Month in Review – December 2025

Maritime

December 1: Overcapacity Paradox Leading to Two-Tier Container Market – Seatrade Maritime News

Global trade has expanded faster than was anticipated two years ago according to some observers, leading to an easing of the imbalance between supply and demand in the container industry.

That view is, however, tested by a more detailed look at the capacity statistics, which show a much more nuanced situation that could lead to a two-tier container shipping market as manufacturing companies diversify their production sites and the east-west trades become less important in the future.

In addition, Antonella Teodoro, an analyst at MDS Transmodal, has identified a Red Sea fleet paradox that is developing, with an overcapacity in the larger vessels and shortages in the smaller sizes.

December 1: Port of Montreal Expansion Project in Contrecœur: Next Steps Announced – TVRS (translated from French)

Next steps in the Port of Montreal expansion project in Contrecœur were announced on December 1 at a press conference organized by the South Shore Chamber of Commerce in the City of Contrecœur with key stakeholders in the project.

Preparatory water projects began on October 8 and are expected to continue until next summer.

Following that, in-water works will begin and continue until 2029. These will include, among other things, construction of the wharf wall, all access road work, and dredging. Several dredging seasons will be scheduled starting in 2027. Between dredging seasons, piling work will be the primary focus. This will be followed by land-based and related work.

December 1: DCSA Releases Universal API for Arrival Notices – Port Technology International

The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) has published its Arrival Notice 1.0.0 Standard, introducing a universal API to replace today’s manual processes for distributing arrival notices.

As a trigger for release and delivery processes, an arrival notice plays a central role in import operations, and yet, today, these notices are typically distributed as PDFs by email, leading to errors, delays and costly disputes across the supply chain.

The new DCSA standard defines arrival notices as structured data that can be exchanged machine-to-machine via API. It is designed for global use, supporting multiple languages and country-specific content requirements while maintaining a consistent data model.

By replacing PDFs with structured data, the standard enables automatic confirmation of receipt, reduces manual rework and monitoring, and removes inconsistencies across carriers and geographies.

It reportedly simplifies system integration, improves timeliness and accuracy, and helps reduce financial disputes on storage, detention and demurrage charges caused by late or missing arrival notices.

December 2: South Africa Plans to Prosecute Container Carriers for Price Fixing – The Maritime Executive

South Africa’s Competition Commission has referred a case of alleged collusion and price fixing against eight of the world’s largest container carriers to its Tribunal for prosecution. The case alleges that, for over a decade, the carriers conducted a price-fixing scheme.

The referral names eight shipping companies: MSC Mediterranean Shipping, Maersk, CMA CGM, Pacific International Lines, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Evergreen, COSCO and K Line.

The Commission says the price fixing took place between 2008 and 2018 and was implemented through the fixing of rates called general rate increase. During its investigation, it says the eight companies were found to have charged the same general rate increase for the routes from Shanghai, Ningbo and Shekou to Durban, as well as from Durban to Hong Kong, and between Durban and Qingdao. Durban is the country’s primary container port, handling the vast majority of imports and exports.

December 3: Port of Vancouver Launches New Dashboard to Boost Supply Chain Visibility – Inside Logistics

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority has launched an open-access, web-based dashboard designed to provide real-time insights into intermodal cargo movements, a move the port authority says will help strengthen supply chain resilience and day-to-day coordination at Canada’s largest port.

The port authority says the tool offers a dozen metrics related to train, vessel and container truck performance, updated daily with up to two years of historical data. The dashboard is intended to help users identify trends, allocate resources more efficiently and better anticipate delays or disruptions.

December 5: Global Liners Look at Acquiring ZIM – Splash

Hapag-Lloyd is seeking to acquire ZIM, Israel’s largest container carrier, according to multiple media outlets, but the move is already running into resistance from ZIM’s workers’ committee, which has warned that the presence of Qatari and Saudi sovereign funds among the German carrier’s shareholders could pose a national security risk.

Hapag-Lloyd’s main shareholders are German billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne and Chilean shipping group CSAV, each holding around 30%. They are followed by the City of Hamburg with roughly 14%, Qatar’s state investment authority with about 12.5%, and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund with close to 10%.

Other global liners, including Mediterranean Shipping Co and Maersk, have also been linked to potential interest in ZIM.

Late last month, the ZIM board rejected an offer by ZIM CEO Eli Glickman and Ray Car Carriers head Rami Ungar to acquire the company at a $2.4-billion valuation. ZIM said at the time that it had formed a team to examine strategic alternatives regarding the company’s future.

