Container lines

The Maersk Group today slashed its 2015 profit outlook by $600 million due to a deteriorating global container shipping market.

G6 Alliance carriers have suspended a trans-Atlantic service, the latest sign liners are pulling back capacity after spot rates hit the lowest level in more than a year. The move follows the downgrading of a trans-Atlantic service by members of the 2M Alliance.

Costamare, the Greek charter containership owner, said it is on the acquisition trail as it unveiled lower third-quarter income and revenue.

The Maersk Group today signed a letter of intent with the Indonesian government to improve the flow of cargo through the eastern port of Bitung and speed up maritime and economic development of the under-served region.

The United States remains Japan’s biggest export market, edging out rival China, and will likely see that status receive a significant boost from a historic trans-Pacific free trade agreement.

The doomed cargo ship El Faro reported a “hull breach” and was 20 miles from the eye of Hurricane Joachin when it was last heard from before sinking with the loss of its 33-member crew, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

The G6 Alliance plans to omit sailings from Asia to the Mediterranean and North Europe in November and December in response to expected low demand.

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a certificate of inspection for the Isla Bella, a liquefied natural gas-fueled container ship that TOTE Maritime had planned as a replacement for the 40-year-old El Faro, which sank Oct. 1 with the loss of its 33-member crew.

Germany’s troubled HSH Nordbank has struck a restructuring deal with European Union regulators that will allow the world’s biggest ship financier to offload some of its non-performing portfolio to its majority state shareholders.

Frank Peake, former president and chief operating officer of Sea Star Line, has lost his appeal of his conviction and five-year prison sentence for participating in a price-fixing conspiracy in the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico market.

Hapag-Lloyd has got bids for all the shares it plans to sell in its scaled down initial public offering next week.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Maersk Line today announced the withdrawal of direct services between Asia and the Black Sea as the 2M Alliance partners react to slumping traffic and plummeting freight rates.

India’s exports plunged 24.3 percent year-over-year in September, the steepest decline since July 2009, increasing pressure on the Narendra Modi-led government to rev up the economy in the wake of sluggish global demand.

Rates on the U.S. East Coast trade are falling as carriers take positions on next year’s opening of the expanded Panama Canal, and no amount of general rate increases between now and next spring will restore prices to previous highs, according to Drewry.

Mega-vessels are still making mega-waves across the container shipping industry — from carriers, ports and terminal operators to shippers and insurers — as shipyards churn out increasing numbers of historically large vessels.

Hanjin Shipping, South Korea’s largest container carrier, is continuing its strategy of divestment as it works to focus on the container shipping industry and improve its liquidity in a time of falling freight rates.

Crowley Maritime has asked asked the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission for an exemption from having to separately amend and refile approximately 500 service contracts that the carrier will assume with its recently announced acquisition of Seafreight Line.

Trans-Pacific spot rates for U.S. containerized imports showed mixed signals this week amid persistent signs of a tepid peak season for pre-holiday shipments.

Increased vessel capacity continues to weigh on trans-Atlantic container spot rates, which this week remained near their lowest levels of the year, according to the World Container Index posted on JOC.com’s Market Data Hub.

Spot rates on the China-Mediterranean trade fell below $200 per 20-foot container for the first time, a level that is almost $1,000 lower than at the beginning of the year, according to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index.

The benefits of the recently agreed Trans-Pacific Partnership on Asia-U.S. trade will not be felt immediately, but the 11-nation deal will have an impact on volumes in the longer term, according to JOC senior economist Mario Moreno.

The family of one of the 33 crew members missing from the sunken cargo ship El Faro has filed a lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages from the owners and captain of the ship, which sank off the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin.

China’s two largest shipping lines continue to tease the market with cryptic filings to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges and an extension of the trading halt that has been placed on shares since August.

Hapag-Lloyd is scaling back plans for its initial public offering, and now plans to seek $300 million instead of the $500 million as it had previously announced.

China will remain the driving force in global container trades for years to come with scant possibility of an alternative region emerging to challenge its dominant position.

The fleet of idle container ships over 500 twenty-foot equivalent units grew by 107,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unitss to 780, 000 TEUs in the past two weeks and is set to increase going into the slack cargo season, Alphaliner said.

Container carrier APL announced it is upgrading its New Zealand Express, or NZE, service by adding a direct northbound call at Brisbane, Australia.

Container shipping alliances are causing more capacity to be generated than they are able to fill, Rod Riseborough, CEO of Container Trades Statistics, told delegates at JOC's TPM Asia conference in Shenzhen today.

In the hyper-competitive world of refrigerated transportation, ocean carriers are always on the lookout for new solutions to control the atmosphere inside their containers while satisfying their drive for energy efficiency and improved environmental sustainability.

Major container carriers such as Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., United Arab Shipping Co., Hamburg Sud and Hapag-Lloyd are among those making significant investments in their reefer business to help offset slower growth in other business areas.

An arm of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said stronger action is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships, and that a carbon tax on shipping would be a way to achieve it.

Pharmaceutical companies have increased their oceangoing share of shipments. Ocean carriers and cold chain service providers are happy for the business, but the moves have also creased concerns over insurance and liability.

Hapag-Lloyd is pressing ahead with its initial public offering despite market volatility that has prompted some other German firms to re-think their share listing plans, the chief executive of the world’s fifth largest ocean carrier said.

Analysis of the giant Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement continues to pour in, with a top China economist predicting it will slash 2.2 percent off the mainland GDP while maritime analyst Drewry said the deal would lead to increasing container volumes.

Singapore-based APL has added a new connection to its recently announced Eagle Express service between Asia and the U.S. that will link the islands of Guam and Saipan to Yokohama from Nov. 24.

Growth in consumption of fruits, vegetables, meat and fish in emerging and newly industrialized countries should accelerate in the coming years, creating tailwinds for reefer container and specialized reefer operators.

China’s New Silk Road trade route initiative will benefit both China and Pakistan. And while international opposition is expected, internal politics pose the main threat to the largest-ever foreign investment in the Pakistani state.

Spot rates on containerized imports from Asia were flat to down this past week even though October is normally the peak month of the year in the eastbound Pacific. Hopes for a strong peak season are therefore fading fast.

Investigators seeking to determine why the TOTE Maritime cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin last week with the loss of its 33-member crew are taking a close look at the vessel’s sister ship.