Spotlight supply chain conference.“ It’ s hard to convince a CEO to spend $ 2 billion on a new plant when he doesn’ t know if you’ re going to manufacture for local markets or for a global marketplace,” he added.“ As a [ beneficial cargo owner ], this is going to be the life that you lead over the next few years.” Eshkenazi said planning horizons have shrunk because of the lack of visibility in ever-changing tariff-driven demand, especially on the trans-Pacific. He emphasized that the tariff disruption to global trade was not a supply and demand issue, which supply chains were well-suited to handle, but rather a pricing issue.

Carrier reliability‘ still a dumpster fire’

Ongoing congestion at Asian and European transshipment ports and stricter carbon emission rules are hurting vessel schedule reliability, industry experts said at the Agri-

Shutterstock. com culture Transportation Coalition’ s( AgTC) annual meeting in late June. With little relief on either issue forthcoming, cargo owners need to build delays into their shipping plans as port and ship capacity remain tight, said Kuehne + Nagel Vice President Bill Rooney, adding that schedule reliability among ocean carriers is“ still a dumpster fire.” He cited data that showed less than 60 % of vessel calls in April globally were within a day of their scheduled berthing window. The post-COVID-19 high for schedule reliability was near 65 %, Rooney said, adding that he doubts the industry can hit that target, much less pre-pandemic levels of on-time performance. Agriculture shippers are among the most sensitive to poor schedule reliability due to the high handling costs and perishability of their products.“ The traditional number was more like 75 % or 80 %,” Rooney said.“ I’ m not sure we’ ll get back there.”

Industry mourns FedEx founder Smith

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, who revolutionized parcel shipment through his visionary“ hub-and-spoke” model that helped galvanize global trade, died June 21 at the age of 80. From his hometown hub of Memphis, Smith built FedEx from a $ 4 million inheritance to an $ 88 billion behemoth, with spokes reaching more than 210 countries and territories. His idea, famously rejected by his then-college professor, collected packages at central points, from which they would be flown to various locations overnight. The US Marine veteran founded Federal Express in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1971, beginning operations in Memphis two years later with fewer than 400 employees and serving 25 cities. The company, which now has more than 500,000 employees, includes truck and delivery van service FedEx Ground,

Fred Smith Founder, FedEx

less-than-truckload carrier FedEx Freight, and forwarder FedEx Trade Networks. Smith was a forceful advocate for free trade.“ Trade has made America great, and expanding trade has been a bipartisan pursuit for over 80 years,” he told the National Council on Competitiveness one month before President Donald Trump’ s first inauguration in January 2017.“ The failure to continue to do so would be a severe mistake with enormous consequences for America and the world.”

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