December 6: CMA CGM Set to Become First Major Shipping Line to Resume Full Service Route Via Suez Canal – Marine Insight

French shipping giant CMA CGM is preparing to resume a full service loop through the Suez Canal and Red Sea, becoming the first major carrier to formally restore one of its east–west routes since Houthi attacks forced global container lines to divert around the Cape of Good Hope last year.

The company confirmed that its INDAMEX service, which connects India, Pakistan and the U.S. East Coast, will again transit the Suez Canal on both fronthaul and backhaul legs. The first vessel to make the complete loop will be CMA CGM VERDI, sailing from Karachi to New York on January 15.

Xeneta’s Chief Analyst Peter Sand said that this decision is a positive development but does not mean the industry is ready for an immediate large-scale return to the Red Sea. He explained that carriers, especially CMA CGM, had been trying out limited Suez transits in recent months, mainly on backhaul voyages to Asia when ships had less cargo onboard.

December 15: Carriers Weigh Insurance as They Cautiously Reroute Back Through the Red Sea – Transport & Logistics Middle East

Major container lines are beginning to edge back toward the Suez Canal and Red Sea routes, but a sharp focus on insurance costs is shaping how – and how fast – that return will happen.

After more than two years of near-continuous disruptions tied to attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea, several carriers have announced partial resumptions of Suez transits.

France’s CMA CGM has publicly stated it will restore full-loop transits on some services, trimming voyages by up to two weeks compared with the long detour around the Cape of Good Hope.

But carriers including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are adopting a measured approach, saying route decisions will be driven by evolving risk assessments and insurance cover rather than timetable pressure alone.

At the heart of the calculations are war-risk premiums and broader hull and freight insurance costs.

December 16: Container Shipping Faces Oversupply Threat as Record Newbuild Orders Reshape Industry – gCaptain

The global containership industry is bracing for potential market upheaval as the orderbook has swelled to 11.61 million TEU, representing 34.8% of the current fleet, a level that extends well beyond routine fleet replacement needs, according to maritime intelligence firm Linerlytica.

The surge comes on the back of an unprecedented ordering spree in 2025, with carriers placing orders for 633 ships totaling 5.08 million TEU, surpassing previous records set in 2021 and 2024.

Linerlytica says this aggressive expansion “raises the spectre of over-supply in the next 4 years.” The concern centres on whether cargo demand will keep pace with the massive influx of new capacity scheduled for delivery through 2029.

December 17: Carney Wants to Double Non-U.S. Exports, But Canadian Ports Will Struggle to Keep Pace – Unpublished

If the road to Canadian prosperity is to now be built on growing exports to markets other than the United States, as Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed, a major new pothole may need attention.

There was already the existing challenge that diversifying exports is inherently difficult to do. Buyers in any region of the world already have existing suppliers for most of the goods they need, and those vendors have been chosen for good reasons: price, quality, transportation networks, trust, language and, as in the case of Canada and the U.S., geographical proximity.

But a recent announcement from one of Canada’s most successful natural resources exporters, saying that future exports will soon be shipped to overseas markets from a port in the state of Washington instead of Canada’s west coast, has raised fresh questions about whether some key Canadian ports even have the capacity to handle any more of those diversified goods. Any bottlenecks or other inefficiencies would only be magnified if exporters are able to hit Carney’s recent target that Canada will double non-U.S. exports over the next decade.

December 18: Premier Alliance Quietly Shifting to Hub and Spoke Network – Seatrade Maritime News

Premier Alliance, comprising Ocean Network Express, Yang Ming and HMM, is looking to shift to a service offering that improves reliability with a concentration of calls in key hubs.

Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, said that the carriers are “streamlining” service offerings in an attempt to improve their very poor reliability.

“New service updates will see the alliance call at more ports directly, so it looks more like a hub and spoke network without actually being it,” said Sand, “They are looking to bridge the gap to service level improvements because schedule reliability can’t get any worse than now.”

Air

December 22: Labour and Skills Shortage: The Silent Airfreight Constraint Heading into 2026 – Air Cargo Week

Airfreight across the Americas is facing a growing labour and skills shortage heading into 2026, with staffing gaps in ground handling, pilots and air-traffic control increasingly constraining operations despite rising demand.

Workforce shortfalls are causing slower cargo processing, longer aircraft turnarounds, air-traffic control disruptions and clearance delays, highlighted by tower closures in Canada and widespread delays during the 2025 U.S. government shutdown.

