Container Shipping News

Multiple container lines have planned general rate increases in numerous trade lanes in the coming months, although any gains achieved could be fleeting as overcapacity and sluggish global demand continue.

Containerized footwear imports into the United States plummeted in the first half of 2014, although the industry is optimistic sales will pick up in the second half of the year.

Thousands of containers of agricultural products heading to Russia are still on the water, in limbo until shippers can find new destinations for their goods.

Carriers and other transport companies are doing their best to dispel fears of spreading the deadly Ebola virus as shipping continues between the virus-stricken countries of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea and the rest of the world.

CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container line in deployed capacity, plans to make a port on a French island in the Indian Ocean into a transshipment hub to serve markets in Africa, the company said in a statement.

A good peak season will lead to a shortage of containers, with the inventory of new boxes standing at less than two months of the required levels, Singamas chairman Teo Siong Seng said in Hong Kong.

Singamas chairman Teo Siong Seng does not believe the antidumping and countervailing duty investigation the company is facing in the U.S. will have a lasting effect on its business.

Simatech Shipping, X-Press Feeders and Orient Express Lines have expanded their joint ASX Service between India and the Middle East by adding a direct call at Adani Hazira Container Terminal, a private facility in western India.

Japan’s exports to the United States rose for the first time in three months in July on a year-on-year basis despite a sharp decline in auto shipments, according to preliminary trade figures released by Japan’s Finance Ministry.

Port Metro Vancouver is receiving a modest windfall in container volume thanks to the uncertainties surrounding longshore contract negotiations on the U.S. West Coast, but it might have profited even more if its terminals had more capacity to handle diverted cargo. Projects are planned to expand its capacity substantially over the next 10 years.

The Port of Oakland was returning to normalcy Wednesday after four days of on-again, off-again demonstrations by anti-Israel protesters involving the Zim Piraeus container ship.

In reporting its second-quarter and first-half 2014 results this week, Maersk Line again showed how its financial fortunes are diverging from most of the rest of the container shipping industry.

The cost benefits of Evergreen Marine joining the CKYH Alliance were reflected in its second-quarter earnings, which saw the Taipei-based carrier returning to profitability.

Overall capacity operated by the Top 21 container carriers increased 5.6 percent or 847,000 TEUs in the last 12 months, according to industry analyst Alphaliner’s latest newsletter, furthering chronic overcapacity in the container shipping market.

Neptune Orient Lines said Wednesday media reports that it plans to sell its logistics business, APL Logistics, for up to $900 million are "preliminary and exploratory in nature.”

The melting polar icecap is reheating ages-old dreams of cross-Arctic shortcuts for deep-draft ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But logistics managers shouldn’t count on it happening next year — or even in the next decade.

Taiwanese ocean carrier Yang Ming Line has upgraded its intra-Asia service network to better meet growing demand in the region.

Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. do not require regulatory approval from China for their proposed “2M” vessel sharing agreement on the east-west trades, Maersk Line said today.

The findings of a Chinese Ministry of Transport probe into rate filing by container lines and NVOCCs in the China-Japan market are expected to be released shortly. The case is being watched closely by foreign carriers to see whether China applies the same standard to its own carriers as it did to the erstwhile P3 Network.

Maersk Line reported a profit of $547 million for the second quarter as the container shipping division helped drive up the Maersk Group’s half-year earnings by 42 percent year-over-year.

Despite generally strengthening spot rates in the head-haul east-west trades, the trend is unlikely to last because underlying volatility is growing, especially in the Asia-Europe trade, according to SeaIntel.

A shift from small container ships to fewer but larger ships could result in a decline in the number of vessels on the water this year, the first decrease in 20 years, Drewry Maritime Research said.

Nine straight weeks of steady declines in pricing of low-sulfur bunker fuel have brought the price per metric ton down to the lowest levels in more than three years.

Multiple container lines have planned general rate increases in numerous trade lanes in August, although any gains achieved could be fleeting as overcapacity and sluggish global demand continue.

Intra-Asia specialist Wan Hai Lines reported a 7.2 percent increase in container volumes in the first half of 2014, pushing revenue up nearly 10 percent as the shipping industry continues to feel the effects of increased demand.

United Arab Shipping Co. is moving its North American business unit, United Arab Agencies, from Cranford, New Jersey, to Atlanta.

India’s trade deficit in July rose to its highest level in a year as export growth weakened slightly after rising in the double digits for two consecutive months.

Even with sustained growth in volumes across all major trade lanes, Hapag-Lloyd’s loss widened in the first half of 2014, in large part because of falling and volatile freight rates.

Diversions related to the ongoing negotiations on the U.S. West Coast between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association continue to have an impact elsewhere.

Growing volumes to the U.S. East Coast caused by cargo diversions and peak-season demand have buoyed spot rates on the lane.

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics has introduced a fortnightly coastal container service between West India and South India, adding capacity on the trade route the Mumbai-based feeder line already serves with a weekly service.

Shipping Corp. of India has denied that it is planning to shutter its liner division, but did say it was reviewing the segment’s performance and eyeing ways to increase its profitability.

Containerized auto parts imports into the United States continued to trend upwards in the first half of 2014, in a market that has seen growth of over 10 percent in the past two years.

The top four ports on the U.S. East Coast saw delays in both arrivals and berth times in June, partially because of a surge in traffic from cargo diversions to East Coast during peak season.

Refrigerated capacity in the container ship fleet is expected to surge around 22 percent through 2018, at the expense of a declining specialized reefer fleet, according to Drewry’s latest Reefer Shipping Market Annual Review & Forecast.

Container terminals in gateway ports around the world, already suffering from congestion caused by mega-ships, may not be able to keep up with their ever-increasing size because of limits on crane technology and the lack of yard space.

Big gains in the spot rates from Hong Kong to Los Angeles began to erode this week, as a benchmark of the rate to the U.S. West Coast dropped $100 per container.

Following up on an announcement last week by DP World that it is not accepting U.S.-bound rail cargo at its Vancouver, British Columbia, terminal, Hapag-Lloyd advised customers that two voyages this week will discharge containers at U.S. West Coast ports.

Shipping Corp. of India is considering withdrawing from the container business, which is loss making and subsidized by bulk and tankers, according to a report from Mint, an India-based financial news wire.