How crews on cargo ships stranded in Baltimore are working to maintain good "seafarer culture"

Apr 5, 2024
Ship crews are used to a life in motion. Now the mostly international workers could be stuck in port for weeks.
Captain Prachya Prengsieng stands aboard the Phatra Naree, a cargo ship with a crew from Thailand. It’s docked right next to the collapsed Key Bridge, and can’t leave the Port of Baltimore.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

Despite problems in the Red Sea and Panama Canal, shipping costs are falling

Feb 19, 2024
Carriers are figuring out how to reduce risk and deal with disruptions caused by the Houthis' attacks and low water levels in shipping lanes.
The international shipping industry appears to have been able to manage the risks posed by recent disruptions.
Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images

The scariest part of Halloween: supply chains

Oct 2, 2023
Consumers may spend a record $12.2 billion this year — that's the treat. But sellers may need tricks to bring their goods to market.
Analysts expect monster Halloween sales this year.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

After three turbulent years, supply chains are finally back to normal

May 17, 2023
Three years after the start of the pandemic, inventories are down and supply chains are less volatile.
Shipping containers are loaded onto ships in the Port of Los Angeles.
David McNew/Getty Images

The price of lumber is way down, but that won't do much to bring down new home prices

Apr 7, 2023
Lumber prices have stabilized after unprecedented volatility.
Stacks of lumber are offered for sale at a home center in Chicago, Illinois. Prices for lumber have recently come down from pandemic highs.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Holding excess inventory keeps getting pricier for this manufacturer

As the global supply chain smooths out its kinks, warehouse costs are top of mind for the Legacy Companies.
For large manufacturers, storing excess inventory means paying growing warehouse fees.
Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images

A 118-year-old department store perseveres in a tenuous economy

Feb 17, 2023
How a department store more than a century old has survived two pandemics, the Great Depression, and multiple recessions.
Dunham's Department Store in Wellsboro, PA. Ann Dunham Rawson, whose great-grandparents opened Dunham's, said the store is doing well despite wider economic anxiety.
Courtesy Ann Dunham Rawson

For public good, not for profit.

Business inventories are finally rebounding, a sign of a healing supply chain

Feb 8, 2023
In January, business inventories expanded. That's a positive sign about the economy's health.
The January Logistics Managers Index found that businesses expanded their inventories, which is a good sign about the health of the economy.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Port of LA campaigns to bring back shippers lost amid labor talks

Jan 11, 2023
Executive Director Gene Seroka says traffic has slowed in part because of labor talks between dockworkers and their employers.
Containers, ships and cranes at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Longshore union members are negotiating a new contract with their employers.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

In the pre-holiday scramble, small businesses see a little bit of supply chain relief

Oct 26, 2022
The owners of a record and comic book shop, a toy store, and a greeting card and outdoor gear business share their experiences.
Shelves of comic books and record bins at Phillip Rollins' new OffBeat location, in Jackson, Mississippi.
Courtesy Phillip Rollins