Featured Headlines:
Mattress Duties ADD Up to a Baker’s Dozen
ACE is the Place with the Phase 4 Portal
APHIS Supplemental Trade Guide Updated
Union Pacific on the UP and UP
Air Cargo From So-So to No Mo’?
Foxxconn's Grand Plan is Getting Spicy
Nautical Nose-to-Tail At The Panama Canal
Mattress Duties ADD Up to a Baker’s Dozen
- On July 28, 2023, a petition was filed to initiate antidumping duties (ADD) on mattresses from Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Myanmar, India, Italy, Kosovo, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Taiwan and countervailing duties (CVD) on mattresses from Indonesia.
- The petition was filed by ten mattress producers and two labor unions in the U.S.
- The dumping margins range from 43% for Poland to 1094% for Slovenia.
- The only CVD petition was filed against Indonesia; however, mattresses being exported from Indonesia are already subject to an ADD order in the U.S.
- This merchandise is currently classifiable under HTS 9404.21.00, 9404.29.10, and 9404.29.90.
- Preliminary determinations are due by September 11, 2023, and will decide whether the Department of Commerce (DOC) finds that the allegations in the petitions are sufficient to formally initiate investigations.
- For additional information please refer to the full ITC Notice issued on July 31, 2023.
- Any questions? Feel free to reach out to our compliance experts!
ACE is the Place with the Phase 4 Portal
- According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), additional functions have been migrated to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Portal:
- Create and edit basic account data (tabs for Details, Contacts, and Addresses) for the following account types: Surety, Corporate Surety Power of Attorney (CSPOA), Protest Filer, Exporter, Vessel Agent, and Importer
- Create and edit additional account-supporting data for the following account types: Carrier and Conveyances
- Add, download, and remove Ocean Conveyance
- Conveyance Template/Bulk Upload
- Conveyance Vessel History for the following account types: Surety, CSPOA, Facility Operator, Employees, Officials, Documents, and FTZ GP Sites
- Documents related to Subzone Sites
- For additional guidance from CBP, please refer to CSMS #57200623.
- More details regarding functionality, training, deployment support calls, and technical help can be found on the ACE Portal and ACE Portal FAQ webpages.
APHIS Supplemental Trade Guide Updated
- Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) made updates to its Supplemental Trade Guide.
- Version 3.1 includes changes to the following sections: Section I, II, IV, and VII LPCO Guidance.
- Click here to review the specific modifications listed in Version 3.1 of the APHIS ACE PGA Message Set Implementation Guide (CORE).
Union Pacific on the UP and UP
- Union Pacific (UP) has appointed Jim Vena as their CEO to lead the prominent American railway on its groundbreaking quest to enhance service quality. Can you believe it, dear readers? Who would’ve thought of such a concept?
- Vena’s leadership is set to revolutionize the entire operational game, bringing unheard-of efficiency and reliability to the table. And guess what? It’s all in line with their revolutionary statement—hold on, you might want to gird your loins for this—that’s geared towards driving growth, improving service, and oh-so-carefully enhancing safety.
- The company’s decision to appoint Vena aligns with its commitment to optimize performance while meeting customer needs as he spent more than 40 years at Canadian National Railway, providing the vital grassroots operational experience needed in a new leader.
Yellow Has Estes Seeing Green
- Grab your derby hat because we’re off to the races as Yellow Corps’ 169 terminals file for bankruptcy. Estes Corporation has pulled into the lead as potential buyers break out for the last leg of the race after submitting a $1.3 billion stalking horse bid on August 17th.
- For those of us not born in Kentucky, a stalking horse bid is a fancy way of saying that there’s been an initial bid on bankruptcy assets for a company. The company will typically choose from a pool of bidders, but the stalking horse sets the lowest bid to prevent others from underbidding.
- As operations wind down for Yellow, they’ve secured a total of $142.5 million in loans from MFN Partners and Citadel Credit Master Fund. Yellow made a great run in the domestic derby for over 99 years, amassing 300+ terminals and forever leaving their mark in American trucking history.
Truckers Hungry For Change
- From August 14th to November 23rd, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is accepting petitions for waivers to revise the “Rest and Meal Break” standards currently in place. The federal standard currently preempts any state laws and provides for one 30-minute break during an 8-hour shift.
- The state laws currently preempted originated in Washington and California. They require a 30-minute break when working more than five hours in a day, and an additional 30-minute break when working over 10 hours.
- These laws also require a separate, 10-minute break for every four hours worked, which can total up to a lot of extra free time for a trucker—plus a whopping 50 minutes more when working a 10-hour shift!
