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This podcast is a new home for anyone with a professional interest in international trade, shipping, procurement, logistics and air cargo. Each episode your host, award-winning journalist Mike King, will be speaking to leading decision-makers, analysts, journalists, operators and shippers to get their take on current freight and logistics markets and the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Latest Episodes

Air Cargo Unpacked: Liege E-commerce Forum Takeaways, Miami Disaster, Freighter Orders, Oman Air’s Mike Duggan

September 15, 2026 richard Podcast 00:40:57 Comments Off on Air Cargo Unpacked: Liege E-commerce Forum Takeaways, Miami Disaster, Freighter Orders, Oman Air’s Mike Duggan

Reporting live from the EU Cross-Border E-commerce Forum in Liège this month, Mike King and Neel Jones Shah break down why EU e-commerce demand has stalled following new de minimis rules, drawing on conversations with regulators and industry figures at the forum, plus fresh data from Rotate. They also cover...

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Agentic AI and Supply Chain Resilience, with e2open’s Pawan Joshi, Northeastern’s Nada Sanders and Andre Simha (ex-MSC)

September 9, 2026 richard Podcast 01:19:11 Comments Off on Agentic AI and Supply Chain Resilience, with e2open’s Pawan Joshi, Northeastern’s Nada Sanders and Andre Simha (ex-MSC)

Disruption is now the baseline for global trade, not the exception. This episode looks at what real resilience takes on the ground, how technology fits in as decision infrastructure, and covers agentic AI, including who's accountable when it gets the call wrong. Mike King speaks with three guests who...

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Who’s Really to Blame for Port Congestion? Drewry’s Eleanor Hadland on Capacity, Carriers and the Hormuz Scramble

September 2, 2026 richard Podcast 00:37:58 Comments Off on Who’s Really to Blame for Port Congestion? Drewry’s Eleanor Hadland on Capacity, Carriers and the Hormuz Scramble

Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc says ports are to blame for the congestion hitting shippers this year. But ocean carriers now control nearly half the world's marine terminals, so how much of this is really down to a lack of port investment, and how much comes back to the carriers...

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What People are Saying About Our Podcast

Since being on the Freight Buyers’ Club I have been receiving great responses!
Susan Williams
Founder, Kalalou
…insightful initial contribution to the industry’s public discourse
Wolfgang Lehmacher
Board Member, Executive Advisor & Ex-World Economic Forum Director of Supply Chain
Important conversations at a critical moment for global trade.
Jeffrey Shih
CEO, Dimerco Express Group
Such insightful speakers and great content, Mike. You are one of my essential listens!
Brandon Fried
Executive Director, The Airforwarders Association
I loved, loved loved this last podcast.  So good to just learn more about how your area operates but also to hear perspectives.
Seham Lewis
Supply Chain Expert, USAF Veteran
Topical, timely and an awesome cast of experts.
Drew Fobbester
Chief Prejector, The Internet of Transit

Latest Videos

The Freight Buyers' Club

6.1K subscribers
The Freight Buyers' Club
#AirCargo #AirFreight #OmanAir Reporting live from the EU Cross-Border E-commerce Forum in Liège this month, Mike King and Neel Jones Shah break down why EU e-commerce demand has stalled following new de minimis rules, drawing on conversations with regulators and industry figures at the forum, plus fresh data from Rotate. They also cover a new US Customs and Border Protection disclosure proposal and a companion trade crimes bill working through Congress, a fresh wave of freighter orders from Ethiopian Airlines, Afcom and MSC Air Cargo, and the runway accident involving an Amazon Prime Air flight at Miami International. Neil Wilson of TAC Index, calculating agent for the Baltic Air Freight Indices, joins with his monthly rates analysis and peak season outlook. In the second half, Mike Duggan, Head of Cargo at Oman Air, joins to talk through rebuilding Oman Air's cargo business after a turbulent year in the Gulf, Muscat's rise as a logistics hub, and his read on where the market goes next. Comes packed with new graphics, maps and animations to help make sense of it all. #SupplyChain #Logistics

