Container Shipping News

In the wake of several highly-publicized financial difficulties experienced by South Korea shipping companies, the country’s Minister of Oceans and Fisheries has called on them to undertake voluntary restructuring.

Ocean carriers and terminal operators face a formidable challenge planning and executing the most fundamental of shipping processes: stowage.

CMA CGM has reportedly secured commitments from its banks to finance a planned takeover of Neptune Orient Lines, owner of ocean carrier APL.

Acquiring container lines is rarely easy, but CMA CGM’s track record will give it a good foundation to bring Neptune Orient Lines into the fold — if the France-based carrier’s exclusive talks with the Singapore-based company lead to a deal.

The value of goods shipped between Mexico and the U.S. continues to climb, while the goods value in U.S.-Canada trade is dropping. Lower fuel prices and the strong U.S. dollar are partly to blame, as well as the surge in Mexican manufacturing aimed at the U.S.

Despite signs that South Africa’s economy will enter a slowdown next year, container volume through Africa’s second-largest economy is forecast to rise in the mid-single digits.

CMA CGM has until midnight on Monday, Dec. 7, to decide if it wants to bid for Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines, but reports that the French line is seeking finance from banks for what could be a $2.2 billion purchase shows that the carrier is serious about the acquisition.

With spot rates on imports from Asia approaching $900 per 40-foot container to the U.S. West Coast and $1,700 to the East Coast, cargo interests that played the spot market rather than shipping most of their imports under service contracts this year are big winners.

Spot freight rates in container trades should stage a marked recovery next year, but short lived successes with general rate increases should not be regarded as evidence of a fundamental improvement between supply and demand, a senior shipping analyst said.

Hapag-Lloyd is buying back $125 million of a costly U.S. dollar bond two years before it is due to mature in a bid to improve its capital structure and reduce interest payments.

Drone cargo ships, known colloquially as ‘ghost’ ships, are unlikely to start operations within the coming decade and an intermediate step of partially automated ships with much reduced crew levels should be expected beforehand.

Talks between state-owned giants Cosco and China Shipping will continue into the new year, the groups said in exchange filings, six months after trading in shares of their listed subsidiaries was suspended.

Headhaul Asia-North Europe volumes will have shrunk by an incredible 400,000 TEUs by the end of December compared to last year if the rate of decline continues, according to Drewry.

Russian regulators have initiated administrative proceedings against CMA CGM and Maersk Line after accusing the two container lines of failing to provide documents requested as part of an investigation into alleged collusion.

India and Bangladesh are moving closer to allowing introduction of coastal shipping services between the two countries with the goal of boosting bilateral trade.

Spot freight rates on the Asia to North Europe and Mediterranean trades came surging back after last week’s record lows, most likely a result of carriers laying up greater numbers of the larger vessels deployed on the westbound trade.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services’ financial recovery is gathering pace as the Israel-based ocean carrier posted its fourth consecutive quarterly operating profit in challenging market conditions.

South Korea's government plans to conduct research on ultra-large container ships, including the return on investment of the vessels, their impact on ports and the investment needed at terminals to handle them.

CMA CGM said it is upgrading its New Europe Mascarene Oceania service by adding new port calls, starting in early December.

Singapore will extend its block exemption order for liner shipping agreements for another five years until December 2020, the Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced.

The sharp decline in net income of Taiwan’s top three carriers through the course of the last three quarters gives a clear picture of the container shipping industry’s rapidly deteriorating operating environment.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, one of Japan’s three largest shipping firms, is thinking of withdrawing from the Asia to east coast of South America trade.

Australia’s government is considering a block exemption to the competition law for liner shipping in a move that has been cautiously welcomed by Shipping Australia, the industry’s national association.

Maersk Line Chief Operating Officer Soren Toft has said Neptune Orient Lines is not its only potential acquisition target, but he declined to comment on whether the Danish carrier planned to make a formal bid.

The sharp drop in bunker prices has not undermined the competitiveness of new liquefied natural gas-powered container feeder ships for the North/Baltic Sea sulphur emission control area, according to German shipowner Nordic Hamburg.

The potential acquisition of Neptune Orient Lines by CMA CGM would mark the biggest consolidation in container shipping based on the capacity of the targeted carrier, according to Alphaliner.

The fleet of idle container ships above 500 twenty-foot-equivalent units has surged to a five-year high of 1.2 million TEUs and more vessels will join the jobless queue in the coming weeks, Alphaliner said.

Charter rates for container ships have fallen completely out of sync as owners in the most hard-pressed segments scramble to secure any short-term cover they can get.

Eimskip is eyeing fleet expansion after the Iceland container shipping and refrigerated logistics group, posted its best quarterly result since 2009.

DFDS’s record quarterly profit has highlighted the rebound in northern Europe’s short sea shipping traffic and the positive impact of low fuel prices as ships face tougher environmental standards.

The Asia-Australia container trade is facing capacity cuts and service withdrawals in the next few months that should give added impetus to rising freight rates that have been increasing since mid-year on a better supply-demand balance.

Container lines are withdrawing larger capacity vessels from the major east-west trades in a selective approach that will better tackle the chronic over supply problem, according to Drewry.

The Hong Kong Competition Commission will not take any action against industry sectors that have applied for a block exemption from the law that takes effect on Dec. 14 until the applications have been reviewed, according to the city’s liner shipping lobby.

CMA CGM moved a step closer to acquiring Neptune Orient Lines after entering into an exclusivity agreement with the Singapore carrier that could see a formal offer made in early December.

Demonstrating just how desperate carriers are to increase freight rates in a market plagued by overcapacity, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement Friday announced the intention of lines in the eastbound Pacific to set a minimum rate of “at least $950 per 40-foot container to the West Coast,” effective Dec. 1.

CMA CGM’s reported third-quarter net profit plunged nearly 76 percent year-over-year to $51 million, amid the French carrier’s talks with Neptune Orient Lines over a potential merger.

Russia’s container transportation market is on the verge of consolidation. The country’s two largest, and ailing, container transport providers — container line and terminal operator Fesco and containerized rail provider Transcontainer — plan to merge.

Plagued by overcapacity and ongoing losses, the container shipping industry is rife with talk of potential mergers and acquisitions. The consolidation of the highly fragmented industry is long overdue, especially when contrasted with such other heavily capitalized transportation sectors as railroads and airlines.

The vessel backlog that’s plagued the Panama Canal since mid-October remains above normal levels, but canal authority officials say wait times are now diminishing since they started taking steps to expedite traffic through the waterway.

Crowley Puerto Rico Services has begun construction on a 900-foot pier at its Isla Grande Terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to accommodate two liquefied natural gas-powered cargo ships the carrier will put into operation in 2017.