful of larger weekly increases have occurred, the analyst said these extreme rate jumps were concentrated in the post-2020 period, when supply chains were affected first by the pandemic and later by disruption linked to the Red Sea crisis. A similar pattern was evident on the US east coast trade, although less pronounced. Sea-Intelligence calculated the number of occasions on which weekly spot rate increases exceeded those most recently recorded: the results showed that on the US west coast route, only two larger week-on-week increases have been seen over the past 14 years. For the US east coast, larger increases have occurred just eight times. Stephanie Loomis, head of procurement, pricing, and commercial relations of ocean product at Noatom Logistics, toldThe Loadstar Podcast News in Briefthis year had been “by far” the “most complicated and confusing” transpacific-eastbound contract season she has seen across a 30-year career. “We’ve had decades of it being rather easy to contract; in the sense that carriers are pretty aligned in pricing structures and what a base rate from one lane to another is,” she said. “And now that’s been completely thrown out of the window. You’ve got very different methodologies, carrier by carrier, some are implementing high emergency fuel surcharges, some want to change their bunker [surcharge] monthly.” She noted that while most of her customers wanted tenders that were “still pretty much an annual rate”, figuring that out became “much more complicated”. Part of this, she explained, was that seasonality “has been thrown out the window”. “Mainly because we’ve had several years now of importers having to deal with the geopolitical disruptions, the Suez Canal closure, the Liberation Day tariffs, and now, of course, the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “The focus for a lot of these importers now is to try to minimise the exposure… that really has changed the traditional peak season that we’ve been accustomed to on the transpacificm being end of July through October. I think it continues over the past few years to get shifted much earlier.” By contrast, rate volatility on the Asia-Europe trade appears far less exceptional. Sea-Intelligence found weekly spot rate increases larger than this week’s surge had occurred 28 times on services to North Europe and 21 times on routes to the Mediterranean since 2012. The analysis also highlighted a stark difference between pre- and post-pandemic market behaviour. Before January 2020, the transpacific trades had almost never experienced weekly increases on the scale seen this week – Sea-Intelligence identifying only a single comparable event on the US east coast route, in January 2016. However, similar spikes were relatively common on Asia-Europe services prior to the pandemic. The consultancy found that all of the most extreme Asia-Europe rate increases occurred between late 2012 and mid-2016, a period marked by intense market turbulence and repeated price wars among carriers. Looking ahead, Sea-Intelligence suggested the latest rate surge could be “a harbinger of instability”, rather than an isolated event. The analyst warned: “As the market is heading towards a new cyclical downturn in 2027-2029, and hence more turbulence, we should perhaps expect that this week’s spike is not a sudden new aberration, but rather a harbinger of instability.” Watch the most recent installment of our News in Brief Podcast on YouTube and subscribe so you never miss an update!

Mexicana de Aviación has had to drop its plans to run charters to US cities hosting games for the football World Cup. The Mexican airline applied for traffic rights to operate charters to carry passengers, freight and mail between Mexico and the US for the duration of the event this month to meet the demand from fans, sponsors, media groups, logistics operators and team delegations. For the airline, reborn in 2023 under the auspices of Mexico’s defence ministry after its 2010 bankruptcy, the planned flights would have marked its entry into the US market at scale. It applied to operate a mix of 737-800 and Embraer E195 aircraft on routes connecting Mexico City, Guadalajara. and Monterrey with US cities hosting the football event, including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Dallas, and Houston. The US Department of Transportation (DoT) confirmed in March it had received the application, but last week Mexicana management announced it had been informed it would not be able to complete the application process before the DoT deadline. CEO Leobardo Ávila Bojórquez told media the company would continue to work with the US authorities with a view to later cross-border operations, and dismissed suggestions that the delay was linked to measures taken by the US regulator last year against Mexican airlines. The DoT had accused the Mexican authorities of violating the US-Mexico aviation bilateral when it reduced landing slots at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport (AICM) and banned freighter operations at the chronically congested gateway, claiming that the loss of slots and the move of freighter operations to Felipe Angeles International Airport (AFIA) cost US airlines millions of dollars. In retaliation, last October the US imposed a ban on new cross-border routes from Mexico City for Mexican airlines, as well as on frequency increases, and revoked 13 route authorisations for them. It also ordered the dissolution of the joint-venture between Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines. According to one airline executive, lead times for cross-border charters have been longer since then. After talks with Mexican aviation officials early last month, US transportation secretary Duffy announced that the two sides had “made progress” toward resolving the stand-off, and agreed conditions for the use of the Mexican capital’s airports for air cargo. However, he said, the US restrictions would remain in place until the Mexican authorities had converted their promises into action. Mexican airlines had given up six take-off and landing slots at AICM as part of the negotiations. UPS announced on 29 May it would offer time-definite heavy airfreight services to/from Mexico from August as part of the expansion of its ‘North American Air Freight’ Network. Shippers will be able to choose between one- two- and three-day service options to and from Mexico. The restrictions placed on Mexican carriers were a factor in a decline in throughput at AIFA last year. Over the first 11 months of last year, the nation’s top airfreight gateway suffered a 10.8% drop in volumes, as the overall national tonnage shrank 3.7%. Business picked up this year, with overall cargo rising 7.3% in the first two months, while AIFA’s tonnage surged 17.4%, cementing its position as one of the top three cargo gateways in Latin America, behind Bogotá’s El Dorado and Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos. According to the government, this improvement was largely due to technology integration, and faster customs processing. In a recent meeting with government officials, several airlines reportedly expressed ambitions to increase their operations at AIFA, but much will hinge on progress with Washington. Although recent talks with US officials on the renewal of the USMCA free-trade agreement appeared to be going well, there are signals that the pact will not be renewed by 1 July, which opens the door to continuing uncertainty on this front. For air cargo with a stake or ambitions in cross-border traffic, at least some clarity on this aspect would be helpful to chart their course going forward. Perhaps Mexicana could have some progress on this front, although it stands to lose out on the World Cup bonanza. Check out today’sNews in Briefpodcast, featuring exclusive content from Glyn Hughes, DG, TIACA, andThe Loadstar‘s Gavin van Marle

