Container lines

The G6 Alliance laid out an aggressive blueprint for expanding in the U.S. market, saying it could establish a joint operations center similar to the P3 alliance and could jointly negotiate for terminal space, shipbuilding, as well as barge, transshipment and other services.

Hapag-Lloyd views its merger talks with Chile’s CSAV as a springboard to deals with other ocean carriers aimed at catching up with the industry’s top three operators, the chief executive of the German container line said.

Hapag-Lloyd has expanded its fixed day, weekly Gulf Caribbean Service to include eastbound and westbound calls in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia.

The majority of public comments sent to the Federal Maritime Commission regarding the proposed P3 Network were supportive of the vessel-sharing alliance among the world’s three largest global container lines.

The Asian Shippers' Council believes the Sri Lankan government has struck a blow for shippers by making the collection of terminal handling charges and other fees...

Hapag-Lloyd and CSAV are in talks over a possible merger that would create the world’s fourth largest ocean carrier.

“K” Line will open an office in Yangon, Myanmar, in January 2014.

Maersk Line has announced a new weekly intra-America service, which is the result of a slot charter agreement with Hapag-Lloyd.

The G6 Alliance unveiled plans to expand into the trans-Atlantic and Asia-U.S. West Coast trade lanes in a widely expected response to the proposed P3 Network partnership between the world’s three largest carriers, Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM.

Container lines currently use a variety of methods to announce general rate increases, but those tactics could become more regulated in the future...

Zim Integrated Shipping Services returned to the black in the third quarter of 2013, as it closed on a debt restructuring deal with its creditors.

Hanjin Shipping today appointed Tai Soo Suk as its new president and CEO.

Crowley has ordered two LNG-powered ships that will each carry up to 2,400 20-foot-equivalent units of containers and nearly 400 vehicles to replace triple-deck towed barges...

Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores reported a net loss of $46.7 million in the third quarter of 2013, compared with a net income of $55.8 million in the same period in 2012.

The largest ocean carriers sharply increased their market share at the expense of their smaller rivals in the third quarter, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

French container line CMA CGM reported its operating profit more than halved in the third quarter of 2013, compared with the same period last year...

The European Union today announced it has launched a formal antitrust investigation into several ocean container carriers to address concerns they have coordinated freight rate hikes on the Asia-Europe trade since 2009.

Japan’s trade surplus with the United States widened 38.8 percent in October from a year earlier to 577.2 billion yen ($5.77 billion) as exports surged at a much faster pace than imports, according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry this week.

U.S. beef exports in September remained ahead of 2012 levels, but pork exports continued to face “a number of challenges"...

Third quarter profit for DFDS, the European short sea shipping and logistics group, rose 13 percent from a year ago as higher North Sea volumes more than offset lower traffic in the Baltic region.

Li Shaode, 63, has retired as chairman of China Shipping Group, one of the largest state-run shipping conglomerates in China. The Investor Relations Department of the group’s listed company, China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), has confirmed the news.

The bankruptcy of Hainan Pan Ocean Shipping at the end of October brings to an end Capt. Li Kelin’s attempt to repeat his earlier successes in building a shipping business.

Shipping Corporation of India swung to a $19.52 million loss in its second fiscal quarter of 2013-14 from a $47 million profit in the same period a year ago.

Maersk Line is reorganizing the eastbound port rotation of its Europe-Middle East 3 (ME3) Service connecting India, the Middle East and Europe, effective this month.

Evergreen Line is partnering with Hanjin Shipping to create a new service linking South Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

Despite Hanjin Shipping’s statement last quarter that the company was achieving “remarkable” improvement in the first half of 2013, the container line reported...

Conventional wisdom and economic logic, it seems, are two ideals shipping lines operating in the world’s largest ocean trade really don’t care to acknowledge. How else to explain Asia-Europe carriers’ attempt to push through steep rate increases amid cargo growth that’s advancing at a snail’s pace, a persistent glut of capacity and increasingly volatile spot pricing — and doing it during the traditionally weak fourth quarter that followed a second consecutive flat peak season?

Maersk Line’s third quarter profit rose to $554 million in the third quarter of 2013, from $498 million a year earlier...

Capacity growth in the Asia-Europe liner trade will increase 6.5 percent in 2014 unless carriers cancel services or introduce more blank sailings, according to the latest analysis by SeaIntel.

Israeli ocean carrier Zim has completed the $50.5 million sale of stakes in two Chinese container manufacturers.

Hapag-Lloyd’s third quarter profit plunged more than 60 percent from a year ago as weak peak-season freight rates outweighed increased container volumes.

Hanjin Shipping President and CEO Young Min Kim, saying he was taking responsibility for the company's continuing losses and delays in obtaining financial support from major creditor banks, announced his resignation on Monday.

U.S. steel imports in September totaled 2.761 million tons, declining 4.1 percent from August, but increasing 6.1 percent from September 2012, according to government reporting.

Even as Cosco becomes confident it will achieve a full-year profit and avoid delisting, it was denying reports that former chairman Wei Jiafu was placed under travel restrictions, after one of its top executives resigned under a cloud of investigation.

When Maersk Line CEO Soren Skou told the JOC’s TPM Conference in March that nearly 12 percent of container industry invoices are inaccurate, shippers took notice. It has been, after all, Maersk Line’s “highest customer service issue for some time,” one that potentially costs ocean carrier customers millions of dollars a year.

The mixed messages evident from China’s latest PMI readings were confirmed by the value of export contracts signed at the Canton Fair, China’s huge import and export jamboree.