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Dachser boosts North American airfreight forwarding presence with stake in Synergie Canada

German logistics company Dachser has strengthened its air and sea freight forwarding presence in North America with a 10% minority share in Synergie Canada. Tobias Burger, chief operating officer air & sea logistics at Dachser, said the investment in Synergie Canada was key to growing the company's presence outside of Europe. "Canada is a highly attractive market for a global logistics provider like Dachser. As one of the seven leading industrialised nations, the Canadian economy is closely linked to the economies of the Americas, as well as our target markets in Europe," said Burger. "Expanding our presence in the Canadian market by acquiring a minority share of Synergie is essential for the continued growth of our business outside Europe. We're delighted to have found the ideal partner for this expansion in Synergie Canada." Founded in 2008 and based near Montreal, Quebec, Synergie Canada specialises in air and sea freight services on transatlantic and transpacific routes and serves customers in the engineering, technology, fashion and aerospace industries. Synergie Canada also offers truck transport within Canada and across the border to the US. In 2025, Synergie Canada generated revenue of approximately €60m and had a workforce of about 100 employees. "Synergie Canada has grown rapidly in the 15 years since it was founded, evolving from a traditional overland transport forwarder into one of Canada's leading logistics providers for international air and sea freight," said Marc-André Guindon, president of Synergie Canada. "Together with Dachser, we can now take the next step in our development and offer our customers even better access to international markets, particularly in Europe."

Asia-Europe rates still sinking, but a different picture on the transpacific

European trades saw spot rates decline for a fourth consecutive week, with carriers cancelling or cutting back plans for rate boosting, but for those operating on the transpacific, the situation was far rosier, as increases were recorded for both US coasts. Spots may have held steady on Drewry's World Container Index's (WCI) Shanghai-Rotterdam leg this week, at $4,653 per 40ft, but for Shanghai-Genoa, there was yet another decline, 2% week on week, to finish at $5,506 per 40ft. Linerlytica analysts noted: "Asia-Europe carriers failed to hold rates into August, with prices still trending downwards. Average spot rates in early August continue to vary widely and range from $4,000 to $5,000 per 40ft. "Any hopes for a rate rebound will have to wait until mid-August, with CMA CGM and MSC leading the way with their announced new FAK rates, of $6,200 and $7,800 per 40ft, respectively, from 15 August." That new FAK from CMA CGM marks a $900 reduction on the price announced in mid-July, while Maersk went further, confirming its Far East-Mediterranean peak season surcharge, set for 14 August, would no longer apply. Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen said the Danish carrier's decision was indicative of the market having "past the apex of peak season", while sources told The Loadstar carriers holding rates would "count as a win". Bad news then for carriers if today's Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) - which records rates quoted for the forthcoming week and, as such, can indicate the behaviour of the following week's WCI (as it did last week) - proves accurate. The index suggests that Shanghai-North Europe and Shanghai-Mediterranean rates will drop 2.1% (to $4,934 per 40ft) and 3.4% (to $5,730 per 40ft) week on week, respectively, contrasting with the WCI's forecast for the week ahead. Drewry noted: "Three blank sailings were recorded this week, and the same number is scheduled for next week on the Asia-Europe tradelane. As carriers continue to manage available capacity, Drewry expects rates to remain stable next week." On the transpacific trades, the picture could not be more different: Shanghai-US east coast and Shanghai-US west coast rates up 2.6% (to $9,290 per 40ft) and 4.1% (to $6,484 per 40ft), week on week, respectively, according to the SCFI. It showed Shanghai-New York rates climbed 4%, to $7,893 per 40ft, and the Shanghai-Los Angeles leg an increase of 3%, to $5,894 per 40ft, with Drewry attributing this to carriers' successful implementation of general rate increases (GRIs). Those GRIs, the index noted, "held firm into August", adding: "Meanwhile, port congestion across Central and South China continued to constrain capacity, providing further support to freight rates." Mr Jensen said: "The weekly WCI spot rates only showed minor changes this week compared with last week. What should be noted is that last week the SCFI spot rate index staged a major increase of almost $700 per 40ft on the Asia-USWC trade. "The WCI index only saw a $155 per 40ft increase this week after having seen a decline last week. This is an indication that the SCFI spike last week might indeed have been a phantom GRI." Linerlytica analysts said the rate rally on the trade had caught them offguard, "given the SCFI and SCFIS' recent correction but transpacific cargo volumes remain firm into August while capacity out of China remains constrained due to port congestion". Looking to capacity, the WCI noted that, with eight blankings scheduled for next week, the indication was for stable capacity, and, "as a result, Drewry expects the volatility in rates to reduce in the coming week".

