Mexican trucking companies launched an indefinite nationwide strike Monday protesting highway insecurity, cargo theft, extortion and rising operating costs, with demonstrations planned in major freight hubs along the U.S.-Mexico border. The strike, organized by the National Chamber of Freight Transportation (CANACAR) and other trucking organizations, calls for demonstrations across Mexico, including Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Monterrey, Tijuana and Mexico City. The protests could disrupt freight transportation through some of North America’s busiest commercial corridors, particularly in Nuevo Lare
Chattanooga–It hasn’t been that long–less than a month–since Jesse Elison spoke to an industry event and addressed the issue of the beleaguered new Motus registration system. The deputy administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) spoke Monday at FreightWaves’ Broker Compliance Symposium, one of two one-day sessions that serve as a prelude to the larger Future of Freight Festival here that begins Tuesday The biggest news in his presentation was really no news: after saying at the National Motor Freight Traffic Association in early October that FMCSA was “weeks away”
For years, the West has searched for a technological escape hatch from rare earths. Engineers have developed new motor designs, alternative magnet chemistries, and materials that reduce or even eliminate the need for some critical minerals. Every time China tightens export controls, those efforts receive another burst of attention. They're worth pursuing. But they don't answer the question manufacturers have to solve today. Production capacity has become the number one scarce asset. That realization is driving one of the most ambitious industrial…
Crude oil prices were on course to book a sharp weekly gain, with Brent crude on track for gains of about $6 per barrel and WTI registering a much more modest tick higher, from around $99 per barrel on Monday to over $100 earlier today. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $114.00 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $100.40 per barrel, as hostilities in the Middle East remain front-page news for oil traders. The focus, however, seems to be on Houthi attacks on Saudi infrastructure, including Aramco facilities.…
The Trump administration on Friday unveiled its America First Seafood Strategy, outlining plans to strengthen the U.S. commercial fishing industry through regulatory reform, investment in fishing vessels and shoreside infrastructure,...
After months of elevated energy prices, Europe can expect fuel costs to continue rising through the winter months as demand grows. Ongoing energy trade constraints and threats to energy infrastructure across the Middle East are expected to limit global energy supplies and continue to drive up prices, hitting consumers hard unless governments intervene. The European Union (EU) is thought to have paid an additional €100 billion on oil and gas so far this year, prompting EU ministers to seek ways to manage the impact of high fuel prices. Since…
The artificial intelligence boom is placing a dangerous strain on the world’s water and energy resources. As hyperscalers build up resource-hungry data centers at a breakneck pace, demand projections for these finite resources are skyrocketing faster than policymakers can keep pace. But a new study from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin suggests that there may be a way to sustainably source water for data centers by using wastewater from the oil and gas industry. The water and energy use of AI data centers is enormous…
Despite the Iran war and the Hormuz crisis, the Middle East’s low-cost chemicals production is set to retain its long-term advantage over other regions. Near-term shifts in the sourcing of polymers are taking place due to the current constraints in the Persian Gulf’s industrial base, benefiting U.S. chemicals companies. But in the long run, the Middle East is likely to retain its buyers’ base because it still has the two levers to be competitive on the global market—an extensive production base and, most of all, low-cost…
During the first three months or so of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran, the dominant mood on oil markets was that the conflict would end any day now. The brief June ceasefire reinforced that optimism, so it took a while longer for facts to be faced: the war would not end any day now. It might even extend into next year—and this means higher prices for a longer time. The ICE Brent crude futures contract for January 2027 is trading at $102.59 per barrel. The June 2027 contract is only slightly lower, at $92.71 per barrel, and the December…
Alkagesta’s transparency FAQ covers ownership, leadership, sanctions screening, compliance and public company records, with links to the cited registers and documents.
The 24th Singapore International Bunkering Conference and Exhibition (SIBCON 2026), organised by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, runs 13–15 October 2026 at Resorts World Sentosa under the theme "Charting a Resilient Multi-Fuel Future", with new standards for ammonia bunkering and digitalisation among the headline announcements.
