Did You Know That…

…Container spot rates edge back up – but carrier hikes may not hold. Container spot freight rates out of Asia on the deepsea trades to North America and Europe were lifted this week by carrier-led price increases.

…America’s oldest ally in Asia is drawing closer to China. Thailand increasingly depends on its bigger neighbour for trade and security. King Maha Vajiralongkorn is the first Thai monarch to visit China since the two countries established diplomatic relations half a century ago. His trip was the most high-profile signal yet that Thailand, which has long struck a careful balance between China and America, is leaning ever closer towards its northern neighbour. China is also an important source of international visitors to Thailand, which depends on tourism for 12% of GDP and a fifth of all jobs. Chinese accounted for 6.7m of Thailand’s 35.5m international tourist arrivals last year. 

…Beware – your ChatGPT logistics strategy is now legal evidence. A US federal court just handed down a ruling that should make every logistics company using AI immediately reconsider its data governance policies. AI won’t replace forwarders – but forwarders using AI will'.

…Tradelanes: Latin America-North America riding a rollercoaster. North-south trade in the western hemisphere has been on a rollercoaster thanks to tariff gyrations, the US end of de minimis, which has affected freighter capacity into Latin America, and the region’s largest cargo carrier suffered a week-long pilot strike.

…Eight global shipping giants charged with price-fixing scheme. South Africa’s Competition Commission has referred a complaint against eight major container shipping companies to the Competition Tribunal, alleging that the carriers coordinated General Rate Increases (GRIs) on key trade routes for ten years.

…Hapag-Lloyd, MSC and Maersk said to be circling Zim amid takeover speculation. Big boxship names linked to bids or interest in Israeli line following offer by CEO Glickman and shipowner Abraham (Rami) Ungar. German container ship giant Hapag-Lloyd is said to have made an offer to buy Israeli line Zim, with heavyweights MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co and AP Moller-Maersk also expressing an interest.

…China-Europe freight train milestone reached. On 28 November 2025 the China-Europe freight train service achieved a significant milestone, surpassing 120,000 trips and transporting goods valued at over USD 490 bn.

…Mr. Trump will visit Beijing in April. The poresident accepted an invitation from his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during a phone conversation in which they discussed trade and global security. A reciprocal visit is planned for later in 2026.

…Self-driving cars will transform urban economies. A robotaxi boom is coming. The impacts might be broader than you expect. Urban Economies reflect how their residents get around. And before long, that will start to change—more dramatically than at any time since the automobile was invented over a century ago. The robotaxis now autonomously shuttling passengers around the Bay Area or Los Angeles may look like ordinary cars, perhaps with a few ungainly sensors, but as they spread and develop, they will operate under different constraints to human-driven ones, and accordingly reshape cities. Over the next year, robotaxis will become increasingly difficult to ignore. Waymo, Google’s offering, plans to expand to cities including Miami and Washington. London will mark the company’s first international expansion and put it in direct competition with Uber, which is also set to launch a self-driving offering in the city. 

…Global intermodal freight market to reach USD 109.5 bn. According to Allied Market Research, the global intermodal freight transport market, valued at USD 42.5 bn in 2022, is projected to reach USD 109.5 bn by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2023 to 2032. This market includes transporting goods using various modes, optimising efficiency, cost and environmental performance.

…Trees have been around for roughly 350 million years—long before the first dinosaurs appeared and long before Earth saw its first flowering plants. These ancient giants reshaped the planet’s atmosphere, stabilised soils and made today’s ecosystems possible.

…Sharks have been swimming in Earth’s oceans for around 400 million years – making them older than trees, dinosaurs and even Saturn’s rings. Their basic body plan has hardly changed since, a sign of just how perfectly adapted these ancient predators are.

…Germany takes Christmas trees seriously: the country even has a Federal Association of Christmas Tree Producers. The organisation represents growers nationwide, sets quality standards and monitors market trends – a reminder that behind every festive tree stands a very real logistics chain. 

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