Container Shipping News

The peak season typically runs from June to September, but unseasonably strong demand is placing capacity under mounting pressure and driving up rate levels on the trade lane.

Longer transit times to Europe and North America as vessels continue to divert via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea region has delayed the return of empty containers to Asia, particularly China.

The Journal of Commerce’s annual Top 100 Importers and Exporters rankings show that the largest shippers in 2023 took a larger share of the inbound and outbound markets in a weak year for overall volumes.

The declines in the carrier’s first-quarter net profit and revenue came despite an almost 12% jump in its container volumes to 5.6 million TEUs.

The union representing Canada’s West Coast longshore foremen say they are holding off a strike vote while a mediation process takes place with maritime employers.

Local industry observers and carrier executives expect Asian import flows into India to remain buoyant, aided by growing demand for raw materials and semi-finished products needed to support domestic industrial production lines.

The customs pre-arrival security and safety program is being implemented in three steps, starting with ocean and inland waterway carriers in June.

During the tenure of the two members, the FMC has ramped up its oversight of the container shipping industry following widespread strains during the pandemic-era container surge.

The carrier’s CEO said buyers could be pulling orders forward because of concerns over global geopolitical uncertainties or that rates could be driven by a more general restocking to replenish inventories.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will take full control of the Howland Hook marine terminal in Staten Island while New York City will take over Brooklyn’s Red Hook terminal.

Evergreen Marine’s first-quarter net profit of $537 million was among the highest quarterly profit posted by container lines in the post-COVID 19 era, according to Alphaliner.

A preliminary federal investigation found the use of a different breaker configuration than had been previously in use onboard the Dali that led to a series of power blackouts on its outbound voyage.

Trans-Pacific carriers are restricting forwarders’ access to fixed “named-account” rates and pushing bookings to the much higher spot market pricing.

Containers offloaded from ships calling at APM Terminal’s Maasvlakte II terminal can be palletized and in trucks “within hours,” thanks to a new cross-dock warehouse, according to the Maersk’s new head of northern Europe.

Maritime employers along Canada’s West Coast have filed a complaint asking the federal government to further intervene in stalled talks with the union representing longshore foremen.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and its maritime employers are highlighting amicable outcomes to previous contract talks as they get ready to restart coastwide negotiations.

Two weeks before new rules around detention and demurrage billing go into effect, the US Federal Maritime Commission has told ocean carriers that contracts independent of a “through bill of lading” fall outside its jurisdiction.

The expedited surface transportation provider said it has kept customers and is adding business but needs to “aggressively” address profitability after a first-quarter loss.

While Yang Ming was upbeat about improving container volumes and easing global inflation, the Taiwan-based ocean carrier warned of geopolitical volatility.

Poor schedule reliability, challenged by a container supply chain that has been stretched thin by diversions away from the Suez Canal, is causing spot rates from India to Europe to rebound.

Shippers will soon be able to retrieve cargo aboard the Dali, but they or their insurers will be expected to post sizable bonds to cover general average claims.

Terminal operator Enstructure unveiled a public-private partnership with Delaware that will eventually increase Wilmington’s annual capacity to more than 1.5 million TEUs.

Container spot rates on the key markets Wan Hai serves, including Asia-North America, intra-Asia and Asia-Latin America, have been steadily rising this year, helping to push the carrier back into the black in the first quarter.

Carrier attempts to mitigate the extended transit times of sailing around southern Africa by increasing the use of transshipment in the Mediterranean are being frustrated by growing port congestion.

Despite the multitude of threats facing ocean shipping, there are indications those disruptions — active or potential — are not influencing the behavior of shippers nearly to the degree some may have hoped after the chaos wrought by the pandemic.

The exercise equipment maker alleged in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission that the forwarder failed to meet its obligations under a carrier haulage agreement.

The National Retail Federation has once again increased its forecast for imports into the 2024 peak shipping season, saying consumer spending remains strong despite geopolitical turmoil and stubbornly high inflation.

The strains to the extended container shipping system amid the ongoing Red Sea disruption are showing again, largely due to higher-than-expected demand in Europe and the US for Asia imports.

The Sweden-based home furnishings giant expects the green transport option to reduce CO2 emissions from its Asian imports by 100,000 metric tons.

Clothing imports are rebounding in 2024, but retailers will likely wait for clear signs of demand growth to bring in additional product after a double-digit percentage drop last year.

Group CFO Melanie Kreis would not comment on the near-term freight rate outlook or the likelihood of a modal shift from ocean to air or sea-air caused by supply chain disruptions, including the ongoing vessel diversions to avoid the Red Sea.

A rise in US imports is fueling optimism, especially among ocean carriers, but manufacturing’s malaise is tempering hopes for a broader transportation recovery.

The auditing initiative between the carrier and software vendor OpenEnvoy was kickstarted by CMA CGM’s ZEBOX technology incubator, which connects startups with entrenched logistics partners.

With US manufacturers shrinking their plastics inventories, overseas buyers are taking up an even more important role for North American resins producers.

US electronics imports are rebounding after a two-year decline as consumers replace devices purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic with newer products.

ONE's West India-North America Express (WIN) service is set to debut at Nhava Sheva with a May 12 call from the ONE Modern.

European importers are shrugging off gloomy economic forecasts, but rising volume out of Asia is putting pressure on available capacity that is already stretched by longer transits around southern Africa.

Sailing the longer voyages around southern Africa has allowed carriers to address their excess capacity challenges, but that is a short-term fix for a problem that is not going away, according to Vincent Clerc.

The tie-up is part of a wider move by individual members of THE Alliance to broaden their respective networks and maintain alliance commitments without adding a replacement carrier to succeed Hapag-Lloyd.

Elevated mortgage rates and inflation continue to drag down new home construction and remodeling activity, two of the major drivers of US household goods imports.