Top 40 Container Carriers

Capacity growth in the Asia-Europe liner trade will increase 6.5 percent in 2014 unless carriers cancel services or introduce more blank sailings, according to the latest analysis by SeaIntel.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. released details of the massive vessel-sharing alliance that also will include Maersk Line and CMA CGM and will launch next spring if it wins regulatory approval.

The P3 operating alliance of Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping and CMA CGM in the east-west container trades doesn’t start until the second half of 2014, but each of the three carriers has already made its mark in the U.S. container trades and on global orderbooks.

CMA CGM is building a war chest. The French ocean carrier has nurtured its debt-ridden balance sheet back to health and is raising capital to guard against future down cycles in what promises to be an increasingly volatile environment for the container shipping industry.

Hyundai Merchant Marine said it expects to return to profitability after a long interval of operating losses.

Firefighters today extinguished a fire aboard the Maersk Kampala which broke out on Thursday as the container ship was preparing to transit the Suez Canal en route to Europe.

Firefighting tugs early Monday were making progress toward extinguishing a blaze on the Maersk Kampala, five days after fire broke out in a container in the ship’s forward bay as it steamed toward the Suez Canal, Maersk Line said.

Cosco Container Lines reported a loss of $366 million for the first half of 2013, China Cosco Holdings Co. said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Thursday.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services reported a $72 million net loss for its second quarter, up from a $47 million loss in the same period of 2012, but an improvement on the $110 million deficit in the 2013 first quarter.

CMA CGM’s second quarter net income jumped to $268 million from $169 million a year ago, mainly because of the sale of a large minority stake in its ports unit.

The South Korea carrier's net loss widened in the second quarter as growth in cargo demand lagged capacity, putting downward pressure on rates.

Buoyed by profits, the sale of some assets and cash infusions from two outside investors, CMA CGM is sporting a much healthier balance sheet this year than it was just two years ago. If it continues to post profits and the financial markets allow, it will launch an initial public offering of its stock at the end of 2014.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has placed so many orders for new container ships recently that its orderbook is the largest among all carriers, according to Alphaliner.

Overall U.S. container trade with Asia increased 1.3 percent to 19.5 million 20-foot-equivalent units in the 12 months ending in March compared to the prior 12-month period, according to data from PIERS, a Journal of Commerce sister company.

Shipping lines are entering the peak season in the major east-west trade lanes at a decided disadvantage because they aren’t taking the steps necessary to control capacity to match modest growth in container volumes.

The top 21 ocean container carriers increased the combined capacity of their fleets by 6.3 percent in the past year amid slowing cargo demand, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.

The P3 Network announced between Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM will bring together portions of the three largest global container ship fleets. The alliance, which is planned for the second quarter of 2014, will enable the three carriers to deploy their largest vessels in the Asia-Europe trade and cascade slightly smaller ships into the trans-Pacific and the trans-Atlantic lanes. This infographic gives a look at how the partners' fleets - both individually and as contributed to the alliance - measure up against the global fleet.

The P3 Network announced today between Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM will have little or no impact on the glut of vessel capacity that has been depressing global freight rates, but will enable the world’s three largest container lines to substantially cut their operating costs on the Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trades.

French carrier CMA CGM will increase rates on westbound cargo moving on its Epic service from India to North Europe and the Mediterranean, starting July 1.

The hull of the MOL Comfort, a 7,041 20-foot-equivalent unit container ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, split in two about 200 nautical miles from Yemen during inclement weather.

A.P. Moller-Maersk will pay about $100 million less than expected for its 20 Triple E vessels ordered from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, The Economic Times reports.

Ocean carriers are bracing for a make-or-break summer in the Far East-North Europe trades as they attempt to push through general rate increases of up to $1,000 per 20-foot container on the key westbound leg on July 1 against a backdrop of free-falling spot rates and stalling cargo flows.

Global ocean carriers handled more than 4.2 million 20-foot-equivalent units of U.S. containerized imports in the first quarter, and the separation between the Top 2 carriers in the trade came down to two fully laden mega-ships.

Maersk Line is rolling out a new system designed to speed up and simplify containerized food product shipments.

Maersk Line swung to a $204 million operating profit in the first quarter from a $599 million loss a year ago, its fourth successive quarter in the black, driven by cost savings, higher freight rates and a lower fuel bill that more than compensated for flat container volumes.

Maersk Line will deploy the first 12 deliveries of its new Triple E container ships in its expanded Asia-Europe AE10 string. The first of the 20 ships in the series will make its maiden call at Busan on July 14.

China Shipping Container Lines plans to order five 18,000 20-foot-equivalent unit container ships, the world’s largest, becoming the first carrier to challenge Maersk Line, which will deploy the first vessel of this size in the Asia-Europe trade in June.

Regardless of the trade route, the container shipping industry revolves around a pretty basic concept: What comes in usually goes out.

CMA CGM’s Alexander von Humboldt container ship today began its maiden voyage in Busan, South Korea.

Maersk Line vowed the imminent deployment of the world’s largest container ships in the Asia-Europe trade would have a neutral impact on capacity as it warned of the risk of an all-out rate war on the westbound leg of the biggest liner route.

Beyond the biggest carriers — the Maersk Lines, MSCs, CMA CGMs, APLs and Evergreens — that dominate the U.S. containerized ocean trades are some of the biggest movers. The Journal of Commerce Top 40 Container Carriers, after all, isn’t just about the Top 10.

Singapore-based APL appears poised for a turnaround as it takes delivery of new fuel-efficient ships and reorganizes its global network to take advantage of the vessels’ lower slot costs.

For three years, Mediterranean Shipping Co. has fallen just short in the quest to be the top carrier in all three segments of the U.S. container trade: imports, exports and overall volume.