AI has reached forwarders' P&L - now the arguments begin

AI appears poised to transform freight forwarding. And the industry's biggest players are finally starting to put numbers on it. Kuehne+Nagel told investors at its Q2 earnings call that AI initiatives were expected to deliver savings of up to Sfr150m ($184m) in 2027, while improving productivity by around 5%. It is not alone. CH Robinson also told investors AI was already translating into financial performance, claiming productivity improvements of more than 60% since the end of2022 had helped drive a 20% increase in adjusted operating income in the second quarter. For an industry that has spent the past two years experimenting with new technologies, it is a clear sign that AI has moved beyond pilot projects, and onto the P&L. But while there is growing agreement that AI will reshape freight forwarding, there is little consensus on what that will ultimately look like. The debate has intensified following Gartner's prediction that, by 2030, 60% of supply chain management software will incorporate agentic AI, with enterprises increasingly deploying clusters of specialist AI agents that work together to complete complex tasks. But, of course, not everyone agrees. FreightSuite says the industry's fascination with multiple specialist agents risks solving the wrong problem. "We're able to do a lot more with agents that are operating inside the TMS than... daisy-chaining a lot of agents outside of the TMS together," co-founder Sam Moore told The Loadstar. "The internal agents have all of the context to the TMS... external ones can't actually get the quantum of data they need to achieve the levels of automation people are setting out to get." Rather than building thousands of specialist AI workers, FreightSuite argues that the future lies with a handful of far more capable "super agents", each able to understand an entire shipment, access every piece of operational data, and reason across multiple workflows. "We see super agents being where the industry is going to go," said co-founder William Jacobs. "Our more controversial part of that is the thousands of small agents versus... a handful of larger agents." Mr Jacobs argued that dividing intelligence across numerous specialist agents inevitably fragmented decision-making. "These larger super agents... can have holistic reasoning," he said. "Whereas if you're bolting lots of agents onto fragmented data... that orchestration layer just becomes a patch on top, rather than actually solving the problem." The company believes context is the defining advantage. "AI is no different. It needs as much context as it can have to be able to make the right decision," Mr Jacobs said. Not everyone shares that vision. Former Magaya executive Kristjan Lillemets believes the industry should move in almost the opposite direction, telling The Loadstar: "I'm currently in the clusters of specialist AI agents camp, mainly due to trust. "Building harnesses around many agents, each with a smaller set of responsibilities, allows more control and evaluations around which agent produced a faulty result. This will allow for faster troubleshooting, human intervention and fixing compared to a 'super agent', which might appear too much of a black box. "For AI to succeed in vertical industries with deep operator expertise, trust is the key issue. The more transparent the system, the easier it is to trust it." Mr Lillemets says the real challenge is not the sophistication of AI models but the quality of logistics data. "The models are probably smart enough already for what we need," he said. "Data is the biggest limitation." Robert Petti, founder of Prompt Global, believes the entire debate risks missing the point. "I believe focusing on multi-agent versus super-agent architecture is the wrong approach," he said. "The real question is about capabilities, not structure. "If a single agent can handle everything effectively, that is a positive outcome. The primary goal is that the agent enhances the user's or company's performance and improves the customer experience." Instead, he argues that clean, structured data, governance and business context will prove far more important than the underlying AI architecture. Project44 chief executive Jett McCandless also cautions against organisations accumulating ever more standalone AI tools. "If I was advising [a freight forwarder], I'd say 'don't buy another point agent'," he told The Loadstar. Instead, he argues AI should combine APIs, specialist agents, and a central AI "brain" operating across a unified logistics data graph. Despite their differing technical philosophies, there is one point of agreement. None believes the future lies in AI chatbots that simply answer questions or draft emails. Instead, they expect AI to execute operational work - processing bookings, handling documentation, responding to customers, and managing exceptions - while humans increasingly focus on commercial relationships and genuinely complex problems. FreightSuite says it has already demonstrated what that future could look like, recently completing an end-to-end shipment that was more than 90% agentic, with human involvement largely limited to customs compliance. Whether the industry ultimately converges around specialist agents, super agents, or hybrid architectures remains an open question. What is less disputed is that, as CH Robinson's strategy demonstrates, AI is no longer an experiment - it is a competitive advantage measured in margins, not promise.