Container lines

Matson said growth in its core Hawaii market helped fuel increases in the carrier’s third-quarter volume, revenue and profit, and that it expects year-over-year improvement in the fourth quarter.

Maersk Line has joined 10 other container lines and shipowners in a group known as the Trident Alliance to test enforcement of the new low-sulfur fuel regulations that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, in so-called emission control areas in North Europe and North America.

Rates from Asia to Northern Europe nearly doubled this week while trans-Atlantic rates dipped to new lows, according to the latest readings from the World Container Index.

The transition by the world’s container carriers to operating larger ships and the new alliance structures are significantly impacting hub ports, said Randy Chen, Wan Hai Lines assistant to the president.

If China’s largest trade show, the Canton Fair, is a true barometer of how the mainland’s export performance will shape up in the next six months, the signs are not positive.

Hapag-Lloyd is a step closer to merging with CSAV after Brazilian regulators gave the go-ahead for the duo to create the fourth-largest container line in the world.

The global order book-to-fleet ratio is the lowest it’s been in 15 years, Alphaliner said today, though it could soon rise as carriers are expected to place orders for larger ships later this year.

The international trade association that represents the world’s freight forwarders and logistics service providers, FIATA, has called on container shipping lines to provide greater clarity on the ever increasing variety of surcharges that they apply.

Steadily dropping bunker fuel prices have raised the intriguing possibility of slow-steaming carriers starting to speed up ships, which would have the immediate effect of injecting huge amounts of additional capacity into a heavily oversupplied market.

Shipping lines that carry U.S. exports to Asia are expected to adjust their fuel surcharges on Jan. 1 to reflect new low-sulfur content rules and changes in operating conditions in the westbound trans-Pacific.

China’s containerized exports to the U.S. are showing significantly higher growth this year even as China’s economy is expanding at its slowest pace since the financial crisis and when 2014 may show the slowest annual growth since the early 1990s.

Canceled sailings and shrinking volumes are injecting more volatility on the Asia-east coast South America trade, Drewry says.

Intra-Mediterranean container volume is expected to be flat this year at 14.9 million 20-foot-equivalent units, but rise to 15.6 million TEUs next year and 17.1 million TEUs by 2017, according to the Dutch consulting firm Dynamar.

The much-hyped north-south liner routes aren’t living up to their billing as the future of container shipping in the new low-growth environment that followed the global financial crisis.

The three largest Japanese container lines, MOL and “K” Line and NYK Line, all reported improved container shipping revenues in the six months from April through September but saw profits go in different directions. The results showed the effects of limited improvement in Asia to Europe rates but revealed challenges in port congestion in Asia and cascading of larger ships into north-south trades as mega-vessels are delivered into Asia-Europe.

The idle container ship fleet likely will stick at its current four-year low as ocean carriers are reluctant to pull services during the slack winter season, according to Alphaliner.

NOL Group today reported a third-quarter net loss of $23 million but managed to reduce its core earnings before taxes by 31 percent through cost management and efficiency that have delivered $290 million in savings so far this year.

Growing international trade and rising container volumes and revenue during the third quarter was reflected in the financial results of China’s top two carriers — China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) and China Cosco.

Ten more CMA CGM ships are scheduled for modifications to their bows that will help the company save nearly 6 percent on fuel, the French carrier said.

Hapag-Lloyd again raised its “on-carriage congestion surcharge” for import shipments handled at Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), indicating that India’s largest container handler is still battling clogged railyards and that equipment turn times for ocean carriers have yet to improve.

With the launch of its SeaLand inter-Americas service approaching on Jan. 1, Maersk has begun transitioning its affected customer base from Maersk to the newly created SeaLand unit.

Atlantic Container Line said the first of five new ships in a top-to-bottom fleet upgrade are on track to enter service next summer, followed with an additional delivery every two months until its current fleet of 1980s-era ships is replaced.

Bunker fuel surcharges are falling along with the drop in fuel prices, according to Catapult International which tracks ocean surcharges.

Slow European economic growth and political unrest in the Middle East is casting a “dark cloud” over recent container growth between the two continents. Drewry Maritime Research said.

Revenue gained through Suez Canal tolls in September rose 6.3 percent year-over-year but fell 8 percent from August, suggesting freight growth on the Egyptian waterway might be slowing.

CSAV, in the process of being absorbed by Hapag-Lloyd, has added two new weekly loops, Sling 2 and Sling 3, to its IMEX service linking the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North Europe.

Matson Navigation is dropping its fuel surcharge on its Hawaii and Guam services to reflect the decline in bunker fuel prices.

Shippers and their logistics and transportation providers must collaborate, and not simply negotiate, if they hope to resolve a host of supply chain problems, starting with equipment, personnel and capacity shortages.

Shanghai Containerized Freight Index spot rates from Asia to Europe continued a downward spiral this week, sinking below the $700 per 20-foot container mark to $697 per TEU.

Port congestion in Southern California is driving cargo to third-party logistics providers that have access to capacity from ocean and overland carriers, and the information technology systems to link these services together in an end-to-end supply chain solution, according to a 3PL executive.

The massive congestion affecting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is creating a fresh wave of diversions to other ports as shippers flee the worst congestion that the largest port complex in the Americas has seen in at least a decade.

Chiquita International and Irish banana seller Fyffes are busy wooing shareholders, saying the synergies of a combined company would result in $60 million in annual savings, much of it from lower transportation and fuel bills.

Antwerp’s container traffic grew 5 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2014, putting the Belgian port on track for a record total throughput in 2014.

Aided by a Pennsylvania incentive program, Mediterranean Shipping Co. will continue to operate a direct service between North Europe and Boston and Philadelphia alongside its forthcoming 2M Alliance with Maersk Line.

Japan’s trade surplus with the United States expanded for the first time in eight months in September on a year-over-year basis, as exports posted relatively strong growth despite a decline in auto shipments, according to preliminary trade figures released by the Japanese Finance Ministry today.

Construction on Crowley’s two vessels powered by liquefied natural gas began today, with the first of the pair slated for delivery in second-quarter 2017 and the second expected later that year.

General rate increases in the trans-Pacific count on participation from all carriers to be successful, and are hurt when one carrier or several discount prices on the eve of a hike, Transpacific Stabilization Agreement executive administrator Brian Conrad says.

Hamburg Süd said it has taken steps to combat significant delays in vessel arrivals and departures at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as severe congestion at the largest port complex in the Americas has reached a new level of intensity.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka assured footwear importers meeting in Long Beach Tuesday that the Southern California ports have proposals that could provide some immediate relief to the worsening congestion problem in the harbor.

The Ocean Three Alliance of CMA CGM, China Shipping and United Arab Shipping Co. has received U.S. regulatory clearance without the standard 45-day review by the Federal Maritime Commission, but Commissioner Richard Lidinsky isn’t happy about it.