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Air Cargo Unpacked: E-commerce Takeaways, Miami Disaster, Freighter Orders, Oman Air's Mike Duggan

Brandon Fried says the tracking technology built to protect shipments has now been hijacked by cargo thieves. Using geofencing tricks, criminals can make a stolen load look like it's still on route, even as it disappears. On the latest Air Cargo Unpacked, from The Freight Buyers' Club Podcast. #AirCargo #CargoTheft #Logistics #Shorts

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Your Cargo Tracker Says It's Fine. It's Not

#AirCargo #SupplyChain #Logistics Air cargo growth is running at 5.8% this year, but according to Maarten Wormer, head of consulting at Aevean, that headline figure hides two very different stories pulling the market in opposite directions. Transpacific eastbound trade from Asia to the US is up 24% so far this year, driven largely by hyperscaler data centre related air freight. Wormer cites 107,000 tonnes moved to the US in July alone, the equivalent of around 33 freighter flights a day. At the same time, EU e-commerce volumes fell 29% in July, following a new fee on low-value shipments that took effect at the start of the month, with France hit hardest. Platforms including Temu and AliExpress have dropped out of Europe's app store top 100 rankings and shifted advertising spend to other markets, including Brazil. Filmed at the EU Cross-Border E-commerce Forum (EUCBEC) in Liège, Belgium.

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What's Really Driving Air Cargo Growth Right Now

#AgenticAI #SupplyChain Andre Simha (former digital transformation chief at MSC), Pawan Joshi (Chief Strategy Officer, e2open) and Nada Sanders (Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University) each answer the same question: if agentic AI adoption in supply chains was a 90 minute football match, what minute are we actually in? Nada Sanders says kickoff has already happened, but puts the industry at around the 10th minute, with most teams still figuring out formation. Her bigger concern isn't the maturity curve itself. It's that as companies lean more on AI, they risk losing the human expertise and relationships needed to negotiate and make the right call under pressure. Pawan Joshi frames it as a team sport. Individually, he says, people are already using AI, maybe 10 to 15 minutes in. But there's no real choreography yet, no shared way for a business to move as a team rather than a collection of individuals. He compares it to learning to play an entirely different game once you can communicate in new ways altogether. Andre Simha lands on a similar estimate, but for a different reason. He's blunt about the limits of trust: would you really let a machine reroute a ship or approve a payment without a human checking it first? Not yet. He argues the industry needs more pilots, built on good data, before anyone hands real decisions over to an algorithm. From there the conversation turns to where agentic AI will actually create value over the next two to three years, and a harder question underneath all of it: when an autonomous system gets something wrong, who's accountable? Watch the full episode of The Freight Buyers' Club for more from Andre, Pawan and Nada on disruption, resilience and technology in global supply chains.

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The Football Analogy That Shows Where Agentic AI Really Stands

Neel Jones Shah on why air cargo rates aren't crashing the way they used to. Asset owners have gotten smarter about pricing, and the days of dropping rates to $2 out of Asia, not even enough to cover fuel, are over. A more disciplined, less boom-and-bust industry. On the latest Air Cargo Unpacked, from The Freight Buyers' Club Podcast. #AirCargo #FreightRates #Logistics #Shorts

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Air Cargo Used to Race to $2. Not Anymore.

Brandon Fried says his members are telling him the story of 2026 is AI equipment moving in and out of data centres. Servers that are barely a year old are already being swapped out for the next generation, and someone has to move that freight. On the latest Air Cargo Unpacked, from The Freight Buyers' Club Podcast. #AirCargo #DataCentres #AI #Logistics #Shorts

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AI is The Big Driver of Air Cargo Markets

