Featured Headlines:
ITC-hing and Scratching in Harmony
Entry Summary Query Update in ACE
CBP Gets Hyper About New Links
Norfolk is Going All Silicon Valley
Watch Out for the Freight Felons!
Cargill: Son of a Gun of a Sailor
The Apple iPhone Falls Far from the Tree
You Look Like a Million Blanks
UFLPA Entity List Update
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added three companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List—which identifies entities working with the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of the region—earlier this week.
- The following entities have been added to the list as of September 27, 2023:
- Xinjiang Tianmian Foundation Textile Co., Ltd.
- Xinjiang Tianshan Wool Textile Co. Ltd.
- Xinjiang Zhongtai Group Co. Ltd.
- According to officials, all revisions, additions, removals, and technical corrections to the UFLPA Entity List will be published on the official DHS website.
- Click here to see the full list of entities published in the Federal Register Notice.
- Never miss another breaking news alert! Subscribe today to receive our complimentary ShapFlash Alerts.
ITC-hing and Scratching in Harmony
- For those of you itching to learn the latest and greatest changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), you are in luck, because the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) officially scratched Revision 10 of the USHTS this month!
- The ITC officially launched the 2023 HTS Revision 11 on September 21st.
- Click here for additional information about the change.
Entry Summary Query Update in ACE
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will deploy the Entry Summary Query Update enhancement to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) on November 4, 2023.
- The Entry Summary Query enables Automated Broker Interface (ABI) filers to query entry summaries in ACE.
- This update will also allow surety companies to query entry summaries for which they have an associated active bond.
- Data elements will be incorporated from the ACE Collections into the Entry Summary query; and will move the query from the legacy electronic data interchange (EDI) platform to the current ACE EDI platform.
- For more information on this announcement, check out the Entry Summary Query Update.
- Any questions? Feel free to reach out to our compliance experts!
CBP Gets Hyper About New Links
- CBP also announced plans to replace the existing URLs of certain applications currently available to the trade community.
- According to officials, the following resource pages will be affected: AD/CVD, Liquidation Bulletin, ACE Dashboard, Vessel Confidentiality, and AES Reference Data.
- Please note the timeline for this transition:
- September 19 – October 9, 2023: Both the current and new URLs for each application will be available and supported.
- October 10, 2023: The current URL will be replaced with a redirect to the new URL.
- December 12, 2023: The current URL will be retired; and the new URL will be fully operational.
- For additional guidance from CBP, please refer to CSMS #57697414.
Norfolk is Going All Silicon Valley
- The Norfolk Southern (NS) Railway is ready to shed its old-fashioned heritage in favor of some shiny new tech with all the bells and whistles. They’re teaming up with the tech company, DrayNow.
- Together, they are looking to deliver an app that will connect logistics companies with drayage providers while also offering GPS tracking technology.
- Hold onto your hats because, by the Spring of 2024, logistics managers will be on the edge of their seats (or should we say swivel chairs?) refreshing their screens with the intensity of tracking a Domino’s pizza delivery. Yep, they’ll be glued to their desks, hitting that refresh button every 5 minutes, just like you do when you’re tracking Carl’s progress with your pizza order!
- Meet the maestro himself, Sam Niness, President of a Norfolk Southern subsidiary. He’s the brains behind the game-changing app, and he’s got big dreams. Sam’s vision? To unite transportation providers for every leg of an inland transportation network under one roof, one platform.
Norfolk Southern Headed North
- Hold onto your conductor hats, because Norfolk Southern is taking their tech game to the next level! Not content with just a groundbreaking tech app, they’ve teamed up with Canadian National to launch a new service connecting multiple major metros in Canada with the Central and Southeastern U.S.
- These railroads are getting creative, using steel wheel interchanges to seamlessly operate as a single line. We’re talking about potential connections from Vancouver all the way to Atlanta.
- For those of you who like numbers (or just enjoy flexing your knowledge), that’s ~4,500 kilometers, or ~2,800 miles (if you prefer freedom units) of rail magic.
- This “seamless” service isn’t just about connecting cities; it’s about connecting with the environment too. By lowering emissions and reducing costs, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National are making shippers and Mother Nature smile.
- Let’s also not forget the added bonus of friendly customer service from our Northern neighbors, eh?
Watch Out for the Freight Felons!
- So, while inflation may have us all in a spin, cargo thieves are dancing to a different tune. They’ve been busier than a bee in a honey factory, with a whopping 566 incidents in the U.S., combining for a jaw-dropping 56% increase YoY. We’re talking thieves with a taste for everything, from electronics to construction materials to sneakers.
- These crafty criminals aren’t just stealing any old stuff; they’ve made off with over $40 million at an average haul value of $260,000. Cue their new theme song by Steve Miller Band: “Take the Money and Run!”
- Most of these incidents are happening right under our noses, near hubs and bustling cities. California and Georgia have been leading the pack in the thievery Olympics, grabbing the gold and silver medals respectively.
- Some of these larcenists are bold enough to steal entire truckloads, and they are even arranging fake pickups with drivers. Nearly 25% of the thefts occurred this way!
- The loot isn’t just vanishing into thin air; it’s being sold in bulk at 15-20% of its value. But the real masterminds are turning to the online bazaar, selling stolen goods individually on platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Who knew these thieves had such savvy tricks up their sleeves?
- The newest trend involves Amazon and I’m not talking Prime subscriptions. The bad guys are playing mind games, manipulating brokers and truckers to reroute cargo to an Amazon distribution center. There, all cargo magically becomes “sold” and the thieves get an instant payout in their Amazon Marketplace seller account.
- Want to avoid some of these capers? Feel free to reach out to our freight experts!
