THE DAILY

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

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The Daily

FMC Chair DiBella names ports indispensable to U.S. economic security

The Federal Maritime Commission’s new chair delivered a pointed message to the nation’s port leaders this week: American seaports are not merely logistics infrastructure. They are national security infrastructure, and the margin for underinvestment is now zero.

FMC Chair Laura DiBella addressed the American Association of Port Authorities’ legislative summit Tuesday, calling this "a very critical moment" for the domestic maritime industry. The Trump administration is making "the strongest push in decades" to revitalize U.S. shipping, she told attendees, and she intends to match that energy from the regulatory side. "Economic development, economic security and economic stability would not exist without seaports, period, full stop," DiBella said. "There are not enough planes, trains or trucks to support the amount of cargo moved by ship."

That framing carries particular weight in March 2026. With the Red Sea effectively closed to major liner services since late 2023 and Iran’s war now cutting tanker access through the Strait of Hormuz, both of the busiest Middle East trade corridors are disrupted simultaneously, a combination without modern precedent. More than 80% of global merchandise trade moves by sea. Over 95% of U.S. import cargo arrives by ship. DiBella isn’t stating a theoretical premise. She is describing what your supply chain depends on every day it functions.

Her investment priorities are specific: dredging, berth enhancements, crane upgrades, and road and rail access improvements. She also flagged a dimension that rarely leads maritime policy discussions. Seaports serve as the gateway for 98% of all U.S. businesses. Port infrastructure investment isn’t only a conversation about big-box importers and multinational shippers. It is economic infrastructure for the business community writ large. DiBella, a former Florida secretary of commerce and Enterprise Florida president, brings a commerce-first lens to maritime regulation that she made no effort to obscure Tuesday.

That protective posture took concrete form in a separate ruling issued the same day. DiBella rejected requests from CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, and Zim to shorten the 30-day notice period for rate hikes tied to the Iran conflict. The carriers failed to demonstrate "good cause," she ruled, and set an explicit documentation standard for any future surcharge request: cost data, duration estimates, and mitigation steps must accompany the filing. "An assertion that there are increased costs, without any data on what those costs are, how long they may last, and what steps the carrier is taking to mitigate them, is insufficient in demonstrating good cause," DiBella wrote. The message is clear: surcharges must be justified with specificity, not simply declared.

So What? DiBella’s dual moves this week sketch an FMC willing to advocate loudly for port investment and enforce shipper protections with equal conviction. The 30-day notice rule is one of the few structural guardrails shippers have against rapid surcharge imposition during a conflict-driven market. It just got enforced, and a documentation standard was attached. For shippers managing rate exposure right now, that matters. Watch whether the carriers refile with actual cost data, and whether the commission holds the same line.

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Top Stories

Two key Middle East shipping corridors are closed simultaneously for the first time

Houthi attacks have kept major liners off the Red Sea–Suez Canal route since late 2023. Iran’s war has now layered a second disruption on top, cutting most tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The result is a combination without modern precedent. Only 2% to 3% of global container volume moves through the Middle East, but that figure translates to roughly 6 million containers — equivalent in scale to the world’s second-largest carrier fleet. Carriers posted windfall profits rerouting around Africa in 2024; cyclicality returned hard in 2025 and some major lines posted losses. Consolidation is accelerating: Hapag-Lloyd’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Zim, pending approval, would push its trans-Pacific market share from 7% to 12%.

So What? Shippers finalizing 2026 contracts are doing so against simultaneous route closures with no resolution timeline in sight. Cape of Good Hope routing adds 10 to 14 days and meaningful cost. Lock in what you can and model for extended diversions through at least Q2.

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FMC denies CMA CGM, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and Zim request to shorten rate-hike notice

Four major ocean carriers asked the FMC to waive the standard 30-day notice requirement for new surcharges linked to the Iran conflict. Chair DiBella said no. The carriers failed to show good cause, she ruled — specifically because they offered no documentation tying proposed surcharge amounts to actual cost data. "An assertion that there are increased costs, without any data on what those costs are, how long they may last, and what steps the carrier is taking to mitigate them, is insufficient," DiBella wrote. The ruling also establishes an explicit benchmark for future surcharge requests from any carrier seeking expedited approval.

So What? The 30-day window is a meaningful protection and it just got enforced, with a documentation standard attached. Carriers can refile with proper cost data — watch whether they do, and whether the commission holds that line on the second round.

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Organized crime networks turn California’s desert rail lines into a multimillion-dollar theft operation

Cargo theft in California’s Mojave Desert rail corridors has moved well past opportunistic burglary. Organized rings board slow-moving trains to scout containers, reseal them with shoelace markers, then sabotage trains ahead of their targets to force stops — deploying 30- to 40-person crews to strip loads in minutes. A CHP investigation uncovered $13 million in stolen freight in a single warehouse; the offender served one year of an eight-year sentence before allegedly returning to the trade. The entire CHP task force covering that region runs two investigators. The CORCA bill advancing in Congress would establish a federal data hub for cross-jurisdictional cargo theft coordination; currently, dedicated state task forces exist only in California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas.

So What? If your freight moves through the LA/Long Beach gateway on intermodal rail, this is operational risk, not news background. Technology helps but doesn’t close the gap. Human vetting and intelligence sharing do more. Until CORCA passes, cross-state enforcement coordination stays a patchwork.

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GLP-1 drug adoption is trimming food and beverage freight demand

With roughly 12% of U.S. adults now using GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, academic research projects approximately a 3% drop in total caloric food demand. Applied to the U.S. food and beverage freight market — more than 2 billion tons moved by truck annually — that translates to an estimated 3 million fewer truckloads per year. For context, the projected intermodal capture from a UP–NS merger was estimated at around 2 million truckloads over time. The hardest-hit categories: processed snacks, beverages, alcohol, and refined grains. Fresh produce and proteins are holding up. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is generating its own freight demand, but the net math for discretionary food freight is structural and still growing.

So What? At 12% penetration, this is early innings. Carriers and brokers with heavy exposure to snack, beverage, and alcohol lanes should be stress-testing volume assumptions now. This is a demand composition shift, not a cyclical correction, and it compounds quietly as adoption climbs.

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Sponsored Insight

From the Research Desk

What We’re Watching

▸ FMC surcharge refiling. DiBella’s rejection left the door open for carriers to refile surcharge requests with proper cost documentation. Watch whether CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, and Zim come back with data attached and whether the commission holds the same standard on the second round.

▸ Hapag-Lloyd’s Zim acquisition timeline. The $4.2 billion deal awaits shareholder and regulatory approval. Closing pushes Hapag-Lloyd’s trans-Pacific market share from 7% to 12%, which is a meaningful pricing power shift on lanes where shippers are locking in annual contracts right now.

▸ GLP-1 freight signal in Q1 data. The structural demand math on food and beverage freight is increasingly hard to dismiss. As Q1 2026 closes, watch snack, beverage, and alcohol lane volumes for the first clean read on whether the 3 million truckload reduction is materializing at scale.

That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.

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