Top 40 Container Carriers

CMA CGM Monday closed its all-cash offer for Neptune Orient Lines.

The European Shippers Council today claimed container lines' recent commitments to the European Commission over general rate increase announcements “does not solve the price-fixing problem.”

Shippers are watching closely to see whether regulators approve the latest proposed vessel-sharing agreement in the global container trade and how those carriers left behind respond.

The Ocean Alliance was born in Shanghai on Wednesday as CMA CGM, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line and OOCL signed a memorandum of understanding to offer more than 40 global services connecting markets in Asia, Europe and the United States.

In the aftermath of the West Coast labor debacle — and all the cross-border diversions, air cargo routing and alternative sourcing remedies that came with it — ocean carrier results for 2015 were mixed, with 19 of the JOC Top 40 ship lines moving goods in the U.S. trades posting volume declines. Separately, 21 of the JOC Top 40 U.S. export container carriers and 15 of the JOC Top 40 U.S. import container carriers posted declines in volume.

Hyundai Merchant Marine has once again rejected speculation of a merger with fellow South Korean carrier Hanjin Shipping and clarified the role of a financial adviser serving the ailing ocean carrier.

The newly formed China Cosco Shipping Corp. aims to become the third-largest global container line by boosting its fleet by at least 50,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units to more than 2 million TEUs by the end of 2018.

China Cosco Shipping Corporation was officially launched in Shanghai, bringing together the mainland’s two largest carriers and amassing a huge armada of container ships, bulk carriers and tankers that far out strip those of its rivals.

If an uncertain global economy wasn’t enough for shippers and transportation providers, 2016 will be filled with major changes, from the massive container shipping weight mandate to liner consolidation. Other threats and opportunities will likely emerge during the year, but the 10 trends outlined here will definitely be in play and impact global supply chains. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

High debt levels at Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine will make it difficult for the South Korean container lines to take advantage of their government’s new S1.2 billion fund to assist the country’s struggling shipping and shipbuilding companies.

Ocean carriers and terminal operators face a formidable challenge planning and executing the most fundamental of shipping processes: stowage.

CMA CGM’s reported third-quarter net profit plunged nearly 76 percent year-over-year to $51 million, amid the French carrier’s talks with Neptune Orient Lines over a potential merger.

Plagued by overcapacity and ongoing losses, the container shipping industry is rife with talk of potential mergers and acquisitions. The consolidation of the highly fragmented industry is long overdue, especially when contrasted with such other heavily capitalized transportation sectors as railroads and airlines.

Hapag-Lloyd on Friday cut the price range for shares in its initial public offering, citing “ongoing market volatility.”

NOL’s third-quarter results were awash in red ink as the Singapore-listed company reported a third-quarter net loss of $96 million, down 300 percent compared to the same period last year as rate levels tumbled on the major trades.

Japan’s three largest container lines saw their group revenues miss forecasts and remain almost flat in the first half of the current fiscal year, while Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) slipped into the red.

Hapag-Lloyd has extended the share offer period for its initial public offering by a week to Nov. 3.

The expected merger of China Shipping and Cosco speaks not just to the increased pressure on container lines — even state-owned ones — to become profitable, but also the political and economic changes rippling through China.

Evergreen Line will order 20 new vessels, each with capacity for 3,000 20-foot-equivalent units, Vice Group Chairman Bronson Hsieh said at a shareholders’ meeting Wednesday.

United Arab Shipping Co., a member of the Ocean Three Alliance, has taken delivery of the world’s greenest ultra-large container ship.

Taiwan’s three top lines became the latest carriers to join the black numbers club, all recording net profit for the first quarter on the back of rising revenue and falling operating costs.

Hapag-Lloyd swung to a first-quarter profit of 128.2 million euros ($143.6 million) from a year-earlier loss of 119.1 million euros as a stronger dollar and lower bunker prices helped to offset weaker freight rates.

CMA CGM said its New Europe Mascarene Oceania service will call at the Kattupalli International Container Terminal, an emerging alternative gateway on India’s southeastern coast.

China Cosco Holdings reported a first-quarter loss of $166 million just hours after being forced to make its second unusual trading announcement of the month as rumors that the carrier would be merged with China Shipping Container Lines continued to galvanize the market.

The first of United Arab Shipping Co.’s super-sized container ship built to run on liquefied natural gas has been named in a ceremony at Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, the Korean shipyard where the vessel is under construction.

China Shipping Container Lines in the first quarter continued its profitable turnaround that began with a positive 2014 annual result, reporting a 305 percent increase in net profit to $40 million.

Hamburg Sud remained in the black in 2014 even as falling freight rates on its key South American routes and a weaker dollar depressed revenues.

Hapag-Lloyd has ordered five 10,500-TEU container ships for the South American trades.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services is finally emerging from seven straight years of mounting losses and a multibillion-dollar restructuring that saved it from bankruptcy, its CEO Rafi Danieli says.

When congestion last fall forced dozens of ships to anchor off the West Coast and crippled the flow of cargo through the nation’s largest ports, it couldn’t have come at a worse time for beneficial cargo owners racing to get their goods to store shelves in time for the holidays. The extent of the damage — lost sales, unfulfilled orders and loss of business to other countries — increases in clarity when analyzing the latest U.S. import and export data for 2014.

CMA CGM has become the third member of the 20,000-TEU club with an order for three of the world’s largest container ships.

In a development that could foreshadow the end of container-handling at the Port of Portland, Oregon, Hapag-Lloyd’s service to the Pacific Northwest port has come into question — the carrier has no calls listed in the coming weeks at the port.

Rumors of a merger of APL and Orient Overseas Container Line were “probably not more than hot air,” and even if true would not affect container shipping overcapacity, Drewry Maritime Research says.

Evergreen Line plans to upgrade its intra-Asia service network by joining the India-Far East Express Service operated by a consortium of Wan Hai Lines, Pacific International Lines, “K” Line, Shipping Corporation of India and Simatech Shipping.

Orient Overseas International Ltd.'s announcement that it will spend almost $1 billion on the purchase of six 20,000-TEU ships has put an end to speculation that the Hong Kong-listed line was interested in acquiring troubled APL from Neptune Orient Lines.

A U.S. Federal Maritime Commission member wants the FMC to ask the four major container ship alliances to supply new information on what they’re doing to reduce congestion at U.S. ports.

Japan’s third-largest shipping line, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, announced Monday it would be beefing up its LNG and bulker vessels over the next four years, while downsizing its container shipping fleet.

CMA CGM and Hamburg Sud are expanding their current cooperation agreement to several additional liner trade routes in the latest consolidation of global container networks.

OOCL plans to upgrade its intra-Asia service network by joining the Singapore-Chennai 2 (SC2) service operated by Wan Hai Lines and Bengal Tiger Line, starting in early February.

Hapag-Lloyd today became the latest carrier to implement a general rate increase — of $850 per TEU — in the Far East-Europe trade just days after rivals were due to hike rates on the world’s biggest liner route. However, rates could fall to levels not seen since 2011 when carriers cut their bunker adjustment factors in February, a London-based derivatives broker says.