Chipmakers are booked out until 2028, data-centre investment is surging and AI-related cargo is increasingly carrying the wider air freight market. While ecommerce volumes soften and general cargo demand remains uneven, shipments linked to semiconductors, servers, and data-centre infrastructure are generating some of the strongest growth seen anywhere in the industry. “Depending on which customer or company you speak to, they’re talking about being booked-out until end of next year, some even until end 2028,” Morrison Express group CEO Asok Kumar toldThe Loadstar. “Many are saying this will continue till 2030.” The market data backs up the optimism. According to consultancy Aevean, US air imports grew 11% year on year in the first quarter, but almost all of that increase came from hi-tech cargo. Those imports surged 70% to 401,000 tonnes, while ecommerce volumes fell 11%, and other general cargo rose just 2%. Aevean The demand extends well beyond chipmakers themselves. “It could be the companies making the memory chips, the companies that make the machines that help make the memory chips, the CPU manufacturers, OEMs that manufacture these goods,” Mr Kumar explained. “Their orderbooks all seem to be full.” Aevean’s data suggests the boom is increasingly centred on data centre infrastructure. The consultancy claims data centre-related air cargo volumes grew 42% last year, led by a 65% increase in GPUs and AI accelerators, and a 70% rise in networking equipment. Aevean That growth is now reshaping trade flows. Morrison Express is seeing its strongest demand on intra-Asia routes, followed by transpacific services into North America, where investment in chip fabrication plants and data centres continues at pace. “There’s a lot of investment in Arizona, Texas, and other locations,” said Mr Kumar. “Movements are following that as well. It’s very aligned with what we’re reading and hearing in the market.” That picture is reflected in wider market data. At the TIACA Executive Summit in Warsaw, WorldACD reported that Asia-Pacific accounted for around 80% of global air cargo growth this year, with South-east Asia overtaking China as the largest source of absolute tonnage growth. Meanwhile, hi-tech was identified as one of the strongest-performing product categories in the market. The strength of AI-related demand is particularly significant, because it stands in contrast to much of the broader market. Xeneta last week said there were “not a lot of industry verticals that are booming at the moment”, identifying AI-related shipments linked to semiconductors and data centres as the clearest source of growth, particularly on transpacific routes. At the same time, capacity growth remains relatively constrained. Aevean estimates international air cargo capacity is only around 1.2% above 2025 levels, the Middle East conflict continuing to suppress growth, despite significant recovery since the early stages of the crisis. Direct Asia-Europe capacity is up 11% year on year, and transpacific capacity 6%, but overall market growth remains subdued. Aevean This imbalance between fast-growing demand and limited capacity helps explain why air freight rates remain elevated. According to Xeneta, global spot rates averaged $3.40 per kg in May, up 41% year on year, while in late May WorldACD reported worldwide rates 36% higher than a year earlier. The AI boom is also creating new operational challenges. Mr Kumar said some of the machinery used to manufacture advanced semiconductors is becoming so large that aircraft limitations were emerging as a constraint. “As the chips get smaller, the technology gets higher, and ironically, the machines to make them get larger,” he said. “And then you have a problem with the planes, because they cannot accommodate them.” As a result, Morrison Express has secured dedicated 747 freighter capacity from airline partners to support key customers moving oversized equipment. This may offer another lease of life for the ageing 747 freighter fleet, whose nose-loading capability remains difficult to replace when transporting oversized industrial equipment. Questions remain over how long the current investment cycle can continue. Aevean itself highlighted the possibility of an eventual AI bubble alongside continued geopolitical uncertainty and shifting trade patterns. For now, however, few in the industry appear worried. “Certainly this segment of business, and anyone involved in it, is seeing tremendous growth,” said Mr Kumar. At a time when ecommerce is facing regulatory headwinds, consumer markets remain uneven, and airlines are still navigating the fallout from the Middle East conflict, AI has emerged as the air cargo industry’s most powerful growth engine. Check out today’sNews in Briefpodcast, featuring exclusive content from Glyn Hughes, DG, TIACA, andThe Loadstar‘s Gavin van Marle