# shipping #logtech #logistics #supplychain Disruption is now the baseline for global trade, not the exception. In this episode, Mike King brings together three guests who each look at that shift from a different vantage point: someone who spent decades at the top of one of the world's largest shipping lines, someone building the technology platform that connects the entire trade supply chain, and someone who studies how organizations actually make decisions under pressure. The panel gets into what real resilience looks like when it's built into a network, not added on after the fact. They talk about how much decision-making can and should go to technology, and where the limits are. One segment covers agentic AI specifically. It's the shift from AI that tells you what's happening to AI that decides and acts on its own. The panel weighs the pros and cons of letting it execute decisions in freight, and who's accountable when it gets the call wrong. The episode closes with each guest's read on who wins and who loses as the industry keeps adapting to disruption as the constant. Guests Pawan Joshi is Chief Strategy Officer at e2open, which became part of the $2 billion WiseTech Global group last year, after more than two decades building the company's supply chain platform. Nada Sanders is Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, ranked among the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Stanford, and author of The Humachine. Andre Simha spent nearly 39 years at MSC, the world's largest shipping line, the last five and a half as its digital transformation chief, and chaired the Digital Container Shipping Association for seven years. 0:00 Why Disruption Is Now the Baseline for Trade 2:02 Meet the Panel 4:35 Firefighting vs Preventing Supply Chain Risk 7:05 Planning for a Range of Futures, Not One Plan 9:20 Inside the Ocean Shipping Index 11:15 The COVID Lead Time Failure 14:05 Supply Chain Visibility vs Early Warning 17:00 Three Practices for Earlier Risk Detection 19:05 The Human Machine and the Unilever Example 23:30 AI Vendor Promises and Where the Human Role Shifts 28:35 Supply Chains Built for a 50 to 70 Year Old World 32:10 The Cold Chain Example and Closing the Loop 36:50 Why e2open and CargoWise Came Together 44:30 Trust, Not Standards, Is the Real Barrier 47:10 Digital Supply Chain Standards and the Adoption Problem 52:00 Agentic AI vs the Blockchain Evangelists 56:00 Agentic AI and the Football Match Maturity Question 62:00 Who's Accountable When Agentic AI Gets It Wrong 69:00 What's Not Being Taken Seriously 73:10 Closing Predictions, Reasons for Optimism

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Who's Accountable When AI Gets the Supply Chain Call Wrong?

Brandon Fried on how the Pan Am 103 bombing became the foundation of modern cargo security, from the Known Shipper Program to today's canine screening with the TSA and CBP. As a Syracuse University graduate, the tragedy that killed 35 of his fellow students gave him what he calls a higher calling to keep cargo moving safely and securely. On the latest Air Cargo Unpacked, from The Freight Buyers' Club Podcast. #AirCargo #AviationSecurity #Logistics #Shorts

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The Crash That Changed Air Cargo Security Forever

When supply chains are disrupted, carrier profits tend to spike. And carriers now own almost fifty percent of the world's container terminals. So why would they be in a hurry to fix congestion? I put that to Eleanor Hadland, who leads ports and terminals research at Drewry, on the new episode of The Freight Buyers' Club. Her answer is blunt. Full episode out now on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or at thefreightbuyersclub.com. Produced with the support of Dimerco Express Group, https://dimerco.com. #PortCongestion #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub

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Why Would Container Lines Ever Fix Port Congestion?

