December 15, 2022 – Due to the inclement weather today in Toronto, we will be closing our office earlier and our team will be working remotely. Please call us at 416.621.6800 if you require any urgent assistance.
December 12, 2022 – The majority of striking South Korean truckers returned to work on Friday after a damaging 16-day walkout came to an end. The strike had seen the government get involved, as more than $2.5 billion of goods had been held up during the militant action, which started over demands to mandate minimum fares.
December 6, 2022 – CP Update: Vaughan Terminal Gates Temporarily Closed for Export Loads to Racine. Effective 18:00 ET on Tuesday, December 6, gates at CP’s Vaughan Terminal will be closed for export loads to Racine. This is a temporary measure to get current on heavier export volumes. New communication will be issued when CP is ready to reopen the gates.
December 5, 2022 – The Bundestag has officially ratified the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has been under provisional application since 2017. Only after the adoption of all EU member states can the agreement come fully into force, including provisions on investment protection, which proved controversial in the past. “Eleven countries are still missing,” said Verena Hubertz, vice-chairman of the Bundestag group of Germany’s leading governing party SPD. “But we’re optimistic, now that we’re leading the way, that others will follow quickly,” she said.
November 21, 2022 – The CBSA has confirmed that the CARM project Release 2 implementation date has been changed to October 2023. This will allow them time to ensure that all industry partners are on board.
November 14, 2022 – Spot container freight rates on the largest deepsea trades rebounded this week, despite continuing weak demand, suggesting recent capacity cuts have begun to reverse months of pricing decline. Ocean rates out of Asia were stable overall again this week – though Asia to U.S. and Canada west coast prices ticked up and are now level with prices in early October – suggesting the sharp drop-off that began this summer may be levelling out, as capacity is removed to meet falling demand.
October 18, 2022 – Zhengzhou has locked down one of its most-populated districts to tame a COVID-19 flare-up, with creeping restrictions throughout China underscoring the constant threat of disruption companies face while the country sticks to “zero COVID.” Almost 1 million residents of Zhongyuan District were ordered to stay at home starting on October 17, except for when they need to undergo COVID-19 testing, and non-essential businesses have been shut, a government notice said. The city in Henan Province reported six new local cases for Sunday, down from a recent peak of 40 on Oct 9. Nationwide, cases declined to 697, the lowest in two weeks, as outbreaks in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang came under control. Beijing posted 13 new cases, and Shanghai had 32. China is sticking to the zero-COVID pillars of lockdowns and mass testing to tame its biggest flare-up in two months, despite the heavy cost. The policy has dragged on growth and roiled global supply chains as important manufacturing hubs contend with the disruption of shutdowns.
October 11, 2022 – Air freight rates worldwide are trending lower as the global economy starts to feel the bite of high interest rates and inflation in many countries. Although traditionally a peak season for shipping, the month of October is starting to show demand weakness just as more capacity comes into the market as more air carriers bring back their planes. For an update on the current rates, please contact our sales team for more information.
October 3, 2022 – Statistics Canada counted a million unfilled positions in the second quarter, the most on record and double pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate dropped to about five percent, the lowest since at least the mid-1970s. Heading into the summer, essentially anyone who wanted a job could have found one, assuming they had the skills to match the positions on offer, or were up for some manual labour. Demographic forces are difficult to reverse, but the stakes are so high that it’s worth a try. The Canadian unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., the global auditing and consulting firm, estimates that all those unfilled positions represent the equivalent of more than $50 billion in lost economic output, a calculation based on applying gross domestic product per worker to the roughly 500,000 difference between current vacancies and the pre-pandemic average. “This is purely illustrative and likely represents the maximum potential cost to the economy, but it does drive home the point that labour scarcity and skills shortages could cost the economy tens of billions of dollars if left unaddressed,” Deloitte Canada said in a report published on September 29.
September 30, 2022 – Our customers and partners are advised that China is celebrating its Golden Week from October 1st to October 7th, 2022 and most office will be closed until October 10, 2022.