Container lines

Hapag-Lloyd swung to a first-quarter profit of 128.2 million euros ($143.6 million) from a year-earlier loss of 119.1 million euros as a stronger dollar and lower bunker prices helped to offset weaker freight rates.

Fewer container ships will be moving to the scrapyards this year, analysts say, as charter rates, especially for Panamax ships, continue to rise.

Thomas Farmer, a former executive at Crowley Maritime, has been acquitted on a charge he conspired with competitors to fix prices in the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico trade.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has contracted for construction of a $48.5 million new pier at its San Juan, Puerto Rico, terminal and signed a 30-year lease extension for the property with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority.

Zim has launched a new service between Asia and South America, soon to be followed by its debut on the Asia-U.S. East Coast route via Suez, as the financially revamped Israeli carrier seeks to expand its cargo base on core trades.

Potato prices in South Korea more than doubled in April from a year earlier as importers struggle to match insatiable consumer appetite for honey flavored potato chips.

China recorded grim April trade figures with imports plunging by 16.2 percent and exports falling 6.4 percent, according to the latest official data released at the weekend.

Maritime regulators from the U.S., China and Europe will meet June 18 in Brussels to discuss market and regulatory issues issues including global container shipping alliances’ effect on competition and ports.

A strengthening dollar is slowing U.S. steel exports, which dropped 13.8 percent year-over-year in March and were down 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015. Exports totaled 896,027 net tons in March and 2.7 million tons for the quarter.

Maersk Group has returned to South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for its latest series of ultra-large container ships.

The recent increase in rates for container vessels has lost some of its momentum following a spike in redeliveries of large gearless vessels from short periods and round voyages in the trans-Pacific trade.

Crowley Liner Service called competitor Trailer Bridge’s allegations of patent infringement “specious” and said it would continue to use the disputed equipment to load and discharge flat-deck barges in the Puerto Rico trade.

Chinese president Xi Jinping left this week to visit countries that will play a key role on the Silk Road Economic Belt that Beijing is pushing hard in its bid to secure uninterrupted trade links with Central Asia, Africa and Europe.

Vessel acquisitions by U.S.-listed owners have dropped dramatically this year. The only public companies that are still buying in both the secondhand and newbuilding markets are container ship lessors.

Costamare is set to pocket more than $100 million from an offering of preferred stock in the Greece-based container ship owner.

Iranian authorities released the container ship Maersk Tigris on Thursday, nine days after it was seized by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The economics of the mega-ships of 18,000 20-foot-equivalent units that container lines are building and deploying may not be all they are cracked up to be. The savings that carriers are touting as the reason for ordering them may not be as great as advertised when all their costs are factored in.

Container lines hoping to see freight rate increases supported by a significant rise in export orders will be disappointed by data emerging from the giant Canton Fair in Guangzhou as transaction volumes, numbers of visitors and value of deals were all down compared to last year’s event.

Eastbound trans-Pacific liner reliability has improved for the first time this year, but liner reliablity on the opposing direction fell to the lowest point since JOC.com began collecting SeaIntel data in August 2011.

Navios Maritime Partners, the NYSE-listed Greek dry bulk and container ship-owner, restated its focus on the container sector as it reported lower first quarter income.

The export growth rate of emerging markets in the last 20 years will not be seen in the next two decades as rising wages make outsourcing less attractive and new technologies such as 3D printing start to gain more traction, according to researchers.

There is little sign of China’s factories ramping up production for the mid-June start of the peak ocean shipping season as factory activity stumbles to its lowest level in a year.

Increasing cooperation between Hamburg Sud and carriers in the Ocean Three Alliance suggests it “seems only a matter of time” before the German container line joins the alliance, Drewry Container Insight said in a speculative commentary this week.

Matson’s first quarter operating income quadrupled from a year earlier as the carrier’s niche China-to-U.S. West Coast service continued to benefit from delays afflicting other trans-Pacific carriers.

Trans-Pacific ocean carriers have been digging in their heels to get rate increases in their 2014-2015 trans-Pacific ocean contracts and have been getting increases in some cases, especially on routes from Asia to East Coast ports. But rates negotiated for shipments from Asia to West Coast ports have been flat or lower than last year in some cases when bunker fuel surcharges are included in the rate.

Alianca Navegacao e Logistica launched a 4,800-TEU, the Bartolomeu Dias, in the Brazilian and South American coastal service and plans to launch a second ship this summer.

Vessel operators are being warned against transit in the Strait of Hormuz, three days after a Maersk Line cargo ship was fired upon and seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Charter rates for containerships up to 6,500 twenty-foot equivalent units are on a roll as a rush of new liner services injects a further boost to an already dynamic market, Alphaliner reported.

Panama’s cabinet council has approved a request by the Panama Canal Authority to implement volume-based discounts for container ships. The new toll schedule will take effect April 1, 2016.

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Idle containership capacity had crept up to 345,000 20-foot equivalent units, or 1.8 percent of the world fleet of vessels above 500 TEUs, as of April 20, Alphaliner reported.

A Maersk Line container ship remained in Iranian custody Wednesday, still without a concrete explanation as to why Iranian patrol ships fired upon and seized the vessel while it was transiting international waters.

U.S. imports of electrical goods in dollar value terms expanded 6.3 percent in 2014, the fifth consecutive annual expansion, partly because of a strengthening consumer sector. The trade outlook for 2015 looks positive, with import value expected to increase 5.9 percent, reaching an approximately $330 billion.

Reederei NSB developed a concept to widen a Panama container ship rather than lengthen it, and completed its first project — the MSC Geneva — increasing the TEU capacity by more than 20 percent.

CMA CGM has acquired a strategic stake in LCL Logistix, one of India’s leading freight forwarders and logistics firms.

CMA CGM said its New Europe Mascarene Oceania service will call at the Kattupalli International Container Terminal, an emerging alternative gateway on India’s southeastern coast.

Greek shipowner Costamare and York Capital Management, a U.S. equity fund, are considering extending the life of their investment joint venture that has already spent more than $1 billion on new and secondhand container ships.

China Cosco Holdings reported a first-quarter loss of $166 million just hours after being forced to make its second unusual trading announcement of the month as rumors that the carrier would be merged with China Shipping Container Lines continued to galvanize the market.