Good morning,

Ares Management and PSP Investments are putting up to $2.4 billion behind a new U.S. logistics real-estate venture, starting with 14 properties totaling 5.2 million square feet across major industrial markets.

The venture will target income-producing warehouses and distribution facilities, betting on continued demand for logistics space driven by e-commerce, onshoring, and digital infrastructure.

Let's dive into the top news.

Someone emails your Accounts Payable team from your carrier's domain. Same name, same signature, same thread: "New bank details for this month's settlement".

The money leaves your account, but the carrier never sees it. By the time anyone notices... it's three weeks gone, and the bank can't help you.

This continues to happen because most logistics companies have never checked whether their own domain can be impersonated. Not a lookalike domain. Theirs, exactly.

Hawkeye Flyover shows you in about a minute flat. Enter your domain below, and it checks the three records that determine whether someone can send email as you.

If your records are set up properly, you'll know instantly. If not, you'll see how you're exposed and how to fix it.

It's free. No call and nothing to install.

U.S. diesel prices have climbed to record levels, squeezing trucking companies and pushing more freight toward rail.

Key Details: The national average for on-highway diesel reached $6.285 a gallon this week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, crossing $6 for the first time. The price is up 65% from $3.809 on Feb. 23, before the war in Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Rail Time: The fuel shock is benefiting intermodal freight as shippers look for alternatives to trucking. Units transferred between trucks and railroads rose 4% in the first 36 weeks of the year, according to the Association of American Railroads, compared with a 2.7% increase in carloads that remain on trains.

Union Pacific is seeing some shippers shift freight from trucks to rail as soaring diesel prices make rail’s fuel-efficiency advantage more attractive, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hamann said Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will significantly tighten scrutiny of international mail shipments starting Oct. 22, requiring closer attention to product descriptions, tariff classifications and importer identities.

Key Details: The date marks the end of a grace period for manually reporting regulated or duty-free international mail; after that, CBP will no longer accept casual or incomplete paperwork, which could leave shipments delayed, rejected, or returned.

What’s Happening? The shift follows the end of the U.S. $800 de minimis exemption for goods from all countries on July 30, 2025.

International mail shipments were subsequently placed under an interim entry process, while a CBP rule published July 24, 2026, requires additional data for mail imports valued at $2,500 or less using the informal entry process.

Each mailed item must now match an exact 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) code, used to classify products and determine applicable duties.

The U.S. ocean freight peak season is continuing well beyond earlier expectations, with September now forecast to be the busiest import month of the year. The National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates’ Global Port Tracker project 2.31 million TEUs of imports in September, up 9.6% year over year.

Key Details: Several factors have helped keep volumes elevated, including recent typhoons in China and shippers rerouting cargo away from the Panama Canal because of drought concerns. Imports have also remained buoyant despite geopolitical conflicts, changing tariff policies, inflation, and higher fuel prices, according to Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett.

What’s Next: The Port of Los Angeles handled 955,907 TEUs in August, about 6% above its five-year average, completing the busiest three-month stretch in the port’s history. Executive Director Gene Seroka expects another strong September. The Global Port Tracker forecasts 2.11 million TEUs in October, up 1.7% year over year, followed by 2 million in November.

Maersk is preparing orders worth about $9 billion for up to 42 container ships, including 12 vessels capable of carrying 24,000 TEUs.

Key Numbers: The orders would mark the first time Maersk has commissioned ships of that size and would consist entirely of LNG-powered dual-fuel vessels.

The planned fleet would also include 24 ships of 19,000 TEUs and six of 18,600 TEUs; the 19,000-TEU deal is expected to comprise 12 firm orders plus options for another 12. The contracts could be confirmed within the next few weeks.

New Ships: The expansion comes after Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc indicated that the carrier had extracted as much growth as possible from its existing fleet and needed additional capacity to expand.

Big Picture: If completed, the orders would add almost 750,000 TEUs to Maersk’s fleet, taking its total capacity to about 5.5 million TEUs from 4.36 million TEUs currently in service. That would push the carrier beyond its long-standing self-imposed ceiling of 4 million to 4.4 million TEUs.