Cargill: Son of a Gun of a Sailor
- We pay tribute to the great Jimmy Buffet with this title. On St. Patrick’s Day 1978, Jimmy released Son of a Son of a Sailor which contained the titular tune and “Cheeseburger in Paradise;” the album rose to #10 in the land. We’ll miss you, Jimmy!
- Cargill, we have learned, is another sailor, and they have risen to the #1 ranked privately held company in America. They move 225 million tons of cargo (largely agricultural and often in bulk) a year, and they grew their coffers by $165 billion in 2022; hey, that’s twice what Maersk made and half of what MSC is rumored to have made! Just kidding, MSC!
- As part of Cargill’s highly ambitious goal to reduce their carbon footprint by 30% per cargo ton, they have partnered with many mad scientists to pilot the use of gigantic rigid “sails” on the Pyxis Ocean (sounds like “Pick Sis”, more about this adorable bulk ship later).
- The steel and composite glass sail structures are 123-feet tall, can be added to older ships or new ships, and are thought to potentially reduce fuel consumption by 20%! While these sails are not quite as tall as the stadiums Jimmy Buffet sold out 2000 times, they are equivalent in height to a 12-story building. Dayum.
- For the 94.5% of the global shipping fleet still operating on fossil fuels, the sails have tremendous potential for reducing emissions. For the 33% of the new ship orderbook that will operate on liquid natural gas or methanol, the sails could be a game-changer for fuel costs since environmentally friendly fuels are decidedly unfriendly for the wallet.
- So, keep your eye on the Pyxis Ocean, named for the constellation Compass, as she (partially) sails from Shanghai to Singapore to beautiful Brazil on her first trial run. If you listen very closely, you might just hear the sailors singing, “As the son of a son of a sailor, I went out on the sea for adventure, expanding the view of captain and crew…”
- Let us hope that Cargill is expanding the view of the steamship crew as we watch an industry notorious for “sharing” as much CO2 as 300 coal-powered plants per year.
The Apple iPhone Falls Far from the Tree
- The “iPhone effect” is sweeping through the shipping world once again. You heard it right, it’s here again and air rates are gearing up for a sky-high adventure in the coming months, all thanks to the die-hard Apple fans eagerly awaiting their latest iPhone fix – the iPhone 15. It’s set to make its grand entrance to the States just in time for the holidays.
- Apple ships its devices in multiple ways but relies on air to ensure it’s meeting short delivery times. The challenge of shipping millions of units of iPhones all around the world inevitably causes ripples through the industry with each release.
- If you think we’re kidding, cast your mind back to the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014, which caused rates from China to San Francisco to spike from $2.50/kg to $11.00/kg moving from Summer to Fall.
- Here’s a fun fact for your next trivia night: approximately 300,000 iPhones fit on a 747-8 freighter, which works out to about 1.37 plane trips per day of just phones.
- If that wasn’t jaw-dropping enough for you, it’s expected that the phones will make up 2% of the total weight of goods being shipped out of China this Fall.
- Follow Shapiro on LinkedIn to view our monthly Supply Chain Reaction posts, which include ocean, air and drayage rate updates!
You Look Like a Million Blanks
- Thanks a million, essential and vital steamship lines! We thought it was a one-in-a-million chance that you would blank 1 million TEUs of transpacific space in one itsy bitsy month!
- And now, we read that you may be headed for a blanking (pun intended) record for sailings that do not exist in October 2023. We’re sorry if our million-dollar smile is now a frown.
- Yes, China is celebrating Chairman Mao Zedong’s civil war victory of October 1, 1949, which marks the birth of The People’s Republic of China…now 74 years of China’s four-thousand-year history (that’s a 1.8% share, mathematical readers).
- The third Golden Week of each year (did you know that?) does provoke blanks at the start of each October, but the first two weeks of the month are expected to witness a 37% reduction in space followed by a 43% reduction in the back half of the 10th month. Wait, there is no week-long holiday keeping workers away at the END of the month!
- The truth is that for only the second time in 10 years, rates are falling right before National Day in China. The shipper demand just isn’t there, and new capacity is increasing as fast as Panamanians wish rainfall was rising near that famous canal.
- Spot rates are down by 25% to the US East Coast (USEC) since Labor Day, and many experts expect a further 12-16% decline by the end of October. That’s a million miles away from what our essential and vital steamship lines want to see.
- Questions about rates? Feel free to reach out to our freight experts!
Canucks Clamoring for Cars
- We’ve got some juicy neighborly gossip that’s sure to tickle your automotive fancies. Our friendly neighbors, affectionally known as “Canadians” (yes, the ones with maple syrup and hockey), are giving us a run for our money as they import more and more vehicles from the good ol’ U.S. of A.
- Here’s the scoop: It turns out that Canadians have developed quite the taste for American-made vehicles, once those pesky UAW strikes settle down, of course. Car imports are zooming (no Zoom or Carvana pun intended) into Canada, accounting for a whopping 75% of their new vehicle market. That’s music to the ears of auto manufacturers in the U.S., who are now busy counting a whopping $17.2 billion into their piggy banks.
- The fun doesn’t stop at cars…manufacturers get to double dip a bit here as Canada also imported $13.1 billion in parts and components in 2022.
- You might wonder what it takes to make those American cars feel at home up North. It’s not much, really! Just a dash of metric speedometers, some daytime running lights, and oh yes, translating the airbag label into French. Sacre bleu! Only kidding, it’s not that serious.
- Every car manufacturer in Canada is basically a subsidiary of either a U.S. or Japanese company. So when it comes to Canadian “domestic” brands, it’s as rare as an American using real maple syrup on their pancakes.
