As Adam noted in his introductory message, 2024 was quite the year across the industry. It was a year marked by major events across the globe, from right here in the U.S. to major shipping lanes like the Red Sea. We saw periods of stability mixed with unforeseen catastrophes like the Baltimore bridge collapse.

Everyone had to be nimble, perhaps more than ever before, to keep supply chains moving in the face of adversity. Regulatory and procedural changes throughout the year are to be expected to a certain degree, but the number of outside factors that impacted the industry was staggering. It proved, once again, how flexible and resilient logistics providers have become in recent years.

We’ll take a look at some overall trends and news from 2024 through the lens of each sector of the industry and look ahead to changes coming in 2025.

While international shipping was impacted by a variety of events across the globe, it was actually a relatively stable year in regard to ocean rates. There were some spikes here and there, but nothing as drastic as we’ve seen in recent years.

“Capacity remained tight for the first half of 2024 that kept the freight rates elevated,” said Amy Rice, Vice President & Managing Director, Scarbrough International. “Rates did start to drop mid-year, but didn’t last long as fears of East Coast and Gulf Coast ports strikes loomed.”

Many importers made it through the inventory they stockpiled through the early COVID years, so shipping became much more stable and predictable. In some senses this was the first “normal” year we’ve seen since 2020.

That said, there were a few larger events that played a role in the rate spikes. The Red Sea crisis, which has been covered extensively throughout the year, caused a stir early in the year and never really went away. This caused shippers to hike rates and consider alternative routes, but didn’t overly impact the market. The brief dockworker strike also caused temporary spikes and congestion in the U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports, but those didn’t have any long-term effects on the market, either.

Ongoing conflict in the Middle East has spilled into the Red Sea and has been impacting trade and shipping routes since late 2023. This has included multiple attacks by Houthi rebels on passing cargo ships in 2024. The fear of further attacks caused carriers to reconsider much of their routing and plans for shipments.

Many carriers chose to use alternate shipping lanes to protect their cargo and personnel. As expected, new routes generally led to longer travel times and delays to cargo. Considering the intricate web of global logistics, this had a ripple effect on other shipments across the globe.

Longer transit times caused vessel schedules to get out of sync, leading to disruptions across the global supply chain. Markets that would never use the Red Sea felt the reverberations of the delays as they were made to wait for vessels to complete their previous trips before re-loading cargo and setting forth on subsequent trips. As one might expect, these factors also led to increased rates from carriers looking to protect their businesses.

The other major event in the United States was the very public negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) as they sought to renew their master contract. The ILA covers dockworkers at every unionized port along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts. When the two sides were ultimately unable to agree on a new contract, the ILA workers went on a brief strike until a temporary wage agreement brought them back to work. However, even a three-day strike was enough to cause some disruptions to shipments and supply chains.

The biggest shift we saw out of this was more freight being rerouted to the west coast of the U.S. to avoid any potential disruptions. As the negotiation deadline got closer, we saw more and more carriers prioritize the west coast to try to avoid any substantial delays should the strike have occurred for a longer period. We saw standard rate surcharges and spikes as a response to the threat of a strike, but overall, we can be relieved that we didn’t see more disruption as a result of the contentious and largely unsuccessful contract negotiations.