Container lines

Zim Integrated Shipping Services will increase rates on its trade between North Europe and the east Mediterranean, starting April 14.

London Offshore Consultants has opened two new offices in the North Sea region, located in Newcastle, U.K., and Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

Hapag-Lloyd has announced that the OOCL Belgium, on voyage 17W10, has suffered propeller damage and will be delayed on Hapag-Lloyd’s SLCS1, the St. Lawrence Container Service, route 1, and OOCL’s corresponding GEX1, the Canadian Gateway Express, route 1.

Mediterranean Shipping Company and Shipping Corporaton of India are reorganizing the port rotation of their Indian Subcontinent-Europe Service, effective this month.

Logwin Logistics today announced at the L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival at Victoria State’s Government House that it has seen “significant growth” in the Australian high fashion and lifestyle sector.

“K” Line is planning to add new “ultra-large container vessels” to its fleet as replacements for existing ships.

Crowley Maritime will offer a second weekly southbound sailing from Port Everglades, Fla., to Nassau in the Bahamas, starting March 23.

India was the fourth largest energy consumer in the world in 2011, topped only by the U.S., China and Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s International Energy Outlook 2011.

CMA CGM swung to a $361 million net profit in 2012 from a $5 million loss in 2011 as the French ocean carrier boosted volumes and freight rates and slashed costs.

A US-EU free trade agreement would jumpstart global economic growth and could be signed within two years, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington Monday. The Irish prime minister spoke to the business lobby on trans-Atlantic trade on the eve of a White House visit.

Hapag-Lloyd’s net loss grew to 128 million euros ($165 million) in 2012 from 29 million euros ($37.4 million) a year earlier, as surging fuel prices outweighed modest increases in volume and freight rates.

Hapag-Lloyd will increase rates on its trade from East Asia, excluding Japan, to the Indian subcontinent, by $200 per 20-foot-equivalent unit, starting April 15.

Danish Ship Protection has teamed up with Dan-Bunkering and in the future will begin offering Dan Bunkering’s customers maritime security solutions.

Cosco will hike rates on its trade from northwest Europe and the Mediterranean to the Far East and the India and Pakistan region, starting April 15.

Zim Integrated Shipping has cancelled contracts for five container vessels and delayed the delivery of a further four ships by a year to 2016.

Rickmers Maritime Trust said it plans to raise approximately $81.5 million from a rights issue to repay bank loans, including a top-up facility granted in 2008.

Seaboard Marine has begun using new bilevel automotive containers to handle shipments of automobiles to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

The G6 Alliance, which recently announced its expansion into the Trans-Pacific trade, has now provided details on the port rotations of the new services.

Hapag-Lloyd will increase rates on its westbound trade from India and Pakistan to North Europe and the Mediterranean by $225 per 20-foot-equivalent unit, starting April 1.

If the current civil unrest in Egypt forces the closure of the Suez Canal, ocean shipping lines would be able to absorb most of the shock of diverting Asia-Europe shipments around the Cape of Good Hope by increasing vessel speeds.

The undercard is complete, the verbal jousting is done, and it’s time to get on with the main event: the container shipping industry’s contract negotiating season.

APL no longer offers vessel space for 53-foot ocean containers in its trans-Pacific services.

Container lines’ rapid exit from intermodal chassis ownership is spawning several equipment supply models that emphasize flexibility and a larger role for lessors and truckers.

Evergreen Line, Hanjin Shipping and Simatech Shipping will join forces to launch the new IDEA service, linking the Indian subcontinent, Persian Gulf and East Africa, starting in late March.

The Federal Maritime Commission’s commissioners have voted to allow a new agreement with the G6 Alliance to go into effect, permitting the six carriers to deploy more than 50 ships in the trans-Pacific trade, particularly increasing the frequency of vessel port calls on the U.S. East Coast.

Maersk Line and its Asian arm MCC Transport are to open a branch office in Myanmar to tap a market poised for strong cargo growth following the suspension of European Union and U.S sanctions in 2012.

Carriers currently operating services on the Southeast Asia-Australia trade will consolidate their respective services, beginning in the middle of April.

Hanjin Shipping has expanded its services in Indonesia.

Lockheed Martin has received initial orders to manufacture cryogenic tanks for fueling liquefied natural gas powered vessels.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services has announced that Zim Container Service Atlantic will add a second call in New York on its eastbound route, starting this month.

Box Ships intends to offer and sell 4 million of its common shares at $5.25 per share in an underwritten public offering. The offering is expected to close on March 18.

CMA CGM Group has finalized the purchase of 50,000 bamboo "eco-containers" with 25,000 light steel containers, which is in line with the company’s environmental policy.

Slack U.S. import demand and too much vessel capacity undermined most of the general rate increase that container carriers implemented on Jan. 15, sending average spot freight rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific trade down this week, the third consecutive week of decline.