Container lines

TOTE Inc. has scheduled an April 18 launching for its first container ship built to operate on liquefied natural gas fuel. The new ship will be operated by Sea Star Line between Jacksonville, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

CMA CGM will sign an order for three 20,600-TEU container ships this week, the French carrier’s vice chairman said.

Two road trips 50 years apart reveal how far Mexico has come — and hasn’t — in its development as a trade giant.

CMA CGM’s profit soared more than 43 percent in 2014 as the French carrier transported a record number of containers, cuts costs and trimmed its debt.

Hyundai Merchant Marine is selling its bulk shipping division, the latest in a series of assets that South Korea’s second-largest shipping conglomerate is shedding to raise liquidity.

A week after announcing its formation, a new shipper coalition in Shanghai lambasted container lines for focusing on price to the detriment of service.

OOCL and Yang Ming Line have expanded their joint China-Pakistan Express (CPX) Service by adding a direct call at Adani Hazira Container Terminal, a private facility in West India, starting in mid-April.

Hapag-Lloyd, Germany’s biggest container line, slumped to a net loss of 603.7 million euros [$652 million] in 2014 largely due to the one-off cost of acquiring and integrating Chilean carrier CSAV.

Maersk Line has kick started its $15 billion ship investment program with its first order in more than four years for seven ice-class container vessels.

Speculation has been rife in the Singapore media about a possible tie-up between Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) and fellow G6 Alliance member Hong Kong’s Orient Overseas International Ltd. (OOIL), but a closer look at the business of the two carriers reveals that merging their operations would create little synergy.

The Asia-Europe trade needs a system similar to the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement on the transpacific route so carriers can apply general rate increases and set surcharges in a more consistent and transparent way, a leading industry analyst says.

Trans-Pacific spot rates fell 9 percent from last week to a 12-month low amid continuing congestion at U.S. West Coast ports, according to the container freight rate benchmark published by Drewry Maritime Research.

Singapore-based regional container carrier Pacific International Lines (PIL) will become a major shareholder in Mariana Express Lines, a compatriot Asia feeder operator.

Phil Peters, president of Cuba Research Center, a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Virginia, says the U.S. and Cuba have been making progress in normalizing their diplomatic and trade ties, and overcoming political opposition within the United States to the Obama administration’s clear desire to end the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba.

Just a week after AlixPartners reported improving finances for container lines, the international consulting firm provided a less-than-cheery projection of the industry’s balance sheet in 2015.

The low cost sourcing model that has driven the apparel manufacturing industry from country to country in search of cheaper production alternatives is not sustainable and has to change, top shippers said at a sourcing conference.

Proposed protective measures for the Great Barrier Reef will lengthen the voyage between Australia and its largest trade partner, China.

Shipowners that charter out container ships to liner operators are optimistic that the container shipping market is turning around and that charter rates for their vessels will increase as shipping lines turn to them to fill a gap between supply and demand that will start to open up in 2016 and after.

A U.S. Federal Maritime Commission member wants the FMC to ask the four major container ship alliances to supply new information on what they’re doing to reduce congestion at U.S. ports.

A Mediterranean Shipping Co. container ship and a bulk carrier were attacked in separate but possibly related incidents off the coast of Indonesia, according to the intergovernmental anti-piracy office ReCAAP.

A container-carrying barge that Crowley Liner Services added to fill a void left by Horizon Lines’ exit from Puerto Rico is scheduled to arrive Monday in San Juan on its first voyage.

Spot rates continued to tumble on the major east-west trades this week with the Asia-Europe price per 20-foot container hitting $620, its lowest rate in more than 18 months, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).

Many container shipping lines have amassed huge debt by ordering mega vessels in a bid to drive down unit costs, but weak demand and an oversupply of tonnage will make it difficult to improve financial performance, according to AlixPartners’ 2015 Container Shipping Outlook.

Ocean carriers must unlock more value from alliances and accelerate internal transformation programs to restore profitability, according to Boston Consulting Group.

The agency responsible for the operation and management of the Panama Canal has asked for an international arbitration panel to review a $233 million award to the consortium expanding the waterway.

Container lines’ overall on-time arrival rates on major east-west routes improved slightly in February despite U.S. West Coast port congestion that upset trans-Pacific schedules, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Japan’s exports to the U.S. rose for the sixth consecutive month in February, surging 14.3 percent to 1.215 trillion yen ($10.0 billion) on the back of brisk auto shipments, according to preliminary trade figures released by the Japanese Finance Ministry this week.

A bill requiring ocean going ships to switch to low sulfur fuel while at berth in Hong Kong was tabled at the Legislative Council today and, if passed, will effectively raise the cost of shipping containers through the city even as it steadily loses market share to Shenzhen.

An improved balance between the supply of container ships and demand for capacity is emerging as ordering of new ships has slowed down, a shipping analyst said.

Environmentalists and human rights activists warn that Nicaragua’s granting of a 100-year concession to a Hong Kong construction firm with unclear financial backing sets in motion a nightmarish scenario fraught with violence, depletion of the region’s largest source of freshwater and destruction of biodiversity.

Idle container ship capacity edged up to 242,000 TEUs on March 9 from 206,000 TEUs two weeks earlier, representing 1.3 percent of the world fleet, according to Alphaliner.

In an attempt to reduce port bottlenecks, the Narendra Modi-led Indian government has approved a special state-aid scheme for the construction of new infrastructure suitable for handling coastal vessels at publicly owned major ports.

Facing higher transportation costs and a shift in consumer demand, shippers are changing how and what kind of apparel they import into the U.S.: opting for less expensive cargo that can be packed and stacked over luxury goods shipped on the hanger.

Mexico’s recent expansion of its ban on U.S. poultry after authorities confirmed a case of bird flu in Arkansas is the latest blow to exporters whose containerized shipments have steadily fallen since China and South Korea imposed their own bans months ago.

India’s merchandise exports in February plunged 15 percent from a year earlier to $21.5 billion, following an 11.2 percent decrease in January, marking the lowest value in three years, according to provisional figures released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The average ship turnaround time at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex in the fourth quarter was twice that experienced by carriers in August, with the congestion during the three month period costing carriers an estimated $150 million, or $1.5 million per weekly service, according to analysis by Drewry.

Container line financials are gradually improving thanks to asset sales, reduced operating expenses, debt reduction and effects of a 50 percent drop in bunker fuel, says the consulting firm Alix Partners.

U.S. shippers importing goods from Asia to the West Coast are paying more in the spot market for ocean shipping but getting worse service in return, a function of carriers’ pricing power gained from strong demand and the effects of the congestion.

The usually staid U.S.-South America ocean container trade is undergoing a shakeup, and it starts at the top of the carrier hierarchy.

A look at full-year 2014 U.S. West Coast containerized ocean trade via Asian ports.