- The FMSCA will specifically look at trucker health and safety, whether stricter laws will result in parking shortages, and whether any major disruptions or dangers will be created by following these additional laws.
Air Cargo From So-So to No Mo’?
- Asia-Pacific airlines felt the cargo cool-down in June ’23, with demand slipping by 8.1% year-over-year (YoY). It seems the consumer crowd’s been swaying towards services, leaving the goods purchases in the rearview mirror.
- Despite airlines flexing a 0.7% capacity boost, the freight party hit a quieter note, with the average load factor dancing down by 5.9 points to a 60.7% groove. Global trade played it low-key, and dwindling export orders didn’t help the beat.
- Cheaper container shipping rates also made air shipments hit a softer note.
- Shippers have the advantage in upcoming winter airfreight rate talks due to a 2% drop in July’s demand, continuing a 40% YoY decline in global air freight spot levels with rates landing lower for four consecutive months. Global average rates sit at $2.20/kg.
- Niall van de Wouw, Chief Airfreight Officer at Xeneta, anticipates intense winter rate negotiations. Shippers are grabbing the spotlight with their buying power, and those jet fuel surcharge adjustments…? Well, they might just hit a few sour notes.
- Northeast Asia has experienced the steepest rate declines, while South America to the US and Europe to the Middle East are keeping their groove with smaller drops.
- Airlines and forwarders report a significant contraction in Q2 2023 air revenues compared to the previous year, leading to volatile market speculation and pricing.
- As the summer sun sets, Xeneta forecasts quieter skies ahead. The China export volume beat isn’t in sync, with a fourth month of not hitting any of those high notes!
- So, brave shippers, tighten your belts, and warm up your muscles, and let’s see who busts the best moves in the airfreight dancehall!
Foxxconn's Grand Plan is Getting Spicy
- Foxconn, the Taiwanese tech manufacturing powerhouse, is getting its game on by pouring big bucks into India. We’re talking about multi-billion-dollar investments, folks!
- Foxconn’s dream is clear – to transform India into a bustling tech hub. The plan includes a new manufacturing facility and the creation of thousands of jobs. Big moves, indeed!
- Speaking to investors on Monday, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu said the company’s India operations have grown many times bigger since it entered the country in 2005, and the next step will be expanding production capacity for key components used in consumer electronics.
- This is no exaggeration, as the current India campuses have an area equal to over 500 football fields (or 196 more fields than American Division 1 and 2 college football teams combined! …Go Hoos!).
- This supply chain diversification will send ripples through the tech chain and will put India firmly on the map, leading to potentially massive export growth for India.
Pandemic Profits Plunging
- Smaller carriers are shouldering the whistling headwinds of commercial chaos as container trade slows, and Yang Ming—a poster child small carrier complete with windblown hair—finds itself sailing into financial turbulence, reporting a net loss of $4 million in Q2.
- Fellow small carrier poster children, HMM and Zim, have also seen substantial current and expected drops in their profits.
- Zim has adjusted its full year financial forecast from a $100M-500M positive expectation to an estimated $100M-500M operating loss.
- HMM attributed the decline in freight rates and subsequent sharp drop in revenue to “excess capacity amid supply chain normalization.”
- If the whirlpool trend persists, we may see radical service changes and network/alliance restructuring for these smaller lines.
Nautical Nose-to-Tail At The Panama Canal
- Ships are playing a waiting game at both ends of the Panama Canal due to draught limits, causing a nautical nose-to-tail situation that’s raising eyebrows.
- Draught restrictions are creating a bottleneck, forcing ships to queue up at the canal’s entrances. It’s like a shipping version of “stop and go” traffic, only this is “lock and go!”
- The issue? Ships’ draft (or how deep they sit in the water) maximums have been lowered several times in Panama as locals pray for rain (literally).
- It requires millions of gallons of water to safely move vessels along the canal’s locks, and the Panama Canal Authority lowers water levels to ensure they do not allow the holding lake to empty, a disaster that would surpass Evergreen’s acrobatics in the Suez!
- The problem is that lower is slower in the canal! It requires about 20% more time to dance through the canal when it is not full of water.
- Thus, vessels are lining up like eager shoppers on Black Friday, with some waiting days to sling their shot at sailing through the canal. It’s a real-life game of maritime musical chairs!
- This canal conundrum is making waves throughout global supply chains, impacting schedules, and adding extra layers of complexity to an already intricate shipping dance. As ships queue up, the ripple effects are felt far beyond the sea.
- The good news: locals in Panama have been dancing and singing in the rain for about two weeks as the rainy season may have finally arrived. Add Colon to your weather apps, clever readers!