Maersk's CEO says lack of investment by ports is largely to blame for congestion at key gateways. But box shipping lines now own nearly half the world's container terminals, so is this really a port problem, or a carrier problem? Mike King is joined by Eleanor Hadland, who leads Drewry's ports and terminals research, to pick apart Vincent Clerc's claims about port underinvestment. Then they take a tour of the world's maritime bottlenecks: Shanghai and Ningbo, Europe's struggling hubs, the fifteen billion dollar scramble to build ports around the Strait of Hormuz, Panama Canal water levels, and West Africa's investment paradox. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group for supporting this episode, the best partner if you need a shipping or air cargo solution on the transpacific trades and beyond. Subscribe for more freight and supply chain conversations every week, and help us hit 10,000 YouTube subscribers. #Shipping #SupplyChain #Ports #Maersk #Logistics 0:00 Maersk's Vincent Clerc blames ports for the shipping delays and congestion 1:00 Eleanor Hadland on Drewry's ports and terminals research and her career at Associated British Ports 3:00 Does Vincent Clerc's claim about 15 years of port underinvestment stack up 8:00 Ocean carriers own 45% of global marine terminals, are carriers profiting from the congestion they blame on ports 12:00 Port congestion in Shanghai, Ningbo and Southeast Asia, new terminals at Tuas, Port Klang and Pasir Panjang 14:00 Port congestion in Rotterdam, Antwerp and Europe, low water on the Rhine and labour shortages 18:00 Jebel Ali and the Strait of Hormuz closure, can Dubai's ports ever fully recover 19:00 The $15 billion race to build ports at Khorfakkan, Fujairah, Jeddah and Oman 26:00 US port investment at Savannah, Baltimore and Long Beach, plus Mexico's Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo 27:00 Panama Canal low water and how it is shifting container routing to the US East Coast 31:00 Port congestion in West Africa, Tema, Lome and the Durban Gateway Terminal in South Africa 34:00 Eleanor Hadland's three things shippers should watch over the next two years 35:00 Does chronic port underinvestment actually make Maersk more money

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Why Maersk's CEO Was Wrong About Port Investment

Mark Chadwick, President of the Global Shippers' Association, calls out profiteering on both the carrier and forwarder side of the market, and explains why some partners simply won't make the cut going forward. This is a clip from the full episode of The Freight Buyers' Club. Check us out on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group (https://dimerco.com/) for sponsoring the show. #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub #OceanFreight #Logistics #FreightForwarding #GlobalTrade

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A Major Freight Buyer Calls Out Profiteering in Shipping

Nils Roche (Solvens Advisory) and Mark Chadwick (Global Shippers' Association) close out the episode with a quick-fire round: three things each of them is watching for the rest of 2026 and into 2027. From a looming IMO fuel levy and a forecast "Godzilla" El Niño, to how carriers are starting to differentiate themselves, to the ongoing risk from the Red Sea and Europe's water levels, here's what two shipping insiders are keeping an eye on next. This is a clip from the full episode of The Freight Buyers' Club. Check us out on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group for sponsoring the show. #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub #OceanFreight #Logistics #ElNino #GlobalTrade

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Shipping Leaders vs The Future: What to Watch for 2027

Supply doesn't matter anymore, only demand does. In this clip, Nils Roche, former container line executive at CMA CGM, Maersk and PIL and now Founder of Solvens Advisory, explains why the old supply-and-demand model for container shipping rates has broken down, and why he believes carriers won't lose money again over a full year. This is a clip from the full episode of The Freight Buyers' Club. Check us out on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group for sponsoring the show. https://dimerco.com/ #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub #OceanFreight #Logistics #ContainerRates #GlobalTrade

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Carriers Will Never Lose Money Again, According to This Ex-Liner Exec

Panama Canal water levels are falling, the Rhine is at record lows, and Asia has just been hit by a run of major storms, all during peak season. Nils Roche (Solvens Advisory) and Mark Chadwick (Global Shippers' Association) break down what a strengthening El Niño means for supply chains already under pressure, from barge capacity on the Rhine to carriers rerouting back toward the Red Sea to avoid delays. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group for sponsoring The Freight Buyers' Club. #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub #OceanFreight #Logistics #ElNino #PanamaCanal #GlobalTrade

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Low Water, Big Storms: Why This Peak Season Has a Weather Problem

Each month, Mike King sits down with Neil Wilson, editor of TAC Index, the leading global price reporting agency on air freight rates and the calculating agent for the Baltic Air Freight Indices, to break down where air cargo rates are moving and why. This month: air cargo volumes out of China into Europe have dropped sharply since the EU ended its de minimis exemption on July 1st, with China-Europe rates now up just 12% year-on-year, compared to 30% on the China-US lane. Neil also breaks down the impact of rising jet fuel prices, up 76% year-on-year, against a backdrop of continued tension in the Middle East, plus the AI and semiconductor-driven strength out of North Asia, a softening Southeast Asia market, and how the transatlantic and US outbound lanes are shaping up heading into peak season. Many thanks to Neil Wilson for his time and analysis, and to TAC Index and the Baltic Exchange for their continued support of Air Cargo Unpacked. For more from the Freight Buyers' Club, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube. #AirCargo #AirFreight #FreightRates #SupplyChain #Logistics #TACIndex #BalticExchange #FreightBuyersClub #AirCargoUnpacked #Ecommerce #DeMinimis #JetFuel #AviationIndustry

