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Recent News

FMC Fee Recovery: Don’t Break the Bank

The showdown between ocean carriers and the FMC continues this month as the agency takes a closer look at MSC, the largest container line in the world. After the pandemic disruption, the FMC has initiated several investigations into carriers for excessive fees, incorrectly applied fines, and reports that carriers refused returned equipment due to space […]

Blanked Sailings

Blanked Sailings and Resiliency: The Bestway

The best case scenario of an uptick in demand due after the Lunar New Year is fast dissolving as analysts turn expectations to a slower recovery while inflation and falling consumer demand continue to throw the brakes on the economy. While carriers planned for annual blanked sailings during the two-week Spring Festival, there are dozens […]

Slow Down for Chinese Factories

China’s economic slowdown has had a significant and far-reaching impact on the global supply chain. The competitive advantages that elevated Chinese industries are systematically deteriorating, at different rates, resulting in decreased demand for Chinese goods. Supply chains relying heavily on China’s products are scrambling to find alternative production sources and suppliers. In response to this […]

FMC Fees

FMC Detention Fees Fire Up

The FMC has received a response from Wan Hai, the Taiwanese carrier denying the illegality of the detention and demurrage charges applied to twenty-one containers. The issue arises from an FMC investigation that is looking into the way charges are applied and if there are mitigating circumstances that precluded a prompt pick-up. Demurrage and detention […]

A Midwest Approach to Container Congestion

Los Angeles and Long Beach, California are getting bogged down with millions of containers the focus has been honed onto their issue to get the congestion cleared out so things can run more smoothly. However, in this process, other ports such as Savannah, New York, and New Jersey, are all experiencing congestion of their own with little […]

Keeping Up with Customs, the Bestway

As e-commerce continues to grow exponentially, retail importers are finding more products to offer in their stores and shops. This expansion has led many retailers to reach out for guidance and advice on how to import new products and research them appropriately to avoid the customs pitfalls that can happen if incorrect information is submitted […]

Container Collapse & Keeping Yourself Covered

A container collapse on a vessel isn’t a new phenomenon, instead, they’re considered a cost of doing business on the ocean market. Weather issues, Acts of God, cargo not what it is tendered as therefore wrongly manifested and other troubles can hit in moments during a voyage. Consider that these ships cross oceans hundreds of […]

Hapag Lloyd North American update puts in stark terms the port and inland rail congestion

We received the following operational update from Hapag Lloyd for North America and have chosen to reprint the announcement in its entirety to underscore the challenges that supply chains are facing in keeping cargo moving. _____________ We would like to update you on operational status in Canada and the United States. TERMINAL OPERATIONS Los Angeles […]

USTR Investigating Vietnam

USTR Opens Vietnam Section 301 Investigations

Interested parties have until November 12th to respond with comments into the two investigations opened by the United States Trade Representative which could mean additional trade-remedy duties on the country’s exports after the USTR investigation. Vietnam has seen explosive growth in the past three years as supply chains look to reduce their exposure to and […]

USTR Investigating Vietnam

Sep.18th Deadline – List 3 & 4 Importers to protect right to a Section 301 Refund

A case brought by the law firm Akin Gump on behalf of a vinyl tile supplier could be the vehicle for importers to get Section 301 Refund on duties, but they must move quickly. The deadline to file with the Court of International Trade is this Friday, September 18th. In short, the suit alleges that […]

Airplanes taking off at JFK

Beat the congestion – use consolidations

Since the beginning of the pandemic, air cargo shippers have faced greatly diminished supply and greatly increased pricing. As the summer continues, we are not seeing a return of passenger flights from either US or European airlines. For shippers this means continued constrained belly capacity and any significant return to rates of summers prior will […]

Bestway’s scheduler makes shipping easier

You may have noticed an update to our home page where you can search vessel schedules in real-time via our scheduler to identify a sailing, routing, and transit time that makes the most sense for your cargo. Powered by Qwyk, shippers can enter a few simple pieces of data and we’ll return a list of […]