Announced at SIBCON 2026, Singapore's plan to license LNG floating storage units follows the award of eight LNG bunker supplier licences in July and record LNG bunker sales of 571,400 tonnes in 2025.
At SIBCON 2026, Singapore set out a multi-fuel bunkering strategy spanning ammonia, LNG, bio-methane and ethanol, with record LNG bunker sales and the world's largest ethanol bunkering operation planned.
A ship’s anchor can wreak havoc on the world’s undersea infrastructure, something that has provided plenty of rich material for Splash reporting in recent years. For Elisabeth Braw, the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S provides one of the most brazen examples. On Christmas Day 2024, the vessel was accused of dragging its anchor 90 km …
Alkagesta treated its 2025 Singapore launch as a test of credibility, meeting regulatory, financial and operational standards as bunker volumes climbed toward 250,000 MT a month.
Borderlands Mexico is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week in Borderlands Mexico: US takes 76% of vehicle exports as September shipments plunge; DSV expands US-Mexico freight operations with McAllen office; and Texas university seeks $772,700 for AI-powered Laredo freight project. US takes 76% of vehicle exports as September shipments plunge More than three-quarters of Mexico’s light-vehicle exports were destined for the U.S. during the first nine months of 2026, underscoring the importance of cross-border automotive t
Australia is set to unveil the final version of a controversial plan to force liquefied natural gas producers to reserve as much as a fifth of their output for local buyers.
Crude oil prices, which dipped on Tuesday, reversed their direction, with Brent ticking above $100 again earlier today following reports of fresh Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $101.49 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $90.14 per barrel, despite a statement from Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who said Tuesday the kingdom’s oil flows via the Rast-West pipeline had rebounded to 5.8 million barrels daily. The statement…
Shipping markets rarely announce the top with any clarity. More often, the argument about whether the peak has arrived only really starts when freight rates are still climbing, asset values are making less and less conventional sense and owners are sufficiently confident to keep buying ships at prices that would have looked ridiculous a few …
The transits are a lifeline to gulf energy producers and a boon to shipowners and commodity traders who stand to reap billions of dollars from the trade.
Tajikistan announced that it is now receiving oil and petroleum products from Iran, opening a potential new energy source for a country whose fuel supplies have long been dominated by Russia. The deliveries began in late August, Tajikistan's Energy and Water Resources Ministry told the Asia-Plus news agency, following talks between the two countries on expanding cooperation in the oil and gas sector. The ministry has not disclosed the volume of the shipments, their commercial terms, or how the oil and petroleum products were transported to Tajikistan.…
Iranian oil is disappearing from the market just as its biggest buyer returns for more. China’s recovering crude demand is colliding with the loss of a supplier that sustained its independent refiners through the crisis, forcing them to compete for increasingly expensive alternatives. The consequences reach beyond China: every replacement barrel tightens supplies for other buyers, while Tehran faces a growing incentive to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz, which is now carrying an unexpectedly strong 13 million barrels a day (just 5 million below…
A source-attributed examination of reporting on networks accused of copying damaging allegations across clusters of websites, and the legal and technical challenges involved in responding.
Oil prices pulled back on Tuesday, reversing recent gains as investors weighed signs of export recovery by Middle Eastern producers against uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Iran war. Brent crude for November delivery fell 1.5% to trade at $103.72 per barrel at 1.10 pm ET, while WTI crude for October delivery declined 2.2% to change hands at $90.62/bbl. Crude exports from the region climbed to 15.5 million barrels per day in September, good for more than 80% of prewar levels and the highest level since the conflict began seven months ago.…
Alkagesta has been awarded the EcoVadis Committed Badge following an assessment of its sustainability management practices across environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.
Amid regulatory uncertainty, there is one key challenge to ensuring shipping meets its decarbonization goals: making the right decisions today. DNV’s latest edition of Maritime Forecast to 2050 explores how different scenarios could reshape fuel demand, investment decisions, and decarbonization pathways, helping shipowners to navigate uncertainty and build resilient fleets. Shipping’s energy transition has entered ...