Industry responses focus on rebuilding the workforce pipeline through training, recruitment and credential portability, but human expertise remains the critical limiting factor, as automation cannot fully replace skilled air-cargo labour.

Trucking

December 1: Government of Canada Undertakes Inspection Blitz to Crack Down on Driver Misclassification in Trucking – Employment and Social Development Canada press release

The Government of Canada is protecting Canadian workers by cracking down on misclassification in the federally regulated road transportation sector with an inspection blitz in Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area, in the coming weeks.

Worker misclassification happens when a worker is categorized as an independent contractor when they should be an employee. This is an illegal practice under the Canada Labour Code that strips workers of their rights to minimum wage, paid leaves, and occupational health and safety protections. It also prevents workers from accessing Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan. Misclassification also undermines responsible employers who follow the rules, creating unfair competition in the trucking sector.

The blitz will focus on identifying non-compliance with federal labour standards and workplace health and safety requirements. When misclassification is suspected, the Labour Program will follow up with a full investigation and swiftly issue penalties when violations are found.

Information collected during the blitz will be shared with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to support more coordinated enforcement efforts.

December 3: ATRI: Pre-Crash Negligence Triples Trucking Company Liability in U.S. – FreightWaves

Higher jury awards against trucking companies involved in U.S. road accidents are no longer driven primarily by crash severity but by pre-crash negligence, according to the latest research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI).

ATRI’s Trucking Litigation: A Forensic Analysis, released on December 3, found that allegations related to a carrier’s organizational failures now carry financial multipliers that exceed most on-road infractions, marking a shift in plaintiff strategy since ATRI’s 2020 report on nuclear verdicts in trucking.

December 4: U.S. FMCSA’s New Motus Registration System Rolling Out in 2026 – FreightWaves

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is rolling out Motus, a new registration system designed to replace the agency’s decades-old platform, offering what it calls “a more intuitive, user-friendly experience.” Supporting companies will get limited access in December 2025, with full rollout to all users planned for 2026.

Motus represents FMCSA’s attempt to drag motor carrier registration into the 21st century. The current system forces users to navigate multiple disconnected platforms, fill out redundant forms and wait weeks for paper processing.

The new system consolidates FMCSA forms into a single online platform. Carriers will manage everything from one company account page. Mobile devices can view and update registration information on the go. Real-time data validation, auto-population tools and smart logic aim to prevent errors before submission rather than rejecting forms weeks later.

December 4: CRA Strengthens Compliance in Trucking Sector by Lifting the Moratorium on T4A Penalties – CRA press release

Tax non-compliance in the trucking sector has allowed some companies to avoid tax obligations, undercutting compliant competitors and denying workers the benefits and pensions they have earned.

To restore fairness, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is making changes to improve compliance in the trucking industry.

As of December 4, the CRA has lifted the moratorium on penalties for failing to report fees for services for the 2025 tax year and subsequent tax years. Businesses in this sector will now be assessed penalties if they fail to report payments for services exceeding $500 in a calendar year that are made to a Canadian-controlled private corporation in the trucking industry. These payments must be reported to the CRA in box 048 – fees for services – of the T4A slip by February 28, 2026.

December 8: Canadian Truck Drivers Are Also Worrying Americans – La Presse (translated from French)

The Trump administration believes Canada must do more to combat unlicensed truck drivers at a time when it is cracking down on them within its own borders. It is concerned about the risk posed by these incompetent and poorly supervised truck drivers, both to the safety of Americans and to the future of their own trucking industry.

“We continue to monitor this situation closely and hope to see further progress,” a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Canada said.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) last week closed the tax loophole that was at the root of the scourge of discount drivers, as Finance and National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne had indicated in October.

According to the U.S. embassy, this announcement “is a step in the right direction,” but it is not “a magic bullet” to solve the problem of low-wage drivers. Further, “solving the tax issue does not resolve the problems related to driver training,” argues the American diplomat.

December 11: Flooding Shuts Major Highways Between B.C.’s Lower Mainland and Interior – TruckNews.com

Flooding and rockslides have cut off British Columbia’s Lower Mainland from the Interior as a series of atmospheric river weather systems drench the province.

B.C. Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene told a news conference late on December 10 that people should avoid all unnecessary travel to the Fraser Valley, where regional officials earlier declared a state of local emergency.

“We need people to stay off the roads for safety and to ensure roads are clear for people who need to evacuate,” Green said.

December 11: 30 State Attorneys General Say Brokers Not Protected Under ‘Safety Exception’ – FreightWaves

It isn’t often you find Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the same side of an issue. But that pairing and numerous others that cross the political divide among the attorneys general of red and blue states and the District of Columbia can be found over the issue of broker liability.

There are 29 Attorneys General who signed their names on to an amici curiae brief filed this week in the case of Montgomery vs. Caribe. That is the case before the Supreme Court expected to yield a legal precedent over whether the safety exception found in the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, known as F4A, can bring in a broker as a defendant in legal actions like a tort.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is the lead AG in the filing, which makes a total of 30 AGs on the brief.

And what do the Attorneys General want? Based on the brief, they want a finding by the Supreme Court that brokers do not have protection from state tort action under the safety exception of F4A.

December 23: 30 Days to Comply: FMCSA Details Truck Broker Trustee Purge – FreightWaves

The U.S. trucking industry has known since late 2023 that a major shakeup was coming for truck broker financial responsibility, but the exact mechanics of how the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would handle non-compliant trust providers remained a mystery.

New guidance has provided answers, including establishing a strict 30-day “compliance clock” for brokers caught using ineligible trustees.

Starting January 16, FMCSA will begin verifying that all BMC-85 trust providers meet updated federal requirements. If the agency determines a provider is no longer eligible to hold these funds – if they lack Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance or proper state charters, for example – every broker relying on that provider will be notified.

Once that notification is sent, the stakes are high:

• 30-day replacement window: Brokers have exactly 30 days to secure a replacement filing from a qualified surety or trust provider.
• Mandatory electronic transition: Any replacement filing must be submitted electronically via the FMCSA Registration System to automatically replace the old, non-compliant bond.
• Immediate suspension: If a compliant filing isn’t in the system by the end of that 30-day window, the broker’s operating authority will be suspended.

Rail

December 22: U.S. to Enforce English Language Proficiency Among Rail Crews – American Journal of Transportation

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is cracking down on cross-border train operators who lack basic English language proficiency to make rail operations safer in the U.S.

In conducting routine regulatory oversight of cross-border operations this past fall on Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CPKC) and Union Pacific Railroad (UP), FRA inspectors discovered instances in which inbound crew members appeared to have difficulty interpreting General Track Bulletins and communicating safety requirements in English with inspectors.

December 30: Competing Railroads Claim UP-NS Merger Application Omits Key Information – FreightWaves

Other Class I railroads have found no shortage of deficiencies in the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application and are urging the Surface Transportation Board to reject the document for its failure to address key aspects of the transcontinental combination.

Comments from interested parties on the completeness of the application were due on December 29. They do not address the merger itself, but whether the board should send the 6,692-page application back to UP and NS for more information. UP and NS filed the application on December 19.

The other railroads were particularly critical that the application does not include the full UP-NS merger agreement. They also criticize its analysis of potential mergers that could follow the UP-NS transaction, and what they say is incomplete analysis of the merger’s effects on competition.

CIFFA Advocacy, Communications, Activities

December 3 – CIFFA Participates in Hill Days in Ottawa

CIFFA’s Director, Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Julia Kuzeljevich, and Government Relations Lead Advisor, Ben Martin, attended the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Hill Days in Ottawa on December 1 and 2. Hill Day is the Canadian Chamber’s annual gathering, bringing together Chamber network, business and trade association leaders to meet with federal decision-makers on key issues affecting Canadian businesses and the economy.

Participants heard from senior officials, including a fireside chat with Dominic LeBlanc, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Internal Trade, and Minister responsible for Canada–U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy.

A pundits panel featured:

• Fred De Lorey – Chair, Chief Strategy Officer, North Star Public Affairs
• Garry Keller – Vice President, StrategyCorp
• Tyler Meredith – Partner, Meredith Boessenkool Policy Advisors
• Mélanie Richer – Principal, Earnscliffe Strategies

CIFFA representatives also participated in roundtables for government-relations professionals in supply chain-related industries. Topics included red tape reduction, infrastructure needs, digitalization, standards, major projects and the need for concrete data vs anecdotes. Those sessions were led by:

• Arun Thangaraj, Deputy Minister of Transport Canada
• Erin O’Gorman, President of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Cathy Toxopeus, Director General at the CBSA

The program included a fireside chat with Kirsten Hillman, Ambassador of Canada to the United States, and a luncheon keynote address by Jason Kenney, Senior Advisor at Bennett Jones and former Premier of Alberta.