Container Shipping News

Mediterranean Shipping Company is extending its California Express service linking Italy and Spain with the U.S. West Coast to include calls in the Pacific Northwest.

The Port of Marseilles boosted container traffic 15 percent in November from a year ago but will miss its 2010 target of 1 million 20-foot equivalent units because of strike action earlier in the year

OOCL said it contracted with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding on Dec. 14 for construction of two new container ships with capacities of 8,888 20-foot-equivalent container units.

Three U.S.-Puerto Rico carriers have until Feb.

Maersk Line appointed Bjarne Foldager as its new country manager for Malaysia and Singapore.

Double-stack trains will begin rolling next week along the new Commonwealth Railway Mainline, a secure, dual-purpose rail corridor that eliminates 14 at-grade crossings in Virginia.

Hanjin Shipping plans to outsource the export documentation function now performed in four North American service centers to a new documentation center in Port Kelang, Malaysia, by next May.

More containers moved in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey by rail in October than in any month since the end of 2008, when the recession caused volume to plunge.

November container volume at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach indicate exports are building strongly while imports, though down compared to recent months, are still running at double-digits ahe

Crowley Liner Services plans to expand its container operations at Port Everglades under a new 10-year lease on its container terminal that calls for additional acreage and increased container guarant

Maersk Line plans to operate an ad-hoc direct sailing from India’s Port of Chennai to Jebel Ali, a major transshipment hub in the Middle East.

The Federal Maritime Commission’s Dec.

President Obama met Wednesday with 20 top executives of major U.S. businesses, including UPS Chairman and CEO Scott Davis and James McNerney, head of Boeing.

Like several other carriers, OOCL is raising freight rates on shipments out of China and the Far East next month in what is ordinarily the slack winter season.

U.S. steel exports slightly increased in October, up 0.7 percent from September, and were up 1.2 percent from October 2009, according to government data.

CSAV is upgrading the size of its Asia-Atlantic Express Service (Asax) between the Far East and the East Coast of South America starting later this month.

The National Retail Federation is revising upward its forecast for U.S. imports from Asia over the next several months, thanks to strong retail sales at the start of the holiday shopping season.

Shipbuilders postponed delivery to OOCL of four new containerships partly because of production delays.

A strong surge in exports pushed container volume at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey up 11.6 percent year-over-year in October, restoring recovery momentum at the East Coast’s largest po

Hapag-Lloyd swung to an operating profit of $631 million in fiscal 2009/10, from a year earlier loss of $875 million, as cargo volume and freight rates increased, and the company cut costs.

Ocean carriers are chasing market share on the key Asia-Europe container trade lane by increasing capacity despite the steep slide in freight rates in recent months, an analyst said.

Hapag-Lloyd ordered four container ships of 13,200 20-foot equivalent units capacity from Hyundai Heavy Industries.

Somali pirates Saturday released a bulk cargo vessel and its crew.

CSAV said Monday it placed a firm order for two 8,000 container ships with capacities of 8,000 20-foot-equivalent container units.

The U.S.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services said it completed the sale of its 8 percent stake in a joint venture that plans to build and operate about 18 rail freight terminals in China.

The New World Alliance plans to introduce its first direct container ship service from Vietnam to North Europe in January, a significant addition to Vietnam's new Cai Mep International Terminal.

December is usually when carriers in eastbound Pacific lanes suspend services and lower freight rates for the winter slack season, but in a year that has been anything but usual, the calendar is provi

The peak season is already here in the westbound trans-Pacific, and shippers and carriers are feeling strains in the market even as confidence in shipping volume grows.

The JoC’s rankings of the Top 40 Container Lines by import and export volumes for the first nine months of 2010 provides a s

Gary LaGrange believes keeping navigation channels open at the mouth of the Mississippi River is much more than a local problem.

This is no time for U.S. ports to be complacent.

Ronald Goldstock is regarded as the father of the independent private sector inspector general.

A major shipper group is decrying the Federal Maritime Commission’s lack of action on a nine-month investigation into ocean carrier practices on the Pacific and says it may take legal action to

Shipping on the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes is winding up the year with strong growth based on staples of grain exports along with imports of iron ore and steel.

President Obama said the U.S. is "on track to meet" his goal of doubling exports in five years, and his administration is taking additional steps to maintain the momentum.

Maersk Line said it is struggling to connect exports via terminals in India’s Port of Chennai because of severe port congestion and a sudden shortage of container trucks that is crippling outbound car

Independent Container Line announced a restructuring of its U.S. sales team with the appointment of new vice presidents of sales for the northern and southern regions.

The Federal Maritime Commission on Thursday accepted the final report from a nine-month investigation into vessel capacity and equipment shortages. The commission will form committees to follow up.

The House on Thursday by a narrow margin passed a bill that would give new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to recall products and inspect food processing facilities.