# Marcelo Fujimoto

Marcelo Fujimoto writes about freight markets, logistics operations, and international trade technology. Fujimoto's posts analyze shipping and rate trends and describe building modular trade tools at Tandom, including a free US import duty calculator.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/marcelo-fujimoto/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelofujimoto
- Topics: supply-chain
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-09-29

## Summary

Most useful for paid B2B content on freight markets, logistics operations, and trade automation.

- Best for: Freight forwarding technology brands needing paid content on trade automation and logistics market analysis.
- Not for: Consumer fitness apparel or broad short form video campaigns with mass consumer reach.
- Check first: Confirm formats, rates, audience data, prior results, and inquiry route before contacting.

### Takeaways

- Flat airfreight rates persisted for three years while Chinese New Year timing changed.
- Freight's defensible value lies in handling exceptions, not transactions.
- Tandom offers a free US import duty calculator and modular trade APIs.

## Main ideas

- **Old seasonal freight patterns are breaking down**: Marcelo Fujimoto argues that flat airfreight rates across three years, despite Chinese New Year shifting significantly, undercut the traditional pre-holiday rate spike. The seasonal scramble that once justified premium pricing and Q1 capacity commitments has weakened. Rates are predictable, but volumes are not: customers still expect capacity during former peak windows, even as the economic signals behind those investments grow inconsistent.
- **Rate relief after disruptions is no longer automatic**: Marcelo Fujimoto argues that winter weather once drove temporary trucking rate spikes, followed by a snapback when conditions normalized—giving forwarders predictable margin recovery windows. Now, rates remain elevated after disruptions clear. The issue is not weather severity but tighter baseline capacity: with fewer trucks available, the market has less elasticity when demand surges or supply contracts. That changes margin planning, even as customers still expect prices to normalize after disruptions pass.
- **Carrier and forwarder planning horizons are structurally mismatched**: Marcelo Fujimoto argues that carriers and freight forwarders operate on incompatible time horizons. Carriers invest in capacity they will control five years from now, while forwarders compete for space they need next quarter. Future mega-ships are therefore designed around carrier economics rather than forwarder needs, embedding today's space-allocation problems in tomorrow's fleet.
- **Freight's defensible value is in exceptions, not transactions**: Marcelo Fujimoto argues that a selloff in freight brokerage stocks reflected not doubts about AI's capabilities but investor uncertainty over which parts of the logistics value chain are defensible. Investors see software automating transactions and assume the intermediary will disappear. Fujimoto locates value in coordinating shipments when things go wrong: customs delays, documentation discrepancies, and carrier substitutions. The board-level question is not whether technology can automate freight matching, but whether operations create value that is difficult to replicate when problems arise.
- **Trade infrastructure should be modular and API-first**: Marcelo Fujimoto argues that logistics companies should not each rebuild non-core but critical shipment functions. Instead, modular, API-first engines can handle duty calculation, HTS classification, AD/CVD intelligence, document management, and email triage. Forwarders, brokers, shippers, and founders should be able to call an API for an accurate duty calculation rather than spend weeks or months building and maintaining a tariff engine.

## Work to read

- [Launching a free US import duty calculator and modular trade APIs](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcelofujimoto_internationaltrade-logistics-freightforwarding-activity-7436750207737937920-CFwC)
- [A karaoke company's AI white paper wiped billions from freight brokerage stocks](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcelofujimoto_a-karaoke-companys-ai-white-paper-wiped-activity-7429211014488879104-ElXx)
- [Airfreight rates staying flat across three years](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcelofujimoto_airfreight-rates-staying-flat-across-three-activity-7432462684287217664-V4NP)
- [Rate resilience during winter disruptions signals a structural shift in trucking capacity](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcelofujimoto_rate-resilience-during-winter-disruptions-activity-7429533135257702400-FL1M)
- [Carriers are ordering 18,600 TEU ships for 2029 delivery while forwarders struggle with space today](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marcelofujimoto_carriers-are-ordering-18600-teu-ships-for-activity-7431729351739600896-MKbB)

## Brand relationships

- **Tandom** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

No partnership or sponsorship formats appear in Marcelo Fujimoto’s posts. Across five LinkedIn posts from February and March 2026, they write about freight rates, carrier capacity, and trade technology, but none states a sponsored format, rates, audience terms, or a way to inquire about collaborations. In one post, Fujimoto announces a free US import duty calculator built at Tandom and describes modular, API-first engines for duty calculation, HTS classification, AD/CVD intelligence, document management, email triage, and similar functions, each available individually as an API. It’s a product announcement aimed at forwarders, customs brokers, and shippers—not a sponsorship or partnership package. Ask directly about available formats, pricing, and process before planning a content collaboration on international trade automation or logistics market analysis.

## Alternatives

- Divyam Goel: Choose Goel when the collaboration is about why logistics software rollouts fail inside real operations: staff acting as human routers between email, CRM, and ERP systems; pricing knowledge that lives in one manager's inbox rather than the TMS; and AI tools built by people who have never run a request for quote end to end. Goel writes from an engineering background that includes payment and marketplace infrastructure, then turns it into a direct question to forwarders about what broke in their last AI rollout. That makes Goel a sharper partner than Fujimoto when the campaign goal is to start a conversation with operators about adoption pain, not explain a market shift.
- Heather Hoover-Salomon: Choose Hoover-Salomon for a plainly structured explainer for buyers: how tariffs on Chinese e-commerce imports could raise consumer prices, cut small-parcel volumes, increase customs checks, push sourcing toward Mexico or Southeast Asia, and change what domestic delivery networks need to offer. The same numbered, sectioned format covers sustainability topics, such as why electric and hydrogen trucks matter for regulatory compliance, fuel and maintenance cost, noise-restricted urban delivery, and driver health, and where charging infrastructure and battery range still limit adoption. Use Hoover-Salomon when readers need the moving parts of a policy or technology shift laid out in order.
- Alain Borri: Choose Borri when the collaboration is a technology-market argument rather than a product or policy explainer: whether AI cost savings in freight forwarding stay in the forwarder's margin or pass to customers as lower prices, how per-seat TMS pricing loses relevance when agents do the work, and whether shippers will stop needing a standalone TMS. The posts state a role, a location, and a named newsletter, giving a sponsor a recognizable author with an existing distribution channel and a stated thesis readers can agree or argue with. That fits a brief seeking debate and comment volume from supply chain technology leaders.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/