Container Shipping News

Container carriers are caught in a classic “prisoner’s dilemma.” If they all install scrubbers, none of them reap the benefits of cheap, plentiful high-sulfur fuel that would come from widespread adoption of low-sulfur fuel.

The US Maritime Administration has awarded $6.79 million in federal marine highway grants to container-on-barge projects in Louisiana and Virginia and a waterborne service that will move farm products between Long Island and Connecticut.

HMM’s new CEO is on a European tour that will focus on three key challenges: the future of its 2M Alliance relationship, winning customer trust, and gaining insight into the low-sulfur fuel mandate.

Container vessel on-time performance could degrade even further as carriers remove ships from service to install equipment that “scrubs” harmful sulfur particles from ship exhaust in lieu of burning low-sulfur fuel.

The World Trade Organization has downgraded its 2019 outlook for world trade growth to 2.6 percent from a 3 percent clip in 2018, and global manufacturing is weakening.

Maersk’s commitment to a fully decarbonized fleet by 2050 is ensuring that decarbonization will immediately come onto the container shipping industry’s agenda.

Four of the world’s largest shipping lines received clearance this week to begin developing data standards through a new association designed to help carriers to tap more quickly into outside digital innovation.

Container carriers have reportedly wrapped up annual contract negotiations with some of the largest US importers and are now turning their full attention to NVOs and smaller BCOs.

With draft restrictions already imposed in the waterway’s larger locks due to lack of rain, the Panama Canal Authority is working on plans for a third water reservoir that would help replenish the locks system during dry weather.

Jorge Luis Quijano, administrator and chief executive of the Panama Canal Authority, said shipping lines don’t like the uncertainty of what could happen if International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) continue to oppose automation

Retailers and analysts expect slowing import growth in 2019 as year-over-year comparisons become increasingly more difficult due to front-loading of cargo in 2018 in advance of planned import tariffs.

Maersk Group says that of a total $500 million worldwide disbursement target program for 2019, it plans to provide $200 million in finance to India-based businesses this year.

CMA CGM has big plans for the company’s logistics service offerings after bringing CEVA into the fold.

Container carriers and the shipper supply chains that depend on them are in for a rude awakening if European regulators repeal the block exemption for liner carrier consortia.

The effects of Chinese New Year have smoothed out westbound Asia-Europe container volume in early 2019, but long-term demand concerns remain.

Container carriers are increasing capacity to Vietnam as manufacturers shift production from China to Southeast Asia.

Carrier executives are increasingly confident they will have compensatory, floating low-sulfur fuel BAFs installed with their customers by the fourth quarter.

Carriers continue to report dismal schedule reliability on trans-Pacific trade routes, and although solutions exist, each comes with an inherent cost.

George Goldman, president of Zim USA, tells JOC.com the independent carrier will route the majority of its US cargo from Prince Rupert to Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Container lines with the financial muscle — or state backing — are forging ahead with strategies aimed at controlling a greater portion of the container supply chain.

A slowing US economy and huge front-loading of spring cargoes in late 2018 point to muted import growth in 2019.

The South Korean container carrier says its new CEO will “focus on a customer’s view on handling HMM’s current issues in order to lead managerial innovation and strengthen its sales competitiveness.”

Only when carriers start actually using low-sulfur fuel later this year will the demand -- and the price -- be established.

Although the final decision lies with the college of commissioners, a European Commission working group is examining the pros and cons of modifying the liner block exemption regulation, rather than renewing or repealing it.

The International Transport Forum is calling for more clarity in the EU liner shipper block exemption rules, just days after the World Shipping Council submitted a report in support of extending the exemption.

The seventh straight week of declining container spot rates and a 1 percent drop in US imports in January and February signal more blank sailings ahead in the eastbound trans-Pacific.

Growing demand for manufacturing and refrigerated agricultural exports coupled with infrastructure upgrades and pro-trade reforms have made India one of the “top trading destinations” globally, according to the world’s largest container carrier.

Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt multiple industries, but potential use cases in shipping are still a few years away, panelists tell the TPM 2019 Conference in Long Beach.

Using connected devices to track container cargo shipments could transform the industry, but much of their value will remain unrealized if the systems they feed can't communicate with one another.

Rising European containerized import volume in January was quickly followed by tumbling Chinese exports in February.

Whether the mandate takes effect on Jan 1, 2020, and enforcement kicks in during March — as the IMO and its 171 member countries are on track to do — or if the mandate is delayed, this is just the beginning.

Despite challenges with capacity and looming low-sulfur fuel costs, supply-demand economics points to balance — and profits — for container carriers in the short term, according to SeaIntelligence Consulting CEO Lars Jensen.

Contrary to what some BCOs believe, carrier pricing to account for higher low-sulfur fuel costs can be simple, transparent, and fair, Rolf Habben Jansen tells TPM19.

Soren Skou tells TPM19 Maersk's latest foray into integrated logistics will be more successful thanks to its dominant market share and widespread digitization throughout the container shipping industry.

With far fewer carriers operating much larger vessels, the maritime shipping landscape has changed dramatically since the first stages of containerization 60 years ago, and the industry may be on the cusp of the next phase in its evolution.

Faced with risks both new and familiar in 2019, refrigerated cargo carriers are focusing on collaboration and technology to improve and expand service.

Long-haul container carriers are looking to take advantage of a recent change in India cabotage rules intended to lure transshipment cargo away from foreign hub ports.

In an era of minute-by-minute supply chain demand, ocean shippers say they need carriers to improve on-time performance, but carriers say it's not so simple.

As Amazon-era demands for speed are multiplying, time is as important a consideration as cost for BCOs weighing merchant and carrier container haulage.

Container carrier executives tell TPM 2019 poor forecasting is an industry-wide problem, but solving it could greatly reduce overbooking and "no-show" cargo, benefiting shippers and carriers alike.