<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Evergreen Line has launched two new services, the ISC-Bangladesh Service and the Intra-Gulf Service, to enhance its network in the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf.</div>

Evergreen Line has launched two new services, the ISC-Bangladesh Service and the Intra-Gulf Service, to enhance its network in the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf.

<div>Evergreen Line has launched two new services, the ISC-Bangladesh Service and the Intra-Gulf Service, to enhance its network in the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf.The ISC-Bangladesh Service, which connects West India and Pakistan directly to Bangladesh, will be jointly operated by <a>Evergreen</a>, <a>NYK Line</a> and Simatech Shipping. It will also serve as a double loop feeder service connecting the hub in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Chittagong, Bangladesh; Karachi, Pakistan; and Mundra, India.The weekly service will be employed by four vessels of 1,600 to 1,800 20-foot-equivalent unit capacities. Simatech <a>will provide