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The day’s most important moves across every mode — air, rail, road, ocean and the trade that ties them together.
| ● On the Wire |
Tuesday, September 29 |
5 stories |
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The Northwest Seaport Alliance connects Pacific Northwest shippers to Asia with some of the shortest transit times on the West Coast, backed by deep-water berths and on-dock rail at both Seattle and Tacoma.
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Ocean
BY STUART CHIRLS · AMERICAN SHIPPER · SEPTEMBER 28, 2026
Maersk and CMA CGM are shifting India-to-U.S. East Coast services back through the Suez Canal, cutting more than a week off Nhava Sheva-to-Savannah transit times and freeing up vessels.
| THE TAKE — The vessel-efficiency math here is the real headline: CMA CGM trims five days while running the same weekly frequency with two fewer ships, and MSC is doing something similar across four Asia-Europe strings. That’s real capacity coming back into carriers’ networks, not just a faster clock for shippers. For Savannah specifically, a 28-day transit from India is a meaningful competitive edge against West Coast alternatives, and the port’s own infrastructure numbers — 40 weekly vessel calls, 42 weekly rail departures — suggest it’s positioned to absorb the shift. |
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Trade Policy
Washington and Beijing extended their broader trade truce to January, but the Section 301 port-entry fees on China-linked vessels are still set to snap back into force on November 10 unless USTR acts separately.
| THE TAKE — The gap between the two timelines is the story: the truce runs to January 10, but the maritime fee suspension expires November 9 on its own separate clock. More than 200 maritime and trade groups have already asked USTR to align the two, which tells you the industry doesn’t trust the fees to stay paused by default. With fees running as high as $50 per net ton for Chinese operators, carriers serving U.S. trades are stuck planning around a six-week window where the rules could revert without new action. |
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Warehousing & Distribution
Maersk has taken over operations at three Puma distribution centers and will lease out unused capacity to other shippers, turning single-client warehouses into multi-tenant facilities.
| THE TAKE — Converting 2.3 million square feet of AutoStore-equipped space from single-client to multi-client is a sign of how much idle warehouse capacity built up during the post-pandemic buildout. Puma gets a lower effective cost basis by sharing the fixed footprint; Maersk gets a flagship AutoStore multi-client site in Torrance to sell against starting in 2027. Watch for other big-box retailers with similarly automated, underutilized DCs to strike comparable deals. |
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Rail
Union Pacific is running Wabtec FLXdrive battery-electric locomotives in Los Angeles-area switching service, with the fleet set to grow to four units by October.
| THE TAKE — Starting in yard and local-service assignments rather than mainline haulage is the tell here — that’s the use case where battery locomotives’ limited range is least disqualifying and diesel emissions reduction near dense population centers matters most. Norfolk Southern’s warning about grid capacity (each charger needing the draw of 83 Tesla fast chargers) is the real constraint on scaling this beyond a handful of pilot units, regardless of how the locomotives themselves perform. |
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Air Cargo
Smith, who built humanitarian logistics nonprofit Airlink into a nearly $20 million operation over more than a decade, will succeed Brandon Fried as the trade group’s executive director in December.
| THE TAKE — Smith’s background is an unusual fit for a trade association built around lobbying and member services — his track record is coordinating disaster response across 50-plus airlines and 250 humanitarian groups, not advocacy on cargo security or airport infrastructure policy. That said, Airlink’s growth under him into a $20 million nonprofit shows he can build institutional capacity, which is arguably the more relevant skill for succeeding a 21-year incumbent like Fried. |
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This week on American Shipper TV: what the Suez return means for East Coast port competition and where trans-Pacific capacity goes next. Watch the full segment →
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OCT 27–28, 2026 · THE SIGNAL, CHATTANOOGA, TN
FreightWaves’ flagship event blends rapid-fire tech demos and world-class speakers with the most legendary networking in logistics. Join 1,000+ freight and logistics experts, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators for a definitive look at the year ahead. Come for the insights, stay for the celebration and leave with the connections that will define your 2027.
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American Shipper · The Daily — published weekdays
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