Container lines

The U.S. Congress would no longer require U.S.-flag vessels to move goods between the mainland and Puerto Rico under a five-year debt restructuring plan proposed Wednesday by Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

New Delhi on Monday approved relaxing its cabotage law to allow foreign roll-on, roll-off ship operators to offer coastal services, another big step by the Narendra Modi-led government to reduce supply chain bottlenecks.

Hyundai Merchant Marine extended its Korea-Middle East, or KMS, service to include a regular call at Abu Dhabi Terminals-operated Khalifa Port Container Terminal, starting this month.

The G6 Alliance has announced another raft of canceled sailings on Asia-Europe in October and November as carriers face a poor final quarter on the battered trade lane that will round off a dismal second half.

China’s economic indicators continue to portray a country struggling against weak domestic and external demand with growth in factory output falling short of market expectations and offering little encouragement to declining exports.

Eastbound trans-Pacific spot freight rates softened a bit this week even as volume rose, sending an ominous signal to carriers hoping to cash in on holiday season merchandise imports.

The vessels, priced at $125 million each, are scheduled for delivery in 2018 and 2019.

Spot rates on the Asia to Europe and the Mediterranean crashed this week, giving back most of the gains made since the September 1 general rate increase, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

A group of truck drivers protesting their classification as independent drivers are disrupting Toronto-area container deliveries by blocking trucking terminals.

Cosco, China's largest shipping company, Wednesday ramped up its mega-ship ambitions by placing a $1.5 billion order for eleven 19,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unit container vessels, expanding its ultra-large containership orderbook from 11 to 20.

Sinokor Merchant Marine is the latest container carrier to try to tap growing demand on the intra-Asia trade by setting up cooperation agreements with current operators on the route.

Dutch container trader CARU Containers has launched a new international container leasing company.

Container lines on the trans-Pacific believe freight rates on the westbound U.S. to Asia trade have reached the bottom and expect pent-up demand to help carriers achieve across-the-board general rate increases that will begin on Oct. 1 and extend to the end of the year.

Back-to-back increases in freight rates on the Asia-Europe trade lane the past two weeks and the announcement of proposed increases in the eastbound Pacific to the U.S. indicate that peak-season volumes are finally starting to materialize in the important east-west trade lanes. And spot rates are rising, albeit from a low level.

Maersk Line said it will cut about 16 percent of its capacity on the West Central Asia-Europe trade lane by discontinuing a vessel string in response to lower-than-expected volumes.

Plans to dredge a nearly 6 mile channel at Port Said as well as develop the entire region surrounding the New Suez Canal remain on hold, reports suggest.

Freight rates on the spot markets continued their downward trend in early September, but shippers as well as carriers continue to say there will be a peak shipping season this year, and it will take place from October into early November.

CMA CGM will raise rates on cargo heading from the U.S. to Asia at a time of falling U.S. exports.

Orient Overseas Container Line, or OOCL, has joined the ranks of carriers this month announcing general rate increases for goods moving from Asia to Europe, despite the persistently weak market on those lanes that has undercut monthly GRIs for most of 2015.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is testing a container ship windshield that the Japanese carrier hopes will reduce wind resistance, save fuel, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 2 percent.

The KM Meratus Banjar 2 sank in the Java Sea, claiming the lives of two sailors.

Maersk Line is upgrading its Middle East-South Africa-West Africa, or Mesawa, service by adding a direct call at Colombo, Sri Lanka, in an attempt to pick up additional cargo.

Spot freight rates on trade lanes from Asia to Europe and the Mediterranean held on to gains from the Sept. 1 general rate increase, rising for the second successive week, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

Hyundai Merchant Marine has launched a new service connecting Asia and the west coast of Latin America.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is adding calls at North Europe ports to its Angola Express Service in another sign of West Africa's allure to players in the container trade.

CMA CGM and its partners in the Ocean Three Alliance are combining services to form a new string as carriers continue to try to reduce capacity on the oversupplied Asia-Europe trade.

FESCO, one of Russia’s largest privately-owned transportation and logistics companies, posted significant declines in container volumes in the first half but believes that its future is bright.

Big retailers in the U.S. are dragging their Chinese suppliers back to the table to re-negotiate order contracts and take advantage of lower manufacturing costs following Beijing’s sharp devaluation of the yuan.

CMA CGM announced a Sept. 20 general rate increase of $500 per 20-foot-equivalent unit encompassing all cargo originating in Asia and heading to North Europe.

A strong dollar and uncertain global macroeconomic outlook has led observers to forecast a 2.4 percent drop in U.S. exports this year, but the makeup of that decline is not uniform and some regions have even seen their number of U.S. exports increase.

Sluggish global demand has made this a rough year for U.S. exporters, with no quick recovery in sight.

China’s manufacturing output contracted for the sixth consecutive month in August as two purchasing manager’s indexes confirmed that the world’s second largest economy is deep in slowdown mode.

Brazilian beef exporters are poised to double their shipments to Iran after the major Middle Eastern importer ended a three-year ban on non-frozen shipments from the state of Parana.

TOTE launched the second of two liquefied natural gas-powered container ships that the company’s Sea Star Line subsidiary will operate between the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico.

CMA CGM ‘s second quarter net profit jumped 66.7 percent as rising volumes and lower costs driven by oil prices offset a 7.8 percent drop in average revenue per container.

When Atlantic Container Line in the next couple months introduces the first of five of the world’s largest multipurpose ro-ro/container ships, the symbolism will be stark. The vessels, after all, will carry cargo moving across the Atlantic for shipping sectors heading in opposite directions — the roll-on, roll-off market being a rising star and the containerized trade staring at a sudden, unexpected downturn.

Just days before trans-Pacific ocean carriers aim to implement aggressive general rate increases on eastbound services to North America, average spot rates from Shanghai to the U.S. hit their lowest level in almost four years.

Malaysia and Indonesia are working together to fight rising piracy in Southeast Asia less than a week after six attacks, two targeting containerships, occurred within 48 hours, according to a report.

A plummeting stock market and the devaluation of the yuan have knocked China down a peg, but the Asian manufacturing powerhouse will still grow its trade with the world more than 5 percent annually over the next five years, according to a recent IHS forecast.

It is common knowledge by now that shippers and carriers benefit from the lower transportation costs that large container ships offer, but a new report makes a strong argument that mega-ships are significantly reducing the carbon footprint of ocean shipping.