Forwarding

Container leasing companies question the cost efficiencies of retailers leasing containers and chartering ocean vessels and suggest retailers work with ocean carriers.

When assessing the ocean container market, participants should not only look at the headline-grabbing rate figures — the spread is equally important.

CMA CGM is supporting an experimental vessel that will sail around the world as part of a research project into viability of using seawater to produce hydrogen on board.

US East Coast ports will see more vessel calls and volume through April 20 due to the expected arrival of Suez-delayed container ships.

The tight market for shipping capacity is causing a roughly one-month delay to THE Alliance’s planned US and European service changes.

Among the misconceptions raised by the Suez incident is that it has shown the fragility of the global ocean transportation network; nothing could be further from the truth, says JOC analyst Lars Jensen.

Maersk said its new service to US Southeast ports will add faster transits from Asia and serves the rapidly growing Vietnam export market.

The average price for a 20-foot dry container is up around 50 percent since last year, and a backlog of orders means those buying new boxes now will have to wait until August for delivery.

Salvors reported that Suez Canal transits can resume after the Ever Given has been successfully dislodged and is towed away for inspection.

Ocean carriers are beginning to divert ships and shippers face further delays if weekend efforts to refloat the Ever Given don’t work.

US resin exports are expected to see a sharp drop in the second quarter as Gulf Coast producers restart after severe February weather disrupted operations.

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.

Maersk believes the growth in Indian LCL trade is more pronounced among retailers for their sourcing from China and domestic automakers scrambling to secure spare parts to meet resurgent vehicle demand.

An executive at a Hong Kong-based freight forwarder expected blank sailing schedules to be finalized in early January, although he said the number of blank sailings would depend on the return of empty boxes to China.

Three large container lines say most of their available capacity is in use as demand in the US rises, but shippers still fret about finding space on a ship.

Analyzing data from a 52-week rolling window to eliminate seasonality, we are now at a point where the spot rate is more likely to increase than to decrease from one week to the next, a change that means an entirely different dynamic for shippers.

More than a year and a half after establishing a 40-foot container rate index on 12 global trades, the Baltic Exchange has started offering its daily Freightos Baltic Index as a benchmark for freight buyers.

While the imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports into the US has prompted some shippers to shift production to South Asia instead, the logistical and transportation shortcomings of the region are likely to limit growth in cargo headed for the United States.

Mexican shippers are finding this year’s peak season less disruptive to their supply chains than last year and are experiencing less difficulty getting cargo from the ports, as cargo volumes have grown only slightly and ocean carrier rates have stayed in the same range as in 2018.

Zim’s broadening partnership with the 2M Alliance helped the Israeli carrier record a profit in the second quarter of 2019 and an increase in freight rates for the quarter over the same period in 2018.

The shallow drafts pushed up spot rates on cargo from Asia, although it’s unclear how much was due to reduced loading capacity and how much was used by carrier representatives as simply justification to seek higher rates.

As Amazon-era demands for speed are multiplying, time is as important a consideration as cost for BCOs weighing merchant and carrier container haulage.

While blockchain hasn't happened yet in shipping, it remains for many an inchoate concept.

The Bangladesh government is introducing pre-arrival processing of import documents at ports in July.

Non-vessel-operating common carriers have come to the rescue of beneficial cargo owners seeking better service guarantees and lower rates from ocean carriers they have contracted with for Asian imports.

Under the International Maritime Organization's rule, starting in 2020, ships will only be allowed to emit 0.5 percent sulfur, down from the currently acceptable level of 3.5 percent.

Exchange participants hope the New York Shipping Exchange will increase visibility and certainty for shippers, which they argue will result in a better end-to-end experience for its customers.

On a percentage basis, 2017 was one of the strongest increases registered since the end of the Great Recession.

A key, new container shipping partnership will commence operations in 2018's first quarter, and it will affect the intra-Asia supply-demand equation.

“If we can harmonize the behavior of the actors in our supply chain and stop working at cross purposes, it will boost American economic growth and competitiveness.”

Four shipping carriers will help steer the New York Shipping Exchange.

New features in the nonprofit database of global container information will help identify containers that have changed hands, been stolen, or are tied up in bankruptcy court.

US containerized imports are forecast to reach the highest-ever monthly total in August.

What is a customer to do to protect its supply chain?

Access to real-time data is extremely useful to carriers, BCOs, and others, but a consensus has yet to emerge on who owns the data.

Project shippers and carriers hope the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a political football for years, can get off the sidelines soon.

A year after the implementation of the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requirement, the once hot-button fears about the regulation have disappeared, but doubts on the accuracy of declarations linger.

Heavy-lift specialist Mammoet has completed the lifting and positioning of the two largest units of an $8 billion Sasol ethane cracker and related plants that will add to exports of polyethylene resins from the US Gulf region.

DFDS’s first-quarter earnings increased more than 10 percent on rising sea freight volume on its North European roll-on, roll-off routes.

Growth in car carrier ship capacity is balanced by uneven demand for vehicles and high-and-heavy cargoes.