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Air Freight Rates: Asia-Europe Slumps, Asia-US Holds Strong | TAC Index

Mike King and Neel Jones Shah are joined for the whole episode by Brandon Fried, Executive Director of the Airforwarders Association, who has announced his retirement after two decades leading the organisation. This month: how the AI data centre build-out is reshaping air cargo demand, and the fallout from the EU's de minimis change on volumes through Liège. Cargo theft losses hit $725 million last year, and an Airforwarders Association survey found 83% of forwarders reporting reduced shipping volumes due to tariffs. We also dig into the fight over IATA's revised Direct Air Waybill framework (DAWB, the rules governing who's liable when cargo is misdeclared or mishandled), which forwarders say could shift liability onto them. Plus the best rates analysis in the business from Neil Wilson at TAC Index, a tribute to Jan Krems as he steps down as President of United Cargo, and a look back at Brandon Fried's nearly 25 years leading the Airforwarders Association as he hands over the reins. Many thanks to Brandon Fried for joining us for the whole episode, to Neil Wilson for his rates analysis, and to TAC Index and the Baltic Exchange for their continued support of Air Cargo Unpacked. For more from the Freight Buyers' Club, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube. #AirCargo #AirFreight #SupplyChain #Logistics #Airforwarders #CargoTheft #Tariffs #DeMinimis #TACIndex #BalticExchange #FreightBuyersClub #AirCargoUnpacked #AirWaybill #FreightForwarding

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Air Cargo Unpacked: EU De Minimis, Cargo Theft and the Air Waybill Fight, with Brandon Fried

Carrier profits are soaring, but reliability keeps sliding in the opposite direction. Xeneta's numbers paint a vivid picture of just how wide that gap has become. Global on-time carrier performance has fallen for the second month running, down to just 33% according to Xeneta, with average delays climbing to 4.2 days. Mark Chadwick (Global Shippers' Association) and Nils Roche (Solvens Advisory) break down what's really behind the numbers. Thanks to Dimerco Express Group (https://dimerco.com/) for sponsoring The Freight Buyers' Club. #ContainerShipping #SupplyChain #FreightBuyersClub #OceanFreight #Logistics #CarrierReliability #Xeneta #GlobalTrade

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Carrier Reliability, By the Numbers: What Xeneta's Data Shows

Everyone wants capacity now, but Neel Jones Shah explains why more freighters arriving too fast would crush rates, and why slower is better. 🎧 Full episode of Air Cargo Unpacked on the channel and here: https://youtu.be/TFPWa36I1R8 #AirCargo #Freighters #SupplyChain #Logistics #Shorts

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Why more freighters would be bad news for air cargo

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The Freight Buyers' Club in the News

AS SEEN IN:

Container shipping now ‘maxed out’, claims leading shipping analyst | The Loadstar

Why the US ‘freight recession’ impact is heavier fortrans-Pacific container trade than trans-Atlantic | Riviera Maritime Media

Flexport rolling out last-mile e-commerce offering globallyafter Shopify deal | American Journal of Transportation

Plot a (positive) course for air freight rates…if you dare | The Loadstar

Air cargo operators still feel ‘hangover from the 2021 party’ | FreightWaves

‘Whipsaw effect’ on demand and investment will result in consolidation and bankruptcies across freight markets | American Journal of Transportation

India, Vietnam has potential for sourcing: The Freight Buyers’ Club | Stat Times

Container shipping turning the corner in time for peak season, says Rolf Habben Jansen | TradeWinds

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