Flexport

As retailers kick off the holiday shopping season, they are facing a number of potential headwinds: a shortened shopping period, president-elect Trump's proposed tariffs, and ongoing impact from the port strike in October. Flexport CEO and founder Ryan Petersen says this is the most challenging year-end for businesses since the onset of Covid.

📦 Black Friday is here! Over the past few months, Flexport’s fulfillment teams around the country have been gearing up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). It’s the busiest time of the year—and today, we wanted to give a big shoutout to our team members behind the scenes, who help make it all possible. 👏 Meanwhile, we’re keeping a close eye on the BFCM rush. Be sure to tune in to our webinar next Thursday (12/5), where we’ll break down key trends and learnings from this year’s BFCM: https://flx.to/BFCM-LI

What could be the “black swan” event that disrupts airfreight in 2025? 💡 Join experts Niall van de Wouw, Adriaan den Heijer, Milena Milenkovic and Thomas P.C. Kempf as they discuss their predictions for the air freight market in 2025: In Tuesday's webinar they will cover: - 📊 Demand, capacity, and rate volatility -🌐 How evolving trade patterns and political shifts are giving rise to new shipping routes and opportunities -💰What potential new tariffs may mean for e-commerce businesses, as well as air freight demand on the whole - 🌱 Sustainability strategies for air carriers and shippers Sign up for the webinar here 👉 https://lnkd.in/egeuSfA5

Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 We’re starting today’s edition with a special thank you to all of you who have supported us along the journey. The world of global trade and supply chain never gets easy, but we’ll be here to guide you through the complexity. Without further ado, let’s dive in. First, we’re closely monitoring the tariffs update as President-elect Donald Trump announced his plan of imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and additional 10% tariffs on China on Day 1. What could this mean for you, and how can you prepare now? Read our blog here: flx.to/4g9 Onto various trade lanes: 🚢Trans-Pacific Eastbound trade lane: Rates remain manageable on the West Coast, with space availability open, particularly in the Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest. 🚢Far East Westbound trade lane: Carriers announced a December GRI at $6,000–$6,200 per TEU, with proactive adjustments based on vessel projections. Some reductions are expected. 🚢Transatlantic Westbound trade lane: The blank sailing program for Weeks 47–52 is creating a backlog, as it cannot fully accommodate the increased demand for earlier sailings. ✈️Air global cargo: Worldwide spot rates increased +4% WoW and are +25% higher YoY, reflecting strong demand and constrained capacity in key regions. #supplychain #logistics #freightmarket #freightindustry #oceanfreight #oceancargo #oceanshipping #airfreight #aircargo #airshipping #trucking #intermodal #railfreight

Donald Trump has made a statement on his Truth Social media in relation to tarriffs. His plan for now is to issue an executive order on January 20th for 25% tarriffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada and additional 10% on everything coming from China. The caveat to keep in mind here is to which degree US rules actually provides him the power to do so, and if it does whether this can be done immediately or whether there is longer implementation period. Some importers are likely going advance the imports of goods (some already have been doing this) prior to this date – especially for goods which are less timesensitive and where the importer have excess warehousing space. This will further fuel an early peak prior to Chinese New Year. In 2025 Chinese New Year is on January 29th. Normal seasonality would imply a strong demand push during January, but this might be moved up significantly for US-bound goods. The issue now is one of timing. Flexport’s OTI where they measure the time from cargo readiness at exporter location until gate-out at destination port shows that Asia to USEC transport time is now 63 days. This means that it is already too late for US importers using the East Coast to advance shipments prior at least to the announcement date for the tarriffs, but note the caveat on implementaion I mentioned initially. Asia to USWC transportation time according to Flexport is presently 38 days which still also allows for the import of goods prior to the possible strike on the US East Coast on January 15th, but only just – for those wanting to get their imports away from the risk of the strike. Today is day 374 of the Red Sea crisis, no new developments. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been made. Note that this only involves Lebanon and therefore does not address the core requirement from the Houthies in relation to Gaza, and hence will not change the threat from the Houthies towards merchant shipping in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. #UStarriffs #containershipping #redseacrisis

How is Flexport gearing up for Black Friday and the rest of the 2024 peak season? Join Erin Troy, Flexport’s Director of Customer Support, as she provides a behind-the-scenes look at our New Jersey fulfillment hub during the busiest period of the year. Since bringing operations in-house and launching a network of five strategic hubs last year, “we’ve gained more control and operational efficiencies,” Erin said. “In doing so, we’ve been executing at 98% on-time delivery (OTD) [across] these buildings.” Plus, see some of our automated warehouse technology in action. 💡 For expert peak season insights and guidance, visit our 2024 peak hub: https://lnkd.in/eFdrVNnX

On December 4, join Ryan Petersen, Founder and CEO of Flexport, and Dilip Bhattacharjee, Partner at McKinsey & Company, as they explore key trends shaping the 2025 global logistics and freight market. Tune in to hear more about evolving consumer expectations, and how businesses are harnessing generative AI and other technology to optimize operations and navigate supply chain challenges. 📌 Save your spot: https://flx.to/glo-LI-1

This year, AI has taken the logistics industry by storm. At Flexport, it’s already revolutionizing the way we drive on-time performance and customer satisfaction, streamline customs workflows, and process documents at scale. We recently sat down with Alex Nederlof, Flexport’s Director of Engineering, for an inside look at how AI and automation are transforming supply chains. From automatically identifying and chasing down missing data to parsing and organizing data-rich documents, AI’s use cases span a vast range of crucial workflows. “At Flexport, we’ve been using AI in our products for over three years,” Alex said. “What’s really new now is how much more capable and versatile AI has become with the rise of large language models (LLMs).” Read the full Q&A on our blog 👉 https://flx.to/gen-ai-LI

What are the odds a company will achieve long-term success? According to Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen, it often boils down to a simpler question: is everyone winning? “There are six stakeholders at the table for every company: your customers, vendors, employees, investors, regulators, and the communities where you operate,” Ryan told Shaan Puri on My First Million. “It’s very rare to find a company where every single party is winning—you’ve got to create a win-win [for everyone].” 👇 Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dVHkCbCS

✈️ What's next for the 2025 air freight market?💡 On Tuesday, December 3 at 16:00 GMT/ 17:00 CET join our panel of experts as they explore key trends and challenges shaping next year’s air cargo landscape. Niall van de Wouw, Adriaan den Heijer, Milena Milenkovic and Thomas P.C. Kempf will discuss: - 📊 Demand, capacity, and rate volatility -🌐 How evolving trade patterns and political shifts are giving rise to new shipping routes and opportunities -💰What potential new tariffs may mean for e-commerce businesses, as well as air freight demand on the whole - 🌱 Sustainability strategies for air carriers and shippers Save your spot now! https://lnkd.in/ed8BjdYC