Ocean carriers are restoring more services through the Red Sea and Suez Canal after avoiding the corridor for nearly three years, even as Yemen’s Houthi militants tighten their control over the Bab al-Mandeb, the chokepoint connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

What’s Happening: Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, partners in the Gemini Cooperation, said they would return four additional services linking Asia with the Mediterranean and Europe to the Suez route.

Other major carriers are also moving back toward the corridor. MSC said last month that it would resume selected Suez Canal transits, while China’s Cosco and its Hong Kong-based unit OOCL are also returning to the route. CMA CGM, which began restoring some Suez transits late last year.

Shipping Threat: The carriers had largely diverted around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope since late 2023 to avoid Houthi attacks, adding time and cost to voyages. The move comes as the security situation around the Bab al-Mandeb remains volatile.

The artificial intelligence boom is giving flatbed trucking a much-needed source of freight as data center construction accelerates across North America.

Key Details: Spending on U.S. data-center construction surpassed spending on traditional office construction in November 2025, according to FTR. The firm expects flatbed loadings to grow 4.1% this year, with steel, concrete, electrical equipment, generators, and cooling systems among the materials moving to these projects.

Big Demand: The surge is particularly important for the open-deck market, which has lost capacity during the prolonged freight downturn. According to DAT, every gigawatt of new U.S. data-center capacity requires roughly 100,000 truckloads. About 20 gigawatts have been built since the AI boom began in 2023, suggesting the projects could represent roughly 2 million truckloads.

Norfolk Southern has launched daily direct intermodal service between the Port of Charleston and Huntsville, Alabama, expanding rail access to North Alabama and Middle Tennessee.

Key Details: The service took effect on Sept. 11 and gives importers and exporters another direct connection into growing Southeast markets. SC Ports said the new route will provide greater flexibility and faster access to inland markets while giving shippers another option for moving cargo through the region.

The new service builds on SC Ports’ existing rail network, with 25% of port volume moving by rail. The port already offers daily express intermodal service and direct connections to its Inland Ports Greer and Dillon, with rail links to major hubs including Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Charlotte and Louisville.

Big Picture: The expansion also follows a $55 million expansion of Inland Port Greer completed in 2025, which increased the facility’s cargo capacity by 50% and added 9,000 feet of rail to accommodate longer trains.

The U.S. and China are discussing tariff cuts on American energy and agricultural products as the two countries prepare for a Sept. 24 summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington.

Tariff Reduction: The tariff changes could be carried out under an earlier plan for reciprocal reductions covering roughly $30 billion in trade, with most-favored-nation rates applied to some Chinese goods. The two sides are also discussing reducing duties on Chinese inputs used by U.S. manufacturers, according to reports.

Big Picture: The discussions are also focused on extending the existing one-year U.S.-China trade truce, which would remove one source of uncertainty for a global economy dealing with the wars in Iran and Ukraine, elevated oil prices and renewed inflation concerns.

The Panama Canal is preparing to cut daily vessel transits to an average of 29.5 from October, down 18% from August, as worsening drought linked to El Niño reduces the water available to operate its locks. Officials had already reduced daily traffic from 36 vessels in August to 32 in September.

What’s Happening: The Panama Canal relies on freshwater from the Lake Gatun watershed to operate its locks, and rainfall has fallen below forecasts. El Niño is expected to peak later this year and could become the strongest in four decades. During the 2023 drought, daily transits were cut from 38 to 22, creating a major shipping bottleneck and forcing companies to seek alternative routes.

Big Picture: The canal handles about 5% of global maritime trade and 40% of U.S. container traffic, making the restrictions a direct concern for shippers moving goods between Asia and the U.S. Longer queues and reduced capacity can force carriers to absorb higher costs or consider alternative routes.

In August, vessels were waiting as long as 10 days, while one container ship reportedly paid about $4 million to jump the queue.