Container lines

While Greece struggles to escape financial ruin and an exit from the eurozone, it has cemented its position as the world’s leading shipping nation.

The falling oil price is having a talismanic effect on the cargo shipping industry, boosting consumer spending, raising U.S. demand for China imports and improving the profitability of container lines, research from Barclays has found.

United Arab Shipping Co. on Monday said it will make its debut on the North Atlantic container trade lane in May via a new vessel-sharing partnership with French carrier CMA CGM and Germany’s Hamburg-Sud.

The European Shippers’ Council urged competition regulators to step up monitoring of deals like the increased collaboration between CMA CGM and Hamburg-Sud, which “will make sure the container liner market will be one step closer to total convergence.”

U.S. West Coast port congestion and the phasing in of major shipping alliances pulled global carrier reliability to a record low, adding an extra sting to rising rates hitting shippers, according to Drewry’s most recent Carrier Performance Insight report.

The low sulfur fuel regulation that came into effect in January on shipping lanes in northern Europe and the U.S. and Canada has had a “virtually zero “cost impact due to the collapse in the price of oil and resistance from shippers, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.

Shipping Corporation of India swung to a Rs. 31.3 crore (about $5 million) net profit in its fiscal third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, from a $10.6 million loss in the same period of 2013, driven by cost savings and higher freight rates that helped offset a marginal decline in revenue.

Demand for extra ships tied to the U.S. West Coast longshore labor showdown is driving up charter rates for certain classes of container ships.

Containerization of perishable cargoes seems to have hit a snag — at least temporarily — as the slump in bunker prices makes conventional reefer ships more competitive again.

Japan’s energetic farm-export drive is bearing fruit, as the country’s overseas shipments of agricultural, fishery and forestry products mushroomed 11.1 percent in 2014 from the previous year to a record high of 611.7 billion yen (US $5.14 billion).

CMA CGM is equipping its containers with an innovative real-time data monitoring system that will enable the carrier and its customers to keep track of the location and specific conditions of their cargoes.

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics rebounded to a Rs. 22.4 crore (US $3.6 million) net profit in the third fiscal quarter from a net loss of about $468,000 in the same period in 2013, driven by a significant growth in the shipping activity that has helped the company become a pan-India feeder line.

After three years of negotiations, Japan and Mongolia have signed a free trade agreement, paving the way for the trade pact to take effect later this year or early in 2016.

Danaos Corp.’s most recent earnings highlighted an improving container ship charter market as the Greek ship-owner posted a 56 percent increase in adjusted net income in the fourth quarter of 2014.

There are now more than 1 million TEUs of capacity on ultra-large ships on the waters or on order after Evergreen Marine announced late last month it had finalized plans to charter 11 new vessels with capacity for 18,000 TEUs each

French ocean carrier CMA CGM has introduced the biggest container ship to call at a Brazilian port as it beefs up its Asia- East Coast South America service.

Spot rates on the Asia-U.S. trades soared this week as trans-Pacific carriers prepared to slap on another general rate increase and the East Coast route continued to benefit from heavy levels of West Coast port congestion.

The idle container ship fleet has fallen to its lowest levels in more than three years, in large part because of the “worst-ever” congestion on the U.S. West Coast, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.

The Shanghai Shipping Freight Exchange has completed the first trading of container shipping capacity in foreign trade included in a forward agreement contract, but futures contracts in container shipping internationally have been very slow to take off.

CMA CGM and Hamburg Sud are expanding their current cooperation agreement to several additional liner trade routes in the latest consolidation of global container networks.

Costamare, the Greece-based container ship owner, is eying further expansion of its 59-vessel fleet this year after reporting a 15 percent year-over-year increase in fourth quarter profit.

U.S. trade moving on container ships directly via European ports, including transshipments, increased 2.1 percent year-over-year to 4.6 million 20-foot-equivalent units in the 12 months ending September 2014, according to PIERS, the data division of JOC Group.

CMA CGM and Shipping Corporation of India have announced new rate restoration initiatives on the Asia-Europe trade lane, effective this month.

Maersk Line said it has cut capacity by 10 percent on the trade between the east Coast of South America and Europe and the Mediterranean in response to the “steady decline” in market demand.

CSAV has finalized a share auction that raised $398 million toward a capital increase in Hapag-Lloyd that will make the Chilean company the leading shareholder in the world’s fourth largest ocean carrier.

Congestion in Los Angeles-Long Beach has reached a crisis stage with 20 container ships stuck at anchor Tuesday in the largest U.S. port complex — and no relief in sight.

Taiwanese container carrier Wan Hai Lines established its own representative office in Gandhidham, India, to cater to the needs of its vessel calls at the ports of Mundra and Pipavav.

Hyundai Merchant Marine announced that the private equity unit of Japanese financial services group Orix Corp has been selected as the preferred bidder for its controlling stake in affiliated stockbroking firm Hyundai Securities.

When the Maersk Kotka called at Charleston and Savannah on Jan. 30 and 31 on a Europe-U.S. Gulf-Mexico-U.S. South Atlantic rotation, there was nothing unusual about the service, but for one big thing: It marked the first call at those ports by a ship on the revamped trans-Atlantic TA3 service jointly operated by Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. in the new 2M Alliance.

A strengthening U.S. economy will continue to generate strong container volumes this year despite weak head haul demand during the latter stages of 2014, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Japan's Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. says it has secured orders for 11 containerships with capacities of 20,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, and is adding a large dry dock for their construction.

Months of severe congestion caused container shipping line on-time performance to plunge nearly across the board in 2014, according to Danish research firm SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

Maersk Line is in early talks with Asian shipbuilders for an order of up to 10 container ships that would have capacities of up to 20,000 20-foot-equivalent units, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

OOCL plans to upgrade its intra-Asia service network by joining the Singapore-Chennai 2 (SC2) service operated by Wan Hai Lines and Bengal Tiger Line, starting in early February.

Sen. John McCain’s amendment to repeal a key provision of the Jones Act failed to make it into a Senate-passed bill authorizing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Evergreen Marine Corp. on Wednesday finalized plans to charter an 11-strong fleet of 18,000 TEU ships, becoming the latest carrier to deploy ultra-large container vessels but raising questions about how appropriate such ships designed for an era of slow steaming are after the recent plunge in oil prices.

U.S. exports of several agricultural products including pork, beef, poultry, apples and forage products are shrinking, and some export opportunities could be lost permanently because of dockworker slowdowns and the gridlock that has emerged at West Coast ports, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition reports.

Leading container shipping groups are under fire from a safe shipbreaking campaign group for continuing to send vessels to "sub-standard" beach demolition yards on the Indian sub-continent.

United Arab Shipping Co. has ordered 2,000 reefer containers as it prepares to expand into the South American liner trades.