Container Shipping News

Maersk Line has entered into a vessel sharing agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co, its 2M alliance partner, and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) on the Asia to East Coast of South America trade route.

Taiwan’s three top lines became the latest carriers to join the black numbers club, all recording net profit for the first quarter on the back of rising revenue and falling operating costs.

The banana industry in the Philippines is hoping the rainy season will be on schedule as strong demand for the fruit is threatened by an El Niño-induced dry spell in the Southeast Asian country.

Marine insurers that underwrite policies for ultra-large container ships are assessing the many problems they present, and question whether they can handle potential losses.

The new energy independence of the U.S. has sent African imports of crude oil plummeting, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime and Trade.

A country that is seldom mentioned as an alternative to manufacturing in mainland China is Taiwan, its neighbour and disputed territory just across the strait.

CaroTrans, a non-vessel-operating common carrier, will begin a weekly direct less-than-container load service from Montreal to Le Havre, France, on May 22.

Evergreen Line this month will launch a new intra-Asia service in partnership with Cosco and China Shipping, enhancing the Taiwan carrier’s intra-Asia operations.

Cosco Container Lines earlier this month launched a bi-weekly service from Yueyang, a city by the Yangtze River in Hunan province, to Vietnam and Thailand, allowing shippers to get their goods delivered a week faster than through past transfer services.

China Cosco Holdings pushed ahead with its fleet scrapping plan last month by dismantling two container ships and two bulk carriers.

Finnlines scraped a small profit in the first quarter as it spent heavily on technology to comply with tougher environmental regulations for ships sailing in North European waters.

Hapag-Lloyd swung to a first-quarter profit of 128.2 million euros ($143.6 million) from a year-earlier loss of 119.1 million euros as a stronger dollar and lower bunker prices helped to offset weaker freight rates.

Fewer container ships will be moving to the scrapyards this year, analysts say, as charter rates, especially for Panamax ships, continue to rise.

Thomas Farmer, a former executive at Crowley Maritime, has been acquitted on a charge he conspired with competitors to fix prices in the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico trade.

Crowley Maritime Corp. has contracted for construction of a $48.5 million new pier at its San Juan, Puerto Rico, terminal and signed a 30-year lease extension for the property with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority.

Zim has launched a new service between Asia and South America, soon to be followed by its debut on the Asia-U.S. East Coast route via Suez, as the financially revamped Israeli carrier seeks to expand its cargo base on core trades.

Potato prices in South Korea more than doubled in April from a year earlier as importers struggle to match insatiable consumer appetite for honey flavored potato chips.

China recorded grim April trade figures with imports plunging by 16.2 percent and exports falling 6.4 percent, according to the latest official data released at the weekend.

Maritime regulators from the U.S., China and Europe will meet June 18 in Brussels to discuss market and regulatory issues issues including global container shipping alliances’ effect on competition and ports.

A strengthening dollar is slowing U.S. steel exports, which dropped 13.8 percent year-over-year in March and were down 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2015. Exports totaled 896,027 net tons in March and 2.7 million tons for the quarter.

Maersk Group has returned to South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for its latest series of ultra-large container ships.

The recent increase in rates for container vessels has lost some of its momentum following a spike in redeliveries of large gearless vessels from short periods and round voyages in the trans-Pacific trade.

Crowley Liner Service called competitor Trailer Bridge’s allegations of patent infringement “specious” and said it would continue to use the disputed equipment to load and discharge flat-deck barges in the Puerto Rico trade.

Chinese president Xi Jinping left this week to visit countries that will play a key role on the Silk Road Economic Belt that Beijing is pushing hard in its bid to secure uninterrupted trade links with Central Asia, Africa and Europe.

Vessel acquisitions by U.S.-listed owners have dropped dramatically this year. The only public companies that are still buying in both the secondhand and newbuilding markets are container ship lessors.

Costamare is set to pocket more than $100 million from an offering of preferred stock in the Greece-based container ship owner.

Iranian authorities released the container ship Maersk Tigris on Thursday, nine days after it was seized by Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The economics of the mega-ships of 18,000 20-foot-equivalent units that container lines are building and deploying may not be all they are cracked up to be. The savings that carriers are touting as the reason for ordering them may not be as great as advertised when all their costs are factored in.

Container lines hoping to see freight rate increases supported by a significant rise in export orders will be disappointed by data emerging from the giant Canton Fair in Guangzhou as transaction volumes, numbers of visitors and value of deals were all down compared to last year’s event.

Eastbound trans-Pacific liner reliability has improved for the first time this year, but liner reliablity on the opposing direction fell to the lowest point since JOC.com began collecting SeaIntel data in August 2011.

Navios Maritime Partners, the NYSE-listed Greek dry bulk and container ship-owner, restated its focus on the container sector as it reported lower first quarter income.

The export growth rate of emerging markets in the last 20 years will not be seen in the next two decades as rising wages make outsourcing less attractive and new technologies such as 3D printing start to gain more traction, according to researchers.

There is little sign of China’s factories ramping up production for the mid-June start of the peak ocean shipping season as factory activity stumbles to its lowest level in a year.

Increasing cooperation between Hamburg Sud and carriers in the Ocean Three Alliance suggests it “seems only a matter of time” before the German container line joins the alliance, Drewry Container Insight said in a speculative commentary this week.

Matson’s first quarter operating income quadrupled from a year earlier as the carrier’s niche China-to-U.S. West Coast service continued to benefit from delays afflicting other trans-Pacific carriers.

Trans-Pacific ocean carriers have been digging in their heels to get rate increases in their 2014-2015 trans-Pacific ocean contracts and have been getting increases in some cases, especially on routes from Asia to East Coast ports. But rates negotiated for shipments from Asia to West Coast ports have been flat or lower than last year in some cases when bunker fuel surcharges are included in the rate.

Alianca Navegacao e Logistica launched a 4,800-TEU, the Bartolomeu Dias, in the Brazilian and South American coastal service and plans to launch a second ship this summer.

Vessel operators are being warned against transit in the Strait of Hormuz, three days after a Maersk Line cargo ship was fired upon and seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Charter rates for containerships up to 6,500 twenty-foot equivalent units are on a roll as a rush of new liner services injects a further boost to an already dynamic market, Alphaliner reported.