Brendan Murray
Bottlenecks Wear Down World Economy’s Fleet of Containerships
Gantry cranes sit idle at a container terminal in Long Beach, Calif. (Tim Rue/Bloomberg News)
Container shipping, the backbone of the global trading system, is showing signs of fatigue as the pandemic descends into its darkest days.
December 22, 2020Drones Could Help Bridge the Economic, Social Divides for Vaccine Distribution
Drones could be used to get the COVID-19 vaccines to remote and impoverished areas off Florida's coast. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg News)
The challenge of ensuring equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine is one of global scale, and the city of Miami provides a backdrop for the social and economic divides that the medical community must overcome.
December 16, 2020Boatloads of Cargo Off Los Angeles Grind Gears of World Economy
Cargo ships can be seen anchored off the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles in Signal Hill, Calif., on Nov. 20. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg News)
A flotilla of almost a dozen cargo vessels sits anchored just south of Los Angeles this weekend, waiting for berth space. Around the twin ports of L.A. and Long Beach, shipping containers already are stacked five and six high — the maximum the fire department will allow.
November 23, 2020Vital World Trade Route Roiled by Container Crunch
Shipping containers sit at the Port of Haifa in Israel on Nov. 5. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg News)
The humble shipping container has a new status in the COVID-19 pandemic: hot commodity.
November 9, 2020Vaccine Cargo Cavalry Sizes Up Readiness of Historic Airlift
An inside view of a Boeing 747 cargo jet hull. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News)
The medical industry’s dash to produce the world’s first coronavirus vaccines in just a few months is heightening the urgency for the workhorses of global trade to be ready for the historic charge to defeat the disease.
October 14, 2020Shipping Industry Hit With Second Cyberattack in Week
(Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News)
The global shipping industry sustained a second cyberattack within a week that’s raising concern about disruptions to supply chains already straining to move goods heading into the usual peak season for consumer demand.
October 1, 2020Crunch Time Coming for World’s Supply Chains
Trucks stand in a queue while waiting to cross the border from Hungary into Romania on April 8. (Akos Stiller/Bloomberg News)
COVID-19 is about to put the global trading system through its most dramatic stress test since World War II, with supply lines for essential food and medical goods entering a critical phase as the pandemic peaks in the U.S. and Europe.
April 16, 2020WTO: Slump in Global Goods Trade to Deepen With Coronavirus
A Maersk container ship sails in Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai, China, in July 2018. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News)
Global trade in goods will likely stay weak in coming months as disruptions from coronavirus in China staunch the movement of international commerce already slowed by tariffs and uncertainty, according to the World Trade Organization.
February 18, 2020Cass Freight Index Signals US Economic Contraction by Year’s End
TT File Photo
The Cass Freight Index, a monthly measure of rail, trucking and airfreight volume, dropped 3% in August from a year earlier, the ninth consecutive month of declines.
September 16, 2019US and China Locked in New Tariff Stare-Down
Tim Rue/Bloomberg News
Labor Day picnic products are just a sampling of the more than 3,200 categories of Chinese goods targeted for the new tariff starting Sept. 1, barring a last-minute flinch by President Donald Trump.
August 30, 2019