Shipping & Logistics
How the world's goods move, and what happens when the passages close: the ships and their cargoes, the chokepoints and their keepers, the container lines and their rates, dry bulk and tankers, the shadow fleet, ports and shipyards, flags, crews, and insurance, air, rail, and road, what freight costs, the fuels, and the geopolitics of a system that carries most of the world's trade. Brought to October: Hormuz crippled since the Iran war began on February 28, the container lines' return to Suez after nearly three years around Africa, Panama's drought slots, the Rhine at a record low, the port fees on Chinese ships due back on November 10 unless extended, and the vote on a global carbon price for ships on December 4. Where the field argues, over boarding shadow tankers, automating ports, the Jones Act and America's yards, a global carbon price, and how far to separate from China's maritime system, each side makes its case before the evidence. Four worked examples: what it costs to move a television, the economics of a 24,000-TEU ship, what the Red Sea closure cost and earned, and a container of bookcases from Vietnam to Chicago.