The Chinese market remains the largest one in terms of seaborne crude oil imports, after the first eight months of 2026. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “after a marginal decline in 2024, when global crude oil loadings decreased by -0.2% y-o-y, things picked up in 2025, with full-year volumes increasing ...
Peter Sand, Xeneta Chief Analyst: “For the high-flying spot rates from Far East to US East and West Coasts, we may just begin to see the end of that rising trend as we get into the first half of October. When comparing today’s spot rates to the level experienced on 1 July – shippers are ...
SUNY Maritime College’s training ship Empire State VII has been ordered to depart New York on September 30 for Norfolk, Virginia, where it will undergo a month-long activation and flight deck certification...
The VLCC market has reached levels that would have sounded absurd only months ago. Middle East-China earnings have pushed beyond $1m a day, Atlantic routes have surged into the hundreds of thousands and secondhand values have exploded to the point where rust-stained 15-year-old VLCCs are changing hands for more than newbuilds. The argument now dividing …
Brazil’s state-owned energy giant Petrobras has struck a two-decade-long deal with Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Sempra, for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a U.S. project under development in Jefferson County, Texas. The post Petrobras locks in 20-year US supply from Sempra’s LNG project in Lone Star State appeared first on Offshore Energy .
Alkagesta took its fertilizer desk to the Argus Fertilizer Caspian, Black Sea and Eastern European Markets Conference 2026 in Istanbul, joining more than 450 delegates debating redirected trade flows, CBAM exposure, Central Asian supply and the logistics squeeze reshaping fertilizer delivery.
Sempra Infrastructure signed a 20-year agreement to supply about 0.8 million metric tons per annum of liquefied natural gas to Petrobras from the under-construction Port Arthur LNG phase 2 project in Texas.
Bloomberg reports the Iran war's jet fuel shortage is spreading from Asia to Europe as Hormuz stays blocked, with record prices and cancelled flights. Alkagesta, a Bloomberg-cited supplier into Europe's NATO CEPS pipeline, is exposed to the same tightening barrels.
China’s diesel fuel and gasoline inventories are declining, which may eventually lead to the imposition of export curbs, Bloomberg has reported, citing recent fuel inventory data. Gasoline inventories at state-owned energy majors were down by 2.9% last week to their lowest level since 2022, according to Chinese commodity market research firm JLC International. Diesel inventories are sitting at the lowest in 15 months, booking a 2.4% dip last week, the publication noted. “With the domestic market tightening, we see an increasing risk…
Alkagesta chief executive Orkhan Rustamov tells Bloomberg that extra military-grade barrels injected at Rotterdam pushed civilian jet fuel out of the NATO Central Europe Pipeline System.
For the first four months of the war between the United States and Israel and Iran, oil traders remained largely bearish. The overwhelming expectation was that the war would end soon—even as July rolled around—and oil flows out of Hormuz would recover. Instead, the world is slipping into a fuel shortage, and traders have gone bullish. They are especially bullish on fuels in the United States, it seems. The world’s biggest crude oil consumer and the biggest exporter of crude and fuels has not managed to avoid a supply squeeze at…
Alkagesta was represented by CEO Orkhan Rustamov and CFO Orkhan Zeynalli at SUISSENÉGOCE's 20th anniversary celebration, held at Circus Knie in Geneva, honoring two decades of growth for Switzerland's commodity trading association.
The defining feature of the current asset market is not limited to five-year-old tonnage trading above newbuilding prices. Repricing spans the entire age curve and intensifies with vessel age. VLCC values are up 30% year-over-year at five years, 42% at ten years, 61% at fifteen years, and 90% at twenty years. The Suezmax curve shows ...
The EU ETS is expected to keep impacting shipping both in the near and in the long term, following the latest gas price increases. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Intermodal said that “the EUA market maintained its upward trend in August, despite the quieter trading conditions and lower liquidity that typically characterize the holiday ...