The OECD published its latest economic outlook last week – 300 pages of insight, the report was titled “Under pressure“. Notably, this is one of the first forecasts after the US-Iran war started, impacting Hormuz – and, in short, the outlook is not pretty. The OECD’s global GDP growth estimate for 2026 was adjusted from +3.4% to +2.8% based on a “time-limited disruption“ scenario. Which, in essence, would mean a deal is around the corner and end of the conflict is still ...

The increasing volatility of fuel prices is adding to logistics cost pressures for Indian exporters/importers. The latest blow is a wave of emergency fuel surcharges announced by CMA CGM on the inland side for Indian trades to/from Africa. They cover shipments flowing in and out of South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Kenya, according to multiple trade notices issued by the French liner last week. And the scale of tariff hikes is staggering: going up to some 35% of the base rate for cargo loaded/unloaded in South Africa. Tanzania and Mozambique-related trades attract a 31% hike, with a 10% hike applying to Kenyan trade. “Due to the current geopolitical environment and the resulting uncertainty affecting international energy markets, fuel prices are expected to remain volatile in the coming weeks,” the Marseille-based carrier told Indian customers. “In order to continue providing reliable and sustainable inland transport services while ensuring transparency regarding fuel-related cost developments, CMA CGM will introduce an Inland Emergency Fuel Surcharge (IEFS) applicable to mode of transport impacted in each country,” it added. It explained: “Diesel, which represents a significant component of inland transportation costs, may therefore lead to short-term fluctuations in the operating costs of inland transport services.” CMA CGM is one of the frontline capacity participants in India-Africa trades, offering multiple weekly sailings. Its premier services include MIDAS and Swahili Express networks, according to available data. And the French carrier is not alone in seeking “contingency inland surcharges”. Singapore-based ONE last week updated the inland haulage fee implemented in March on shipments to/from Canada and the US by rail or truck or barge, also citing the impact of higher fuel costs. The updated inland fees vary wildly, going up to $1,100 per reefer box for outbound movement from Canada and the US in respect of some long-haul trucking points. The revised rates will come into effect on 1 July. “ONE will perform monthly evaluations to adjust this quantum based on the latest diesel price trends,” the carrier noted. The carrier has also revised bunker surcharges applicable to its shipping contracts in Q3 for trades from Asia to South/East/West Africa. Bilateral trade between India and Africa has seen steady traction in recent years, up nearly 15% year on year by value in fiscal year 2025-26, according to data. Ocean carriers have been able to drive freight rates up in recent week due to stronger demand, data from industry sources indicates. Booking rates from Nhava Sheva (JNPA) to Mombasa (Kenya) are currently in the region of $1,800 per teu and $2,000 per 40ft, sources said. “Vessel space has been tight for the last few weeks,” one source toldThe Loadstar. Check out this week’s News in Brief podcast, with exclusive content from Glyn Hughes, DG of TIACA, andThe Loadstar‘s Gavin van Marle

