Container lines

FedEx Corp. Founder, Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith will deliver the opening keynote address at JOC Group’s TPM 2014 conference next March.

This is the season when Major League Baseball teams watch the scoreboard for updates on the standings. Container lines and shippers are doing the same thing with economic news as they seek clues to future demand.

Det Norske Veritas and Germanischer Lloyd will launch the world’s biggest ship classification society on Sept. 12, after receiving the final anti-trust approval for their merger.

China’s export growth last month outstripped most forecasts, with shipments to the U.S. seeing significant expansion.

U.S. steel exports in July totaled 1.087 million tons, rising 2.2 percent from 1.064 million tons in June and 0.3 percent from July 2012, according to government reporting.

Member lines of the Southern Africa Europe Container Service, including Deutsche Afrika-Linien, Maersk Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Safmarine...

The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller has called at the Tanger-Med port in Tangier, Morocco, its latest visit on its first service loop in Maersk Line’s Asia-Europe service.

Hamburg Süd will implement a revised policy on chassis provision in the Charleston, S.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; and Atlanta areas, effective Oct. 1.

United Arab Shipping Company’s order for 10 mega-ships represents the first challenge to the market supremacy of major ocean carriers since Chinese lines...

Hyundai Merchant Marine has opened a new off dock container yard in Qingdao, China.

Major container lines have announced rate increases for a variety of trades, as detailed below, slated to take effect in September and October...

Regional container carrier Orient Express Lines has launched a new dedicated feeder service linking key hub ports in the Indian subcontinent.

CMA CGM is building a war chest. The French ocean carrier has nurtured its debt-ridden balance sheet back to health and is raising capital to guard against future down cycles in what promises to be an increasingly volatile environment for the container shipping industry.

Members of the G6 Alliance have canceled two voyages scheduled for early October, as a result of vessel maintenance and a national holiday week in China.

The U.S. Merchant Marine could lose up to 15 vessels, dealing a blow to mariners who operate the vessels, if federal sequestration cuts take effect next year, according to a maritime trade union.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods expanded to $58.6 billion in July, up $4.5 billion from June, as exports fell by $1.1 billion to $132.7 billion and imports rose $3.4 billion to $191.3 billion.

Hyundai Merchant Marine said it expects to return to profitability after a long interval of operating losses.

Canada’s merchandise exports in July slid 0.6 percent month-to-month, while imports inched up 0.6 percent, resulting in a trade deficit of C$931 million (about US$887.3 million)...

Firefighters today extinguished a fire aboard the Maersk Kampala which broke out on Thursday as the container ship was preparing to transit the Suez Canal en route to Europe.

“K” Line and two shipbuilding companies, Shin Kurushima Dockyard and Japan Marine United, have reached agreements to build four new car carrier vessels.

After a strong start in the first quarter, container volumes in the trans-Atlantic trade have declined, and average vessel utilization has dropped sharply, eroding freight rates.

Firefighting tugs early Monday were making progress toward extinguishing a blaze on the Maersk Kampala, five days after fire broke out in a container in the ship’s forward bay as it steamed toward the Suez Canal, Maersk Line said.

The container ship Cosco Asia was attacked while it passed through the Suez Canal on Aug. 31.

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics, India’s leading feeder operator, has started a fortnightly coastal container service linking DP World’s Vallarpadam Transshipment Terminal at Cochin with major ports on the east coast.

China Shipping Container Lines’ loss shrank 1.8 percent year-over-year, to RMB 1.3 billion (approximately US$205.6 million), in the first half of 2013.

The Maersk Kampala, adrift south of the Suez Canal, for a third day was still fighting a fire that broke out in two containers in the foremost bays on its deck.

Mega-ships are both bane and opportunity for container lines, reducing per-container costs while simultaneously fueling overcapacity that puts pressure on freight rates.

U.S. containerized exports fell 6.1 percent year-over-year in June, to 925,043 20-foot-equivalent units, according to preliminary figures from PIERS, a JOC sister company.

United Arab Shipping Co. has placed a $1.4 billion order for five 18,000-TEU container ships and five 14,000-TEU vessels with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Maersk Line said Thursday that the Maersk Kampala was fighting a fire in two containers within the foremost bays on deck.

Cosco Container Lines reported a loss of $366 million for the first half of 2013, China Cosco Holdings Co. said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Thursday.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services reported a $72 million net loss for its second quarter, up from a $47 million loss in the same period of 2012, but an improvement on the $110 million deficit in the 2013 first quarter.

CMA CGM’s second quarter net income jumped to $268 million from $169 million a year ago, mainly because of the sale of a large minority stake in its ports unit.

Maersk Line and its intra-Europe subsidiary SeaGo Line said they will not accept cargo to or from Iceland beginning Oct. 1.

Drewry Maritime Research is taking a negative view of the outlook for publicly traded Korean container shipping lines.

Sluggish volume on all-water routes between Asia and the East Coast of North America “does not bode well for this year’s peak season” and may force carriers to cancel sailings later this year, Drewry Maritime Research warned in its current Container Insight Weekly.

Shipping Corporation of India has announced a general rate increase in its westbound trade from the Indian subcontinent to Europe, starting Sept. 1.

Hamburg Süd has christened a ship in the U.S. for the first time in the company’s history.

The crisis engulfing German owners of container ships deepened with reports that Ahrenkiel, a leading charter operator, is being pressed by its bankers to put itself up for sale.