Rates and bunker are back in the news

Someday, there will be an epic poem penned about the drama of ocean freight rates. More likely, it will be a sea shanty, a joyful chorus of the wild swings in price we’ve seen since the pandemic started. 

Whoa, once upon a sea in a trans-pac lane, carriers charged prices that were insane. Then the bottom fell out, and they began to pout, but learned that two can play that game! 

Granted, it’s more of a limerick, but the sentiment is there. In news to surprise absolutely nobody, the pendulum that gave carriers record profits in 2021 has drifted past homeostasis and dipped in favor of, well, not carriers. 

West coast labor negotiation kerfuffle

The weekend of Good Friday saw some miscommunications between the ILWU and PMA as the holiday and a union meeting were reported as work stoppages, wrongly.

While it took some time for the parties to get back on the same page, it's a clear example of how critical these negotiations are. Reports come up as breaking news and the longer it goes, the more attention turns to concerns that an end is farther off than anyone expects.