News and Insight

UPDATE: via The Loadstar Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) is in for a bumpy ride: 3,000 employees have voted for a strike, to begin as early as 16 March, while rival Canadian National (CN) and various interest groups are calling on the US Surface Transportation Board (STB) to impose conditions on the merger of CP with fellow … Read More

Sunset’s Cross-border Managing Director, Jose Minarro, welcomes us into the (full) Sunset warehouse in Laredo, Texas to talk shipper options for the ongoing capacity crunch in the March edition of #SunsetSays. Summary: Warehousing in the U.S. is at full capacity and Laredo facilities are feeling the pressure at 98% capacity. Freight that historically would have … Read More

UPDATE: via The American Prospect Negotiations loom between the dockworkers union and shipping companies making record profits. In December 2021, the top ten publicly listed shipping companies were on track to earn a record $115 billion in profits. Maersk, the world’s second-largest shipping company, posted its most profitable quarter in 117 years in November 2021. … Read More

The following insights are taken from a monthly discussion between Sunset’s nine US/MX branches. Trends and discussions range from seasonal manufacturing and agriculture trends that affect available capacity to general insight into outside factors affecting freight volumes. Below is a summary of the February call: DOMESTIC Fuel Fuel prices are continuing to rise with projections estimating … Read More

The Journal of Commerce (JOC) provides an in-depth quarterly report into the US intermodal market to facilitate conversations between shippers and logistics companies about transportation modal decisions. The JOC Intermodal Savings Index — the Spot Index and the Contract Index — measures how much an average shipper should anticipate saving on the rail versus over-the-road … Read More

An update from Sunset’s International Director Liberty Baugher regarding Chinese New Year: As many of you may know, Chinese New Year begins next week! This is a 7-day public holiday starting 01/31 – 02/06 in China. Chinese New Year (CNY) is an annual occurrence that has a substantial impact on the global freight market.  Production in … Read More

The following insights are taken from a monthly discussion between Sunset’s nine US/MX branches. Trends and discussions range from seasonal manufacturing and agriculture trends that affect available capacity to general insight into outside factors affecting freight volumes. Below is a summary of the January call: DOMESTIC Fuel Fuel prices on the rise for the third consecutive … Read More

The following report was written by the Sunset Transportation cross-border team, stationed at the World Trade border in Laredo / Nuevo Laredo and Querétaro, MX. Insights are drawn from multiple sources, including our in-house transportation experts and industry data. https://www.dat.com/ https://www.freightwaves.com/ Transactional and Committed Markets As we begin 2022, the U.S. truckload market continues at … Read More

UPDATE: via The Load Star Forwarders are shifting volumes to congested-Shanghai to avoid landside delays, despite carrier schedules so far unaffected by the newest Covid-disruption at Ningbo. Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has repeatedly fallen victim to China’s tough Covid restrictions over the past six months, with the latest lockdown taking place in Ningbo’s Beilun district, which borders three of the port’s … Read More

Sunset’s National Sales Director Sarah Eggleston joined the FreightWaves Check Call podcast, hosted by Mary O’Connell, to discuss Sunset’s prospecting strategy and honing in on what the customer really needs. “We spend so much time in the sales process and in implementation and onboarding, we absolutely are in it for the long haul and we … Read More

The following insights are taken from a monthly discussion between Sunset’s nine US/MX branches. Trends and discussions range from seasonal manufacturing and agriculture trends that affect available capacity to general insight into outside factors affecting freight volumes. Below is a summary of the December call: DOMESTIC Fuel Fuel prices dipped and should level for the few … Read More

via AJOT: North America’s middle ground: New cargo routes to and from the Midwest The COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant supply-chain crisis has provided an opportunity for shippers and carriers to tweak North American transportation routes. But it’s not as if no one thought about this before. Congestion at the ports of Southern California is … Read More