LNG Shipping Rates Reach Record High, Port of New York and New Jersey Adjusts Threshold for Empty Container Fee, EU Agrees to Price Cap on Russian Oil.

Ocean

Ocean shipping orders show drop in consumer demand. Logistics managers say a significant consumer pullback is showing up in ocean shipping, with a 20% drop in ocean freight orders for the months of September and October, according to CNBC. A combination of too much inventory coupled with a lack of clarity on consumer demand is leading to the decline. As many as 50% of sailings are being canceled by ocean carriers to “rebalance vessel capacity to demand.” According to Freightos, freight prices on the Asia-US West Coast route are now down more than 80% from last year.

LNG shipping rates reach record high. Short-term LNG shipping rates are approaching record highs, and rates are expected to continue climbing. Clarksons Securities put average voyage rates for the most efficient LNG carriers — those with two-stroke propulsion known as MEGI or XDF carriers — at $313,000 per day as of Monday, according to FreightWaves. Benchmark tri-fuel, diesel engine (TFDE) carrier rates were assessed at $276,700 per day. These are some of the highest rates for any commercial shipping sector ever.

Ports

Port of New York and New Jersey adjusts threshold for empty container fee. New shipping container requirements for ocean carriers and fees for violations will be implemented by The Port of New York and New Jersey. Each ocean carrier must show that its imports and exports are balanced on a quarterly basis, with intermodal shipments factored into the accounting. Under the new requirements, the carrier “would be responsible for drawing down its empty box totals by 25% each subsequent quarter with the goal of depleting its total accumulation of empty containers by four business quarters. If a carrier is found in violation, a $100 fee per container out of balance will be assessed at a quarterly rate,” according to CNBC.

Trucking

Lone Star Dedicated shuts down operations. On Monday, president and owner of Lone Star Dedicated David Magarin confirmed that he is shutting down the trucking company this month. After 12 years in business, the company’s drivers were notified Friday that the carrier would be shutting down operations. Lone Star Dedicated was initially forced to downsize because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER data, Lone Star Dedicated has 102 power units and 86 drivers.

Rail

BNSF plans new $1.5 billion California facility. BNSF Railway proposed a plan for a new rail facility in Southern California for $1.5 billion. The Barstow International Gateway will be a 4,500-acre rail yard and intermodal facility with warehouses for moving freight from international to domestic containers, according to BNSF, and the goal of the facility is to relieve congestion around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Containers will be transferred directly from ships to trains and moved to Barstow, where they’ll be loaded onto trains moving east on BNSF’s network. BNSF expects that the project will create 20,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Air

Air freight companies predict long term stability despite falling rates. The cost of shipping freight by air is headed downwards as a result of shifts in consumer spending habits and an increase in capacity, however some companies say the world’s shift to flying goods around the world will keep the market attractive for years, CNBC reports. “I don’t think it’s going to give back share to other forms of transportation. I think that it will get back to its earlier pace of growth,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun told reporters at an industry conference in Washington, D.C., last month.

White House extends rest periods for flight attendants. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a release that flight attendants would now receive longer periods of rest between shifts. The new rule increases the rest period to a required 10 consecutive hours. “Flight attendants, like all essential transportation workers, work hard every day to keep the traveling public safe, and we owe them our full support,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “This new rule will make it easier for flight attendants to do their jobs, which in turn will keep all of us safe in the air.”

International

EU agrees to price cap on Russian oil. After Moscow illegally annexed four regions in Ukraine, European Union countries agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil and other new sanctions, EU officials said. According to an official statement from the Czech rotating EU presidency, the deal also includes curbs on EU exports of aircraft components to Russia and limits on steel imports from the country. A ban will be imposed on transporting Russian oil by sea to other countries above the price cap, which the Group of Seven wealthy democracies want in place by Dec. 5, when an EU embargo on most Russian oil takes effect. A specific price for the future cap has yet to be defined as of Oct. 6.

Other

Radiant Logistics Acquires Strategic Operating Partner Cascade Enterprises of Minnesota, Inc. Radiant Logistics, Inc. announced this week that it had acquired the operations of Cascade Enterprises of Minnesota, Inc. (“Cascade”). This Minneapolis, Minnesota-based, privately held company has operated under the Company’s Airgroup brand since 2007. “We believe that the Cascade transaction is also indicative of the broader opportunity available to us in the marketplace and that there will be more entrepreneurs, both internal and external to our existing network, that will look to join our ranks. This remains a very exciting time in the evolution of Radiant and we remain confident that our growth strategy will continue to bring value to our operating partners, our shareholders and to the end customers that we serve,” said Bohn Crain, Radiant’s Founder and CEO. Read more here.

2022 Nobel prize winners announced. The winners of the 2022 Nobel prize were announced Wednesday – scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless won for “discovering reactions that let molecules snap together to create new compounds and that offer insight into cell biology,” according to Reuters. The award-giving body said in a statement: “combining simple chemical building blocks makes it possible to create an almost endless variety of molecules.” Click chemistry is a way to build complex structures and link them as if they were pieces of Lego, Danish winner Meldal explained.

SpaceX and Nasa launch astronauts to ISS. On Wednesday, SpaceX and NASA launched a crew of astronauts on a trip to the International Space Station. Astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada of NASA, astronaut Koichi Wakata of JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anna Kikina of Roscosmos took off at 12 p.m. ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. Mann became the first Native American woman ever to travel to space, and is also serving as mission commander, making her the first woman ever to take on such a role for a SpaceX mission, marking the flight as historic.

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