of InPost shareholders tender their shares to the Advent, FedEx, A&R and PPF consortium. The 80% threshold is cleared: Europe’s parcel-locker leader changes hands.
Post & Parcel · 18 SepEdition of 30 September 2026
Hormuz, tariffs, 5% rates.
Hormuz, tariffs, 5% rates.
The world’s crises now ship with every parcel.
Fuel, air freight, the end of duty exemptions, network consolidation: how global tensions travel, link by link, into the cost and speed of a parcel.
Briefings
The analysis, region by region
Trade · Global e-commerce
The small-parcel door closes: who pays, who declares, and where volume goes
The US, the EU, the UK and Japan are ending duty-free treatment for low-value e-commerce parcels, while Brazil has just reopened its door. For carriers and platforms, the question is no longer whether a small parcel pays, but who declares it, on what data and from which warehouse.
Geopolitics · Southeast AsiaASEAN bets on one digital rulebook as every border starts taxing the parcel
Southeast Asia is about to sign a regional digital economy pact while Washington hunts transshipment and its own governments close the low-value parcel gap. For carriers and platforms, origin data and in-market stock now decide who keeps the volume.
Geopolitics · ChinaWestern doors close to China's parcels, so the platforms move the warehouse
Washington extended its truce with Beijing but kept the de minimis door shut, while Brussels now charges every small parcel. China's platforms and carriers answer by shipping in bulk and delivering locally, and small sellers pay the transition.
Regulation · European UnionEurope now charges every parcel. Who absorbs the bill?
Since 1 July a €3 duty applies to every tariff line in a low-value parcel, and from 1 November a €2 handling fee follows. Volumes into the main EU gateways have roughly halved, and the fight is now over who pays, who carries the liability and who owns the data.
Geopolitics · Middle EastHormuz in its eighth month: the parcel pays the fuel bill and the detour
The Iran war has run since 28 February, a June peace deal collapsed in July, and Washington rejected Tehran's latest offer on 26 September. With Brent above $100 and jet fuel more than doubled, surcharges, reroutes and Gulf gateways now set the price of a cross-border parcel.
Trade policy · North AmericaAmerica charges every parcel and puts North America's trade pact on a yearly leash
Washington has written the end of de minimis into customs law, rebuilt its tariffs after the Supreme Court ruling and refused to renew the USMCA. Parcels now clear as full imports, flows inside North America have become one-sided, and margin is moving to whoever holds the broker licence and local stock.
Trade · North AfricaTangier, Suez and the parcel: North Africa's gateway opens as its borders tighten
Morocco's ports and free zones are drawing traffic and Chinese investment, and Suez is slowly reopening. At the same time Rabat, Cairo, Algiers and Tunis are tightening their rules on imports, so the region is getting easier to route through and harder to sell into.
Industry wire
What moved this week
Temu is now level with Amazon in cross-border purchases, up from under 1% in 2022.
IPC cross-border survey · 30,970 shoppers, 37 countries61% say knowing delivery and customs charges before buying is “essential”.
IPC · 2025 surveyJ&T Express now earns half its revenue outside China; H1 profit doubled.
Investing.com · H1 2026 results slidesbpost opens a 7,930 m² centre in Maldegem for 3,000 parcels a day: letters down 14%, parcels at record highs.
Post & Parcel · 25 SepPoste Italiane lifts its TIM offer to €6.65 a share and drops the two-thirds threshold: a postal operator moving into telecoms.
Post & Parcel · 8 SepDPD passes 4,000 electric vans ahead of peak, with 341 eSprinters arriving in September.
Post & Parcel · 10 SepThe why
From geopolitics to the parcel
Hormuz puts a fuel bill on every air parcel
- What happened
- Brent has been above $100 since the war began in February.
- Why
- Integrators and Asia–Europe air freight pass it on through fuel surcharges.
- What it means
- Cross-border margins are squeezed just before peak season.
The $800 free pass is gone. US clearance now runs on data
- What happened
- The de minimis exemption has been suspended indefinitely since 24 June 2026.
- Why
- Duties are now paid monthly by a designated filer, usually the operator.
- What it means
- An edge for those who master customs data: classification, origin, value.
A trade truce, but no return to direct small parcels
- What happened
- Tariff cuts on about $30bn of goods each way in September.
- Why
- The US de minimis exemption is not restored by the truce.
- What it means
- Platforms keep moving stock into local warehouses.
Deals & investments
The deal tracker
| Date | Company | Deal | Region | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Sep | bpost | New parcel distribution centre in Maldegem (7,930 m²) | EU | Post & Parcel |
| 18 Sep | Advent, FedEx, A&R, PPF | InPost offer: 89.81% of shares tendered | EU | Post & Parcel |
| 10 Sep | DPD UK | 341 electric vans, fleet above 4,000 | UK | Post & Parcel |
| 8 Sep | Poste Italiane | Raised TIM offer: €6.65 a share, two-thirds threshold dropped | EU | Post & Parcel |
Calendar · GLOBAL
What’s coming
Sources
Close to the ground, in the local language
Institutions, trade press and niche regional media, read in their original language. Every fact links to its source.
Institutions
UPU · IPC · WTO · European Commission · U.S. CBP · WCO
Europe
Post & Parcelen · Parcel and Postal Technology Internationalen · DVZde · Voxlogfr · El Mercantiles · Trasporto Europait
North America
Supply Chain Diveen · FreightWavesen · Modern Retailen · Marketplace Pulseen
South America
Mundo Logísticoes · Logwebpt · T21es · Valor Econômicopt
Asia & China
Caixinzh · 36Krzh · Nikkei Asiaen · ET Retailen
Middle East & North Africa
Zawyaen · Arabian Businessen · Médias24fr · Hespressar
About
Jalal Boucheikha
Shipping Product Director at Asendia
Engineer by training, I work where operations, commercial, compliance and strategy meet: the product side of how cross-border parcels are processed, cleared, routed and tracked.
My day-to-day is multicultural and multi-regional, with teams and partners across several continents, and a practice of agile at scale inside a large organisation.
I started WhyItLands to explain the why behind the decisions reshaping e-commerce logistics, domestic and cross-border, in a form that is quick to read and easy to check.
“Complexity should be invisible. What you expose to your merchants, your partners, your customers should be simple, reliable and programmable.”
WhyItLands is a personal project. Views are my own and do not represent my employer.
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