Washington’s takeover of more than a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves in a deal officially signed by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on 2 September was as unexpected as it was dramatic, with President Donald Trump’s comment a few days earlier that it is “the biggest oil deal in world history” looking justified from several perspectives. From a pure volume standpoint, the deal covers 65 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves (out of Venezuela’s total 303 billion barrels) across 17 fields. To put that…
Capesize The market enjoyed a notably bullish week, recovering strongly after the UK holiday-shortened start and building momentum across both basins. Early weakness in the Pacific quickly proved short-lived as sustained miner participation tightened available tonnage and restored confidence. By midweek, all major miners were actively fixing, driving C5 steadily higher and attracting increasingly aggressive ...
Rates for shipping containers from east Asia and China to the US were mostly higher this week while rates for liquid chemical tankers ex-US Gulf were mostly softer, all while schedule reliability is decreasing because of congestion at Asia ports. PORT CONGESTION Global container vessel schedule reliability dropped to 56.4% in July 2026, a decline ...
The tanker market could experience an increase of flows from West to East in the coming years, following the 65 billion barrel deal between the US and Venezuela. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “last Friday, President Trump announced that the US had reached an agreement to control 65 billion barrels of ...
Greek owner Sea Pioneer Shipping has emerged as the company behind SK Oceanplant’s recently announced series of six firm plus two optional aframax tankers. Market sources have identified the Vasilis Bacolitsas-led owner as the previously unnamed Greek customer behind six 115,000 dwt crude carriers at the South Korean yard, with two further options attached. SK …
By Alexandra Valencia and Yury Garcia QUITO, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Ecuador defended on Friday U.S. operations that intercepted and sank three Ecuadorean vessels this week, while relatives of some crew members...
OSLO, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Norway will provide necessary assistance to Russians in the Arctic Svalbard islands following the arrest of a ship transporting passengers and supplies to the archipelago, the Nordic...
A new project is seeking to turn cattle manure into a source of sustainable natural gas for energy production and shipping fuel. The initiative just broke ground in Broken Bow, Nebraska, where eight anaerobic digesters will process waste from the Adams Land & Cattle feedlot into what the project leads are hoping will be a lucrative and eco-friendly source of approximately 1.2 million MMBtu of pipeline-quality natural gas per year. “The Adams Land & Cattle RNG facility demonstrates how American agriculture can play an important role…
Governments worldwide are racing to develop small modular reactors (SMRs) as part of their plans for a nuclear power renaissance, with significant progress being seen in recent years. However, the United States appears to be leading the way in nuclear microreactor development, with significant investment in the technology recently announced by the U.S. Army. SMRs are advanced nuclear reactors with a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, or around one-third of the generating capacity of a conventional nuclear reactor. They are much smaller…
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States stayed the same this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US staying at 588, up 51 from this same time last year. The number of active oil rigs rose by 2, reaching 449 during the latest reporting period, according to the data. This is 35 above this same time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 2 to 130, which is 12 more than this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 9. The latest EIA…
Citadel is shopping for U.S. oil production assets, including a previous bid for WildFire Energy before Magnolia Oil & Gas agreed to buy the Eagle Ford producer for $4.06 billion. Reuters reported Friday that the hedge fund and commodities trader has held talks with several private-equity owners of oil-weighted exploration and production companies in recent weeks. WildFire would have given Citadel roughly 53,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production, about 70% of it oil, plus 810,000 net acres in South Texas. Magnolia ultimately won…
Ukraine’s top sanctions official says he remains optimistic about prospects for a sweeping Russia sanctions bill in the US Congress despite growing uncertainty over when the House of Representatives will take it up, as lawmakers face a sharply shortened legislative calendar ahead of the November elections. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s sanctions commissioner, spent this week in Washington meeting lawmakers and congressional staff as Kyiv presses Congress to advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia…
With the overall jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a surprisingly big jump in employment, truck transportation participated in that rebound. The monthly report showed truck transportation employment rising 4,800 jobs to 1,470,300. It’s the highest level of jobs in the sector since October. But with employment since then mostly trending down each month, the number of jobs in the sector is still about 10,000 jobs less than it was a year ago. window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { var gptSlot = googletag.defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-
