Container lines

Shippers are watching closely to see whether regulators approve the latest proposed vessel-sharing agreement in the global container trade and how those carriers left behind respond.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s announcement last week that it wouldn't object to two alternative methods of verifying container weights set in motion a high-stakes game of chicken between carriers and exporters. It is also fueling a fight among ports seeking to present themselves as the most user-friendly to shippers struggling to comply with the new rule.

“The difficult market condition is prompting consolidation and changes in alliances in the industry. While APL continues to make progress in taking out costs and improving yield, the proposed acquisition of APL by CMA CGM will help APL achieve scale to stay competitive in the industry,” NOL Group President and CEO Ng Yat Chung said.

There is not much in the container line tool box to address low rates. Carriers are loath to idle too much capacity or blank too many sailings lest they lose market share, and general rate increases that are regularly imposed never stick for long.

The Italian ports and shipping community is mourning the loss of Marco Simonetti, the popular and highly regarded vice president of Contship Italia Group.

Matson expects its operating income from ocean transportation this year to drop 15 percent to 20 percent from 2015, when its niche China-to-U.S. service benefited from larger rivals’ problems at West Coast ports.

Pan Ocean, one of South Korea's largest bulk carriers, has resumed container services in Southeast Asia for the first time since it exited receivership in early 2015.

Hanjin Shipping’s creditors Wednesday approved the shipping line’s proposal for voluntary restructuring of its debt.

Speculation on the makeup of a new container shipping alliance is mounting following the unveiling of the Ocean Alliance last month, with Maersk Group CEO Nils Andersen chipping in with his views on the subject.

Freight rates at record low levels dragged down Maersk Line's first-quarter net profit.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is levying the collective experience of the private sector to fight congestion at U.S ports.

Pacific International Lines is looking beyond today’s bleak business climate and is aiming to make a splash later this month.

Trans-Atlantic spot rates are forecast to rise.

The world’s major ship owners are feeling the pressure as container ship charter rates plummet and charters are being renegotiated as the financial positions of shipping lines worsen, according to Drewry.

Maersk Line is poised to disclose its first-quarter results after a bruising three months.

Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine have confirmed they are in discussions with other container lines on forming alliances.

Hanjin Shipping has reached out to ship charterers to request their patience and understanding as it tries to restructure its debt.

After three straight weeks of decline, the spot rate for shipping a 40-foot-equivalent unit container from Shanghai to the West Coast shot up this week.

Hermann Yu, president of the Taiwanese container line Yang Ming Marine Transport, died at home on April 27, the company has announced. He was 59.

The U.S. Coast Guard Thursday gave its stamp of approval to two alternative methods for obtaining certified container weights to comply with new international regulations.

CMA CGM, the third-largest global container line, got the go-ahead on Friday from the European Union to acquire Neptune Orient Lines, the parent company of APL, but with one condition.

Spot freight rates on the Shanghai-North Europe and Asia Mediterranean trades shot up this week.

Technology is playing an increasing role in the management of freight rates.

Long-awaited guidelines on how China will implement the SOLAS container weight rule have been released.

The Port of Houston has announced how it will handle the SOLAS verified gross mass rule.

Japan’s three largest container lines mostly reported dismal financial results for fiscal 2015 on Thursday.

A big new container shipping alliance aimed at blunting the power of a partnership between the world’s two largest ocean carriers and promising to shake up the other major vessel-sharing agreements will not set sail until it passes muster with global regulators.

The Port of Charleston and its CEO James Newsome are emerging as mavericks in the increasingly heated debate over a global container weight rule.

The decline in global piracy continued into the first quarter, but attacks are rising in some parts of the world.

CMA CGM has introduced a new container to corner the live lobster market.

Could U.S. freight volumes rise and overall economic growth slow?

The struggles of South Korea's largest container lines have created a new top shipowner in the country.

Standard & Poor’s has placed Hapag-Lloyd on negative credit watch.

The new Ocean Alliance will have the largest market shares of critical east-west trades.

The fleet of idled container ships has shrunk slightly as several large vessels laid-up have returned to service, according to Alphaliner.

The CKYHE Alliance members have announced that they will stick together a while longer.

The voyage data recorder from the El Faro, which sank on Oct. 1 in the Bahamas, killing its 33-member crew, was located early Tuesday morning — a development that lately had seemed unlikely to happen because the equipment’s batteries were believed to have expired.

Container ships and the industry have come a long way since the days of the Ideal X and the birth of modern containerization. The biggest initial hurdles to containerization were making the concept work.

The cutoff time for a shipper submitting the verified gross mass information to a carrier will likely be before the general cutoff time being currently applied, according to a CargoSmart study on the new SOLAS rule that will be implemented from July 1.

U.S. agriculture exporters’ push for a so-called “rational” method to a new container-weighing rule suffered a blow after APL said in a guidance to shippers that it wouldn't allow customers to provide the weight of goods and packaging to the container line, which would then add that figure to the tare weight of the container.