While the term “globalization” is not much in vogue these days, the US industry and its supply-chain operators can hardly detach themselves from the enmeshed world’s economies and markets, highlighting the interdependence of the world economies and markets, and the importance of international networking.

In industrial actions that could potentially affect billions of dollars in Canadian trade and spark cargo diversions, all 730 foremen at British Columbia ports were locked out today by maritime employers for failing to withdraw a strike notice while in the eastern region of the country an “unlimited strike” by longshoremen launched last Thursday against a major container operator was continuing.

Heading into its 25th anniversary next year, tiny Pacific Air Cargo, (PAC), which has been operating for most of its existence with a single leased freighter aircraft, has added giant Atlas Air to its Kalita Air ACMI partner network and is providing shippers with added capacity through eight 747-400F ACMI weekly flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu and on to Guam.

In a new pressure tactic in a series of partial work stoppages, the union representing 1,200 longshoremen at the Port of Montreal today began an “unlimited strike” uniquely targeting Termont, which operates two terminals accounting for 40% of container cargo at Canada’s second biggest container port after Vancouver.

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) 2024 Convention in Boston continued October 29th with discussion of $3 billion in new federal grants for clean ports and testimonials from port executives about the work of AAPA

The AAPA Annual Convention opened in Boston on October 28th to hear a detailed check list of new and more complex hiring criteria port commissioners must face, according to veteran maritime headhunter Susan Dvonch.

Is the EPC model replacing the lease model in the FPSO sector?

This follows the recent longshore strike; the huge 61% wage increase and the still unresolved issue of automation between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) which represents employers at U.S. East and Gulf ports.

On October 18th, the Bloomberg Editorial Board also criticized Donald Trump’s plan to put a 20% tariff on all U.S. imports, arguing it would “raise prices, provoke retaliation, hobble the economy and impose especially high costs on the lower-paid, who’d be least able to bear them.”

Plans by the new French government to reduce the nation’s alarming budget deficit through public spending cuts and “temporary and exceptional” tax hikes, is set to have a direct impact on the transport sector with ocean shipping giant CMA CGM hardest-hit.