Container lines

The fleet of idle container ships above 500 twenty-foot-equivalent units has shrunk for the first time since July due to scrapping of older vessels, rather than increased cargo demand, as charter rates hit all-time lows, according to Alphaliner.

Global carrier schedule reliability in November reached its second-highest level since 2011, according to SeaIntel.

European shippers are urging governments to harmonize their regulations for the meeting of a global container weighing mandate because too few countries have detailed what shippers need to know before the rule takes effect July 1.

The 2M Alliance stands to gain from the pending consolidation of the container line industry because the alignment of the five alliances to which the other major carriers belong will change and with it their services, making the consistency provided by the tie-up of Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. more attractive, according to a senior MSC executive.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services said it will launch a seasonal Black Sea reefer service between Israel, Egypt and Russia earlier than planned in response to market demand.

The much-anticipated Panama Canal expansion project is now 96 percent complete, but will not be open to commercial traffic in April as previously reported, according to the canal authority.

China’s Ministry of Transport has fined eight international container lines a total of $169,000 for failing to meet the freight rate guidelines set by the ministry.

Overweight containers have blighted the maritime sector for decades, leading carriers and terminal operators to take steps to reduce the number of overweight containers they handle, to say nothing of the looming verified gross mass mandate that takes effect in the summer of 2016.

The arrival of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin Saturday morning heralds the new era of mega-ships in the U.S. These vessels, with capacities of 18,000 20-foot container units or larger, will place unprecedented demands on ports to expand cargo-handling capacity and improve marine terminal efficiency.

The Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association has applied for a block exemption order from the city’s competition law that came into effect on Dec. 14 and effectively outlaws the vessel sharing agreements that dominate shipping activity at the port.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services is expanding its refrigerated container fleet by 1,900 forty-foot containers to meet growing demand for equipment that can provide shippers real-time updates of temperature and gas levels within the equipment.

Russian regulators won’t levy fines against the five container lines it says colluded on prices in 2012 and 2013 on lanes connecting to Asia until next year.

As the idle container ship fleet hits an all-time high, freight rates could recover in 2016 as retail stocks are depleting in Europe amid strong retail sales.

State-owned Shipping Corporation of India has added a second call at Pipavav Port to its intra-regional “SCI Middle East India Liner Express,” or SMILE, service, offering more importing and exporting coverage to shippers in the country’s west coast region.

The curved bow of a container vessel recently deployed by a Japan container line promises to burn 5 percent less bunker fuel than conventional vessels of its size that don’t take inspiration from airplane noses.

The impact of China’s decision to create Emission Control Areas to combat air pollution will be cushioned by low fuel prices and its focus on compliance while at berth rather than sea until 2019.

Downward pressure on charter rates for container ships remains fierce as the year nears its close.

Ocean carriers are facing a second consecutive year of shrinking container traffic on the troubled trade from Europe to the east coast of South America as the key Brazil economy is in a “real funk,” according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Brazil coastal carrier Log-In Logistica Intermodal has deployed a new container ship after its volume rose 24.5 percent year-over-year to 241,736 twenty-foot-equivalent units in the first nine months of the year.

Freight rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific continued to sink this past week, with spot freight rates to both the East and West coasts hitting new lows for the year.

Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel has said that it will be seeking permission from a France court to sell the freight ferry Nord-Pas-de-Calais following a British Supreme Court judgement confirming earlier decisions by the U.K. competition authorities barring it from operating out of the port of Dover.

Container lines are leaving billions of dollars in fuel costs on the table by not putting enough focus on berth productivity.

Spot rates on the major east-west trades fell across the board this week with Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean now priced at 60 percent less than during the same week last year, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

United Arab Shipping Company has loaded what it describes as a world record 18,601 TEU on one of its brand new fuel efficient mega-ships that is now heading for Felixstowe.

SeaLand plans next month to add a weekly Philadelphia-Mexico route that the Maersk Group regional carrier is touting as an alternative to cross-border land transportation for perishables.

To mitigate service disruptions caused by potential consolidation, APL, CMA CGM, China Shipping Container Lines and Cosco could elect to participate in more than one major alliance during a transition phase, Federal Maritime Commissioner William Doyle said last week.

Five Asia-based container lines will expand a service in mid-February that connects to Australia, while another China-based line will also beef up its service to and from Oceania.

JOC Senior Economist Mario O. Moreno expects U.S. containerized exports to end the year down 2.5 percent from 2014 but rebound by 4 percent next year, as global growth bolsters slumping U.S. export markets.

Westbound trans-Pacific carriers intend to implement modest rate increases of $100 per 40-foot container from West Coast ports to Asia, and $200 from the East Coast, in order to prevent rates from falling so low that it would make more financial sense to ship the containers back to Asia empty.

Rickmers Maritime said it will post a net loss in the fourth quarter and for the full year due to the depressed container ship charter markets that forced a write down in the value of its vessels.

CMA CGM’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines and the forthcoming merger between state-owned Cosco and China Shipping are unlikely to spur a fresh round of consolidation in container shipping, according to Drewry.

The brand new the 17,859 TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin will on Dec. 26 become the largest vessel to call at the Port of Los Angeles, ushering in the age of the mega-vessel on the trans-Pacific.

China Shipping Container Lines will exit the container trade under the merged and reorganized China Cosco Shipping Group, a move that raises questions on the carrier’s continued participation in the O3 Alliance it shares with CMA CGM and UASC.

Spot freight rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific continued to deteriorate this week, with rates to the West Coast sinking faster than those to the East Coast, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index published on JOC.com’s Market Data Hub.

The listed entities of Cosco and China Shipping Container Lines will resume trading on Monday after being suspended for more than five months as reorganization to merge the complex web of public entities under the two groups gets under way.

Carriers in the G6 Alliance said they expect the alliance’s membership to remain intact through 2016 while CMA CGM seeks regulatory approval of its $2.4 billion acquisition of the parent company of G6 member APL.

Spot freight rates on the Asia-North Europe trade continued their schizophrenic weekly journey, rising so high in the latest reading that the weekly comparison with the same period in 2014 is almost level for the first time this year.

The top group representing the merchant global fleet is calling for the International Maritime Organization to take the lead in regulating shipping emissions after language that would urge the body to do so was stripped from a broader United Nations plan to address climate change.

The long-expected merger of Cosco and China Shipping has received the green light from the State Council, China’s media is reporting.

The transportation industry has been omitted from a draft text of the agreement nations are haggling over at the Paris Climate Conference to keep the planet’s warming from greenhouse gases to below 2 degrees Celsius.