Agentic AI is about to move from the margins of supply chain software to the mainstream. The forwarders who benefit will be those who strengthen their rate data right now Gartner expects enterprise adoption of agentic AI in supply chain software to rise from 5% today to 60% by 2030. That is a fast curve, and it will sort forwarders into two groups: those whose data is ready for AI, and those still wiring it together while competitors pull ahead. Digitalization has already lifted efficiency and service levels across logistics. AI can do something harder: move net margins. But that gain depends on one thing, the data powering it. For forwarders, that means rates and charges, complete and structured across every mode they move. AI bolted on as a separate tool will not hold up in logistics. It has to be native to the data. Fragmented data means agents miss options, quote against stale rates, or contradict the human team. A unified rate foundation, shared equally by AI and human experts, fixes that: faster quoting, fewer missed options, more accurate automation and documentation, and customer answers that match what the team would recommend. Most forwarders are still in progress In logistics, reliability decides value, and for AI that reliability rests entirely on its data. Most forwarders still trust their manual processes, and the numbers explain why. Research on European forwarders reported by The Loadstar found that only 29% have automated their core operational workflows. The rest still run on email, spreadsheets, PDFs and manual work. That caution is rational. The problem is not the appetite for AI, it is the absence of a foundation reliable enough to run it on. A complete foundation A foundation for strong AI must be multimodal and it has to be a single source of truth. Rate procurement, rate management, quoting, sales and customer support should run across air and ocean from one place, not three disconnected systems. That is the gap we set out to close.cargo.onelaunched the industry’s first e-booking platform for air freight in 2018; today over 30,000 users across 172 countries rely on it. By acquiring the ocean pricing platform Cargofive, we unified air and ocean rate data, connecting directly to airlines and to the top ten ocean carriers, and carrying contract, FAK, NAC and spot rates across millions of trade lanes. Trucking, local charges and agent rates sit on top. AI working alongside the team The point of this foundation is what it enables AI to do reliably. Last year we automated the mechanical steps forwarders repeat dozens of times a day, such as extracting shipment details and collecting rates. Quotes turned around 68% faster, at 89% accuracy, with anything below the confidence threshold routed to a human rather than shipped. The principle matters more than the numbers. The AI works in the same workspace as the team, on the same data, under their control. It takes the repetitive work; people handle the work that needs judgement: complex shipments, unusual routings, high-value customers, exceptions. Everything syncs back to the forwarder’s existing systems, and every AI decision is logged and auditable. The result, in production, is tens of thousands of AI-generated quotes a month. Eight in ten go out with no human intervention, and the time per quote has dropped from around 15 minutes to under one minute. When hundreds of requests land each day, that speed and accuracy is the difference between winning and losing business. Trust is earned in stages Forwarders do not hand control to AI on day one, and they should not. Most teams start in co-pilot mode, where the AI prepares quotes, RFIs or support replies for review. As the accuracy proves itself, they move to supervised mode, where the AI runs routine work on its own and flags exceptions. From there, the workflow becomes fully autonomous, end to end. Teams that reach that point have not given up control. They have earned the confidence to run AI on their own data, in their own workspace. Across our customers, the question has shifted from “should we explore AI?” to “where do we point AI next?”. That shift comes the moment a forwarder sees what a solid multimodal rate foundation makes possible. Every successful logistics digitalization started by understanding the business and where new customer value sits. The forwarders who win in the next five years will be the ones who treat their rate data as the solid foundation it is, then deploy AI to run on top of it. Logistics will always be a people business. Agentic AI just makes good teams faster, sharper and harder to beat.

Hyundai Motor’s logistics unit, Hyundai Glovis, is to build a vehicle import facility in the Dutch port of Amsterdam for growing European car imports. The facility will have berths for up to three pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) and more than 20,000 vehicles, as well as pre-delivery inspection facilities, with spur tracks to enable rail transport. The terminal is scheduled to open in January 2027, with Hyundai Glovis Europe (GEU) taking charge of operations – the first time Hyundai Glovis has secured a port hub exclusively dedicated to finished vehicle logistics in Europe. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association and Eurostat, the volume of automobile imports and exports in Europe is projected to increase from 10m units last year to 11.4m in 2028 and 12.4m in 2030. As automobile sales in Germany and the Benelux account for approximately 28% of European demand, Glovis plans to strengthen its competitiveness in inland transportation by connecting major consumption areas and dealer networks to Amsterdam. By securing dedicated port bases, it is expected that vehicle dwell times within the port will be reduced, and the more efficient inland transportation will be achieved in accordance with the delivery requests of clients. In addition, Glovis plans to reduce carbon emissions during transportation by increasing the use of rail through the hub and reducing the duration of ship calls. The move is part of Glovis’s plan to enhance its global automotive logistics capabilities by establishing finished vehicle logistics hubs around the world. One opened in South Korea’s Pyeongtaek port in 2018, and in 2019 it secured a finished vehicle storage yard at Philadelphia port in the US. Glovis Europe MD Lee Sang-jin said: “We plan to develop Amsterdam not merely as a ship arrival point, but a European finished vehicle supply chain hub encompassing vehicle storage, quality inspection, shipment, and inland delivery.” Check out today’sNews in Briefpodcast, featuring exclusive content from Glyn Hughes, DG, TIACA, andThe Loadstar‘s Gavin van Marle

In a nutshell: Four years after a crisis that brought railroad executives to Washington in disgrace, US regulators are finally mandating weekly performance data from Class I carriers. Whether it amounts to a genuine accountability tool or just expensive window-dressing depends on what shippers do with it. On 8 July, every Class I railroad in the United States will begin filing two new weekly metrics with the Surface Transportation Board (STB): original estimated time of arrival (OETA) and industry ...