Container Bytes: Weekly Ocean & Air Freight Intelligence for Supply Chain Pros
Ten minutes. Everything moving in global freight. Container Bytes delivers weekly ocean and air cargo market data, rate trends, and forecasts, all designed for supply chain professionals who need signal, not noise. Brought to you by Freightos, the global freight booking platform and starring Judah Levine, Freightos' market analyst. Serious freight updates from people who don't take themselves too seriously.
Episodes
31 episodes
Episode #30: Project Freedom and the UAE Airspace Whiplash
Welcome back to Container Bytes! I’m Julia Frohwein, and I’m back with Judah Levine to break down a week that felt like a decade. We’re diving into the rapid-fire timeline of Project Freedom—the US-led effort to force transit through the...
Episode #29: The Jet Fuel Sharing Plan and the "Quiet Crisis"
Welcome to a very special episode of Container Bites! If you’re wondering why Eytan suddenly has long brown hair and a British accent—don’t panic. 📍 I’m Julia Frohwein, and I’m thrilled to be taking over the mic. This week, Judah and I dive int...
Episode #28: Lufthansa’s 20,000 Flight Cancellations and the "More Closed" (Dire) Strait
Get your freight emergency kits ready, because the fuel market is bordering on absolute chaos. Between the IRGC boarding container ships in the Strait of Hormuz and Lufthansa slashing 20,000 flights due to fuel concerns, capac...
Episode #27: The Blockade Paradox and Your Missing Tariff Refunds
Get your freight Christmas sweater on (yes, even in April), because the Straits of Hormuz are getting chilly🥁. We’re diving into why the Hormuz blockade(ish) your ocean rates are staying surprisingly grounded while jet fuel prices a...
Episode #26: Strait Talk And The Air Cargo Hit
Better late than never. Hope your supply chain is holding up better than my audio equipment. The ceasefire news is hogging the headlines, but don't let the noise fool you;the Straits of Hormuz are still effectively a "no...
Special Episode: Getting Your IEEPA Tariff Refunds (Eventually)
The Supreme Court tossed IEEPA tariffs out, but don't pop the champagne just yet. The White House pivoted with a (temporary-ish) 10% global tariff under Section 122 just four days later. It's currently sitting well below the 15% to 20% ra...
Ep. 24: Fuel Surcharges Ahead and the Middle East Starting to Come Back Online
The Middle East isn't exactly "business as usual," (you knew that) BUT the cargo heart is starting to beat again. We’re moving past the total shutdown and into the "creative logistics" phase. That's a polite way of saying everything is moving b...
Episode #22: Strait to It, Creative Surcharges and Supreme Court Wins
Welcome back to the pod! This week, I (Eytan) and Judah (not me) dive into why the Straits of Hormuz is the latest headache for your bottom line, even if your containers aren't actually in the Gulf. We’re tracking "Emergency Conting...
Unfiltered Freight Episode 10: The Vibe Coding Revolution
Special edition for you independent forwarders out there.SMB forwarders are tired of being told they’re "dinosaurs" by Silicon Valley. They’re tired of waiting for ERP roadmaps that never arrive. And they're tired of being to...
Episode #21: Tariff Whiplash
Welcome back to another "uneventful" week in Global Freight. 📍 This week, Eytan opens with a dad-joke for the ages: What is the White House's favorite craft beer? An IEEPA. 🍺 (International Emergency Economic Powers Act). It’s a bitter brew tha...
Episode #20: The $4,000 Port Fee Gamble and the "Out-of-Office" Index
They never thought we'd make it, but here we are: Episode 20. We’ve been talking about Lunar New Year for six weeks, but we were still blindsided by the reality of it this week. Forget the traditional benchmarks—Judah’s inbox is currently the w...
Episode #19: Flower Power and the $2 Billion Coin Flip
We’re back for episode 19, and with Lunar New Year just days away (Feb 17th), the "Gear Down" is officially here. Manufacturing is slowing down, and for the first time this year, we don't have a major geopolitical change to talk about. It almos...
