Container Shipping News

With the holidays come and gone, international shippers and ocean carriers are asking whether the rate hikes carriers got last fall on their Asia-Europe and trans-Atlantic services will hold through t

The U.S. is exporting more wastepaper to Asia, and that’s a good sign for the global economy.

Never mind the market trends, there’s one reason shipping, rail and trucking executives may be looking at this year with optimism for freight volume and even some measure of profitability.

With the lowest cargo volume in 71 years for iron ore and the worst in 77 years for coal, the two chief backbones of U.S.

Singapore-based port operator PSA International said its terminals handled 9.9 percent fewer containers in 2009 compared to the previous year, the first decline ever, as the worldwide recession hit gl

The Panama Canal Authority on Thursday awarded the fourth and final contract for dry excavation for a channel to its third set of locks to FCC-ICA-MECO, a joint venture between Spanish, Mexican and Pu

Although container freight rates are on the rebound on many routes, this does not mean the ocean container shipping industry will recover any time soon, and many carriers may run out of money before a

Hanjin Shipping and United Arab Shipping Co. plan to launch a joint service between Spain and West Africa on March 1, the South Korean carrier said Thursday.

Evergreen Line on Thursday announced another rate increase on all westbound cargo moving from the Far East, Japan and the Indian subcontinent to Europe and the Mediterranean.

Container traffic in the port of Amsterdam crashed by more than half in 2009 compared with the previous year as the port lost two of its three deep-sea liner services to neighboring Rotterdam.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. increased its stake in breakbulk operator Gearbulk Holding Ltd. from 40 percent to 49 percent.

The new board of directors of CMA CGM will meet for the first time on Jan.

Container traffic moving through West Coast ports increased 3 percent in November compared to November 2008, marking the first monthly year-over-year increase in 2009.

Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, Korea’s fifth-largest shipyard, plans to cut its shipbuilding workforce by at least 30 percent to help overcome a management crisis arising from a world

The active capacity of the world's 20 largest ocean container carriers shrunk by 2.4 percent over the past year, but there was relatively little change in their global market shares.

The Port of Montreal is seeing 2010 in with expectations of “a gradual but slow recovery” after a traffic decline unusual in recent years began to stabilize in the final months of 2009.

Horizon Lines said it switched terminals in Oakland to the terminal operated by Ports America to handle cargo moving through Oakland between the U.S. mainland, Hawaii, Guam and Micronesia.

New orders at Hyundai Heavy Industries fell 61 percent in 2009. The world’s largest shipbuilder forecasts lingering effects from containership overcapacity through this year.

DP World, the global container terminal operator, on Jan.

Maersk Line announced Monday it will implement a general rate increase on westbound dry cargo moving from South Asia and the Middle East to destinations in North Europe and the Mediterranean.

Hamburg Sud said Monday it will apply a general rate increase to all containerized cargo moving from the United States and Canada to Europe as of Feb. 15.

Ship owners and managers and others in the industry launched a new trade association at the Baltic Exchange in London on Monday with a broad mandate to represent and promote the health and medical int

CMA CGM’s new $500 million line of credit will buy the company time to rebuild its finances, but the world’s third-largest container line already is reconstructing its business.

Cynicism is growing among many shippers besieged with notices of freight rate increases that note ocean carriers are seeking to maintain services.

Container handling came to a standstill Monday at France’s seven largest ports as dockworkers staged the first of two 24-hour strikes to protest government reforms of box terminal operations.

A.P.

Antwerp, Europe's second largest port, handled 16 percent fewer containers in 2009 than in 2008, losing market share to its main European rival Rotterdam for the first time in several years.

The Port of Rotterdam's container traffic fell 10 percent in 2009 from a year ago, but Europe's biggest box hub boosted its share of the key Asia-Europe liner shipping trade.

Japanese carrier NYK Line opened its own agency office at Hyderabad, a major inland cargo location in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Hamburg-Sud booked what it called a "small" loss in 2009 as revenue and cargo volume declined by double digit percentages, the chief executive of Germany's second largest ocean carrier said.

Fesco Logistics on Dec. 28 delivered a single piece of construction equipment weighing 100 tons to Novorossiysk, Russia.

Ocean container carriers' share prices rose by an average 19 percent in the past year as growing optimism over a market recovery in 2010 outweighed the impact of record operating losses.

Mobile Concepts by Scotty, a Pittsburgh-based commercial vehicle and trailer manufacturer, completed the first phase of a Defense Department contract to convert ocean containers for use as training si

Hanjin Shipping on Dec. 23 added a “carbon calculator” to its Web site to let customers know the amount of emissions generated by their cargo for any given transportation segment.

The container ship charter market is ending the year close to record lows with ocean carriers' demand for hired vessels weakening as cargo volumes shrink to seasonal lows on key east-west liner trade

Financially troubled CMA CGM returned to profitability on its operations between Asia and North Europe in October and expects overall operations to show operating profits in November and December.

The spot rate for shipping a 40-foot container from Hong Kong to Los Angeles stood at $1,268 last week for the third straight week, according to an index published by London-based Drewry Shipping Cons

OTTAWA — The St.

The Panama Canal Authority received four bids for the latest segment of an excavation project that is part of the canal authority’s construction of locks to handle 12,500-TEU container ships by

The world’s top 22 ocean container carriers lost some $11 billion in the first nine months of the year and face further losses in 2010 as the industry digs out from the worst downturn in its 50-