Container lines

An advisory committee to the US Department of Commerce will explore new options to support manufacturers and agriculture exporters struggling to obtain empty containers at remote hinterland locations.

Rates are increasing again on the Asia-East Coast of South America trade even as South American importers are facing a longer wait getting products from Asia.  

The new Mediterranean Shipping Co. service from China to the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma could be followed by others as carriers seek alternative gateways to Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. piloted an electronic bill of lading with 100 customers, leading to its rollout of a digital BL product designed to increase accuracy and security of the crucial shipping document.

Vessel on-time performance improved slightly to the US West Coast in March and slipped a bit to the East Coast as vessel bunching continues to cause delays in ports on both coasts.

Maersk upgraded revenue and profit expectations for the first quarter and full-year 2021 as it sees a better-than-expected demand for trans-Pacific shipping.

After nearly a decade of systemic overcapacity that resulted in widespread consolidation and a moratorium on new vessel orders, container carriers are again ramping up vessel orders, but that doesn’t mean they’ll give up strong financial position in which they find themselves now.

Ongoing congestion and delays on the US West Coast have led Hapag-Lloyd to temporarily halt bookings for all cargoes due there from Latin America as carriers announced general rate increases on the trade.

Midsize shippers say securing sufficient vessel space for their increased imports is more important than the higher freight rates in this year’s eastbound trans-Pacific service contract negotiations.

The world’s largest maritime trade groups are making their first call to support a global carbon fee that aims to reduce shipping emissions.

Maritime executives tell Congress the US needs to take a greater role in developing low-carbon shipping fuels.

Shippers — big and small — need to re-assess their supply chain strategies for the post-pandemic new normal and find the best balance between transactional costs, and supply chain speed, flexibility, and resilience.

Maersk is furthering its ambitions to get closer to its shipper customers with a new fourth-party logistics aimed at large cargo owners that struggle to tie together data around demand, inventory, and cargo flow.

Although trade between the US and Latin America has been spared the severe disruptions seen on the US West Coast, sources say PortMiami has seen vessel unloading times spike because of ships arriving one to two days late.

Zim’s launching of another expedited trans-Pacific service reflects the container line’s ability to quickly capitalize on rising e-commerce demand in the United States.

Retailers predict US imports will continue to be at record or near-record levels at least through August as consumers have plenty of cash to spend on merchandise.

Maersk is feeling pressure from customers and investors to decarbonize its operations, but the carrier says that pressure will bring the transparency needed to help accelerate its drive for carbon neutrality.

Five of the largest global container lines are adopting the Digital Container Shipping Association’s track-and-trace standards, a sign that carriers are starting to recognize that shippers’ need for standardization outweighs their desire to keep systems proprietary.

Cosco joins other carriers in posting strong profit figures for 2020 due to the rebound in rates and volumes in the second half of last year.

Daniel Maffei is taking the helm of the Federal Maritime Commission as port congestion has grabbed the attention of the new Biden administration and some exporters accuse container lines of refusing bookings.

OOCL has continued to invest in new ships and services, placing an order last year for 12 23,000-TEU vessels for delivery during 2023-2024.

Global on-time vessel performance improved marginally in February, but reliability in the Asia-North America trades continued to slide, hitting new record lows for the month.

With more than 30 container ships still waiting to transit the Suez Canal on Thursday, major ports in Europe are bracing for a deluge of cargo once the grounded Ever Given is refloated.

Hapag-Lloyd hopes capital markets will underwrite its transition to a low-carbon future with plans to market its first “green bond,” with the new debt used in part to purchase ships that run on alternative fuels.

Carriers have so much leverage this year that in addition to the service contract rate, some are quoting a second-tier rate, reportedly much higher than the contract rate, for commitments of cargo beyond the shipper’s minimum quantity commitment (MQC).

Zim Integrated Shipping Services said it believes global port congestion has reached its peak, it doesn’t expect US import pressures to let up.

Decarbonization goals at global shippers is pushing the industry toward more granular scrutiny of supply chain-related emissions, a task that’s being helped by emergent technology and a focus on shipper collaboration.

The consensus among shippers, forwarders, and carriers is that strong consumer demand in North America will continue through the second quarter and into the traditional peak season.

Despite the IMO 2020’s sulfur cap, the COVID-19 collapse in oil prices last year made the case for sulfur scrubbers less urgent. But BIMCO said scrubbers now make sense.

Even as containerized agriculture exports have grown every year since 2015 and global commodity prices rise, agriculture exporters won’t find it easier to secure equipment and ocean slot space until the import imbalance eases.

MSC said it will bring on a new trans-Pacific service linking the southern Chinese port of Yantian and Vietnam with the two largest ports in the US Southeast and New York.

There is no sign from the operational side of the container shipping industry that the bottlenecks will be resolved in the short term., meaning shippers need to plan for the current challenges to be a normal state of affairs for a while longer.

Container line CEOs and others told the JOC's TPM21 conference that carriers have been doing their best to adjust to volumes that surged to record levels in the second half of 2020 after plummeting during early COVID-19 lockdowns.

More members of Congress are asking federal maritime regulators to speed up their probe into the lack of export container availability for US agricultural shippers, saying monthly updates are needed.

US retailers project that continued growth in on-line shopping, as well as increasing in-store shopping, will power double-digit increases in imports through June.

A group of 24 senators wrote to the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in support of its investigation into accusations carriers have been denying export bookings, thereby injuring the US agricultural sector

Industry analyst Lars Jensen says container carriers have finally figured out how to prevent the volatile pricing swings of past years through capacity management and right-sizing of vessels for various trade lanes.

The race for multimodal visibility is heating up as project44, fresh off a $100 million funding round, acquires container visibility specialist Ocean Insights for an undisclosed amount.

The Texas legislation being questioned by two Federal Maritime Commissioners stemmed from concerns among non-container port users that the growing volume of containerships calling Houston are disrupting the ability of other vessels to transit in an efficient manner.

Maersk’s Vincent Clerc says COVID-19 tested the industry’s limits on bringing spare capacity to shippers, but there is no need to add new ships just yet.