Episode #18: The 18% Handshake and the Atlantic Wall
Welcome back to Freightos' Container Bytes, Episode 18. Judah and I were just reminiscing about the fact that we don't have theme music. We still don't. But what we do have is a weather report that’s actually scarier than the geopoliti...
Episode #17: The Davos Pivot and South Korea and Canada’s Tariff Headache
Welcome back to Freightos' Container Bytes, Episode 17. We’re only four weeks in, and we’ve had more trade "wars" than I’ve had hot coffees. This week, Eytan and Judah track the whiplash of the Greenland deal—shoutout to Davos for t...
Episode #16: The Greenland Gambit and the Red Sea Reversal
Time for a high-stakes episode of "Where in the World is the Trade War?" with our Greenland Bingo card. ❄️In this episode, Judah and Eytan break down the sudden 10% tariff threat on the EU (which apparently wasn't on anyone's 2026 ...
Episode #15: The Hormuz Headache and the Lunar "Red Zone"
Welcome back to Freightos' Container Bytes, the podcast that is technically Episode 15, despite the fact that our team’s ability to count past 14 has recently been called into question.We dive into the geopolitical soup of the Strait of ...
Stop Reading the Manual: Glyn Hughes (TIACA) on Phigital Logistics and the PlayStation Trap
This is an episode from Freightos' Unfiltered Freight series, shared here too.Welcome to a masterclass in air cargo reality with Glyn Hughes, the Director General of TIACA and a 40 year industry veteran who has seen it al...
Episode #14: Pasta Wars, Rate Spikes & The Lunar New Year Rush
Welcome to 2026! We are already 3% of the way through the year, so if you haven't hit your KPIs yet, you're officially behind. JK, kinda.Ocean freight is starting the year with a hangover and a double shot of espresso. Rates are climbing...
Episode #14: "Weird" Peak Season, AI Air Rates, and...Curling
Welcome to the final Container Bytes of 2025! It’s been a year. We laughed, we cried, we watched spot rates do things that defy physics. (I’m not crying – you are).The "Blink-and-You-Missed-It" Peak This year's peak season on the ...
Surviving Your 2026 Ocean Freight Procurement: Special Interview with Stephanie Loomis, Noatum Logistics
This is an episode from Freightos' Unfiltered Freight series, shared here too.Welcome to a special edition of Container Bytes, featuring 30-year ocean veteran Stephanie Loomis, who's navigated everything from Hanjin's col...
Episode #12: Air Cargo Defies Death, Rates Spike Past Last Year's Peak
We're back and pumped to talk freight. Get your freight Christmas sweater on.🧣Transpacific air rates hit $7.50/kilo, beating out last year's $7.30 peak despite recession fears and front-loading concerns (take that, 2024!). Meanwhile, Asi...
Episode #11: Red Sea Flippity Floppity and Air Cargo Peak
BREAKING: So... the Suez Canal Authority is that friend who tells everyone you're definitely coming to their party when you clearly said "maybe next year." Meanwhile, carriers are playing Red Sea chicken while rates do whatever the ...
Episode #10: The No Big Deal 48% WoW (!) China - US Rate Increase
Got good news and bad news for your today, freight podcast friend.Good news? The Houthis said they would stop firing on ships in the Red Sea (but container liners aren't holding their breath).The bad news? A 48% increase in China ...
Episode #9: Wut? More Stability but Ocean Rates Are Still Up?
That's not how this was supposed to work. I'm taking my ball and going home.Ocean freight rates climbed despite increased stability, with some major drivers of stability for the next year on China-US trade. Judah breaks dow...
Episode #8.5: The "Trade Summits Mean We Do .5 Episodes Now Too" Episode
Bro, how am I supposed to run a podcast if everything changes every day?Less than 24 after the last weekly podcast was published, a trade summit between China and the United States changed everything. So we tacked on our quick view on wh...