U.S. importers are preparing for another period of uncertainty in trans-Pacific trade, with inventory decisions increasingly shaped by elevated shipping costs and the approaching expiration of the U.S.-China trade truce. While many smaller importers have already brought substantial volumes into the country, the Port of Long Beach expects shipments to continue on an as-needed basis through January, ahead of both the trade agreement deadline and February's Lunar New Year holida

A port does not lose a move because the autonomous truck cannot drive. It loses it when the truck is in a charge queue, the plug was seated wrong, and the next vessel is already on the berth. PD Teesport awarded Westwell a framework for autonomous horizontal container transport at Teesport Container Terminal 2. Splash247 reported the contract at €4.44 million, or $5.1 million, for electric autonomous terminal tractors and an automation system, running from October 2026 to Oct

Vessel time in port is the figure shipping lines see. Cargo still stuck on a road, a railway or a border crossing does not enter that measure. African ports are now judged mainly by how long a container ship spends in port, not by the cost of reaching a mine, a factory or a market inland. The World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence Container Port Performance Index for 2025 ranks about 400 ports on the time between arrival at anchorage and departure from the berth. Tange

Port dwell, not sea distance, now sets how long inventory is frozen. A global congestion headline does not tell a plant whether to raise stock. It tells the plant that arrival and availability have come apart. The cost of that gap depends on the SKU, the lane, and what stops if the part is late. Buffer stock is not the only lever Melissa Irmen, Director of Advocacy at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, replied in writing to The Supply Chainer that the first ques

More than four million TEU now sit at berth, above the 2022 peak. That pile does not only lengthen a voyage. It takes ships out of rotation, breaks weekly strings, and turns a published schedule into a guess. Suez returns are putting some capacity back into the network at the same time. The two effects cancel each other on paper and leave shippers with slower, less reliable space. Effective capacity is not published capacity In a written reply to The Supply Chainer, Casper El