There are concerns that the drought in Germany this year and its impact on the Rhine River water levels may rival river lows in 2018 and 2022. In July water levels hit a low of below 100 cm, down from a high of 350 cm in May (at the Kaub measuring station.) Low water levels cause increased shipping costs due to container ships and some barges sailing half full resulting in more vessels needed to transport goods. (See video about the Rhine) However, recent “heavy rainfall in the Rhine’s upstream regions” has resulted in levels to rise to about 180 cm as of last Friday, "allowing vessels to sail with full loads.” (More at: The Maritime Executive, “Rhine Water Levels Improve …” 07/30/2023)

Yellow Corporation, third-largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier ceased operations as of noon this past Sunday, July 30^th. The Teamsters were notified of a pending filing for bankruptcy as 22,000 Teamsters have been a part of the 30,000 employee Yellow workforce. FreightWaves reports that “it (Yellow) laid off most of its nonunion workforce last week and told union employees on Sunday afternoon not to show up.” (See more at: FreightWaves, “Yellow's demise: 2 decades in the making,” Todd Maiden, 07/31/2023)

The U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) prohibiting U.S. ports supported by federal grant money from using China’s state-supported shipping platform known as LOGINK. The technology platform allows China to monitor U.S. traffic of shipping containers. (See more at FreightWaves, “House passes defense bill with ban on Chinese shipping platform,” John Gallagher, 7/14/2023)

The Panama Canal administrator explains that they experience extreme draughts in an historical cycle of about every five years, which has decreased to about three years now in more recent times. The last serious drought occurred in 2019-2020. Currently, the canal region is experiencing an “unprecedented drought” and the administration “has implemented water-saving measures to maintain maximum capacity in our reservoirs during the May through December rainy season (El Nino) and to cover the projected water demand during the dry season (in 2024).” In addition, maximum draft for vessels passing through the Neopanamax locks have been set at 44.5 feet. (See Canal de Panama, “Panama Canal prepares for the impact of climate events,” 06 June 2023)

The corporate owner of Schiphol airport has formed a cargo based partnership (a 4.2M euro deal) with the Maastricht regional airport. Maastricht handled less than a tenth of the tonnage of airfreight at Schiphol in Amsterdam last year, but is the European hub for Turkish cargo involving several airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Saudia. (See more at FreightWaves, “Netherlands airports join force to synchronize cargo flow,” Eric Kulisch, 6/09/2023)

The usual house-buying season in the spring is not meeting the usual expectations this year. New mortgages are measuring down this past April, lower than the five year average prior to the onset of the covid pandemic. While there are several reasons for this, the main ones appear to be higher housing prices along with rising mortgage interest rates in the environment of a slower economy. (See more at The Guardian, “UK property market lacks spring bounce but a crash is unlikely,” Larry Elliott, 6/4/2023)

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