Wednesday, October 21, 2026
The news that moves freight
The Freight Brief Oct 20, 2026

What’s going on in freight — Tuesday 20 October 2026

War in the Gulf is still setting the pace: Hormuz attacks are rising, Riyadh’s airport is shut, and Iraq-bound cargo is being trucked in from Aqaba. Elsewhere, container rates have stopped falling for now, but a Suez return date, a record orderbook and new US customs rules all point to change in 2027.

War, chokepoints and disruption

  • UKMTO logged 12 attacks on ships in the week to 17 October, 10 of them in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran said mines stopped three more tankers on 20 October. The White House says it will not attack Iran before the 3 November midterms and that its blockade stays “in full force and effect”. (Anadolu/aNews, Al Arabiya, Fox News) [01]
  • Super Typhoon Champi, with 230 km/h winds, is due to pass east of Zhoushan on Sunday 25 October, and bunkering at two outer Zhoushan anchorages stopped on 20 October. Expect moved cut-offs and rollovers at Shanghai and Ningbo. (ENGINE, City News Service) [05]
  • Riyadh airport was still closed on 20 October, when another Houthi missile aimed at the city was intercepted. Rotate data cited by The Loadstar shows Riyadh’s cargo capacity down 99%, and Etihad has cancelled its Saudi flights through 24 October. (The Loadstar, Gulf News) [06]
  • Transit cargo at Jordan’s Aqaba port reached 1.8m tonnes in January to September, against 38,900 tonnes a year earlier, though 1.67m tonnes of that was grain. Transit containers rose 151.8% to 115,762, many of them trucked about 760km into Iraq. (Splash247, Zawya/Reuters) [13]
  • The 11,923-TEU Espirito Santo Express was abandoned after a fire in the South Atlantic on its way from Singapore to Santos. MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and ONE all had cargo aboard, so shippers should prepare for a possible general average claim. (WorldCargo News, Seatrade Maritime) [15]

Rates and markets

  • Drewry’s World Container Index rose 3% to $4,485 per 40ft on 15 October, its first rise after three weekly falls, and Shanghai–Rotterdam rose 6% to $3,522. The SCFI barely moved, up 15.47 points. (Drewry, Eastmoney/Xinhua Finance) [04]
  • Hapag-Lloyd’s CEO expects nearly all Gemini services back through Suez during Q1 2027, and a new China–west Med loop sails from Shanghai on 22 November. (The Loadstar) [03]
  • The container ship orderbook has reached a record 16.2m teu, or 46.5% of today’s fleet, after MSC ordered 20 ships of 24,000 teu and HMM ordered eight of 13,000 teu. (Seatrade Maritime, Splash247) [09]
  • US diesel rose 9.7 cents to $6.276 a gallon in the week of 19 October, its first rise in four weeks. Werner cut its Q3 guidance to 15–16 cents a share, against a 36-cent consensus. (EIA, FreightWaves) [10]

Tariffs, customs and policy

  • A family-run food importer sued on 20 October to overturn the 50% Section 338 tariffs on about $20bn of Canadian goods. The suit asks for refunds for a class of importers. (Supply Chain Dive, Reason) [07]
  • CBP moved the Entry Type 13 mail deadline from 22 October to 20 January 2027. Its 8 October proposal would make Type 11 low-value entries due on or before arrival, where in CBP’s own sample only 27% were filed that fast. (STR Trade Report, The Loadstar) [08]
  • The EU expects to charge €2 for each product category in a parcel from outside the bloc from 1 November, on top of the €3 duty in place since July. Air spot rates are already 34% above last year at $3.55/kg. (The Loadstar, Air Cargo Week) [11]

Forwarders, carriers and deals

  • DSV reports Q3 on the morning of 21 October and Kuehne+Nagel on 22 October. DHL has already lifted its 2026 operating-profit forecast to more than EUR 7bn. (Kuehne+Nagel, FreightWaves) [02]
  • Oman will not extend the Salalah port concession past 1 November 2028. APM Terminals owns 30% of the operator, and 16 of the hub’s 18 liner services involve Maersk or Hapag-Lloyd. (The Loadstar) [12]
  • About 400 Zim employees protested in Tel Aviv on 20 October against Hapag-Lloyd’s $4.2bn takeover, which now needs a revised proposal for Israel’s review. (Times of Israel, FreightWaves) [14]

Software, AI and automation

  • WiseTech Global linked three of its US drayage dispatch systems to Dray Dog, which books open marine-terminal truck appointments automatically, starting at LA and Long Beach. (WiseTech Global, The Loadstar) [16]
  • Pentagon Freight Services is extending AI vendor Ripple from its UK customs work to Jebel Ali. Werner says Graypool’s software “automates the large majority of our tender decisions.” The performance figures are company claims. (The Loadstar, GlobeNewswire) [17]

Coming up

  • 21 October: DSV Q3 results, with a call at 11:00 CEST [02]
  • 22 October: Kuehne+Nagel Q3 results, at 06:45 [02]
  • 24 October: Etihad’s Saudi flight cancellations run to this date [06]
  • 25 October: Typhoon Champi due to pass east of Zhoushan [05]
  • 27 October: Werner and UPS Q3 results [02] [10]
  • 1 November: EU €2 parcel handling fee expected to start [11]
  • 3 November: US midterm elections; Expeditors Q3 results [01] [02]
  • 5 November: DHL Group full Q3 report [02]
  • 22 November: first sailing of Gemini’s new China–west Med loop, the Maersk Edirne from Shanghai [03]
  • 7 December: comments close on CBP’s low-value shipments proposal [08]
  • 20 January 2027: Entry Type 13 for international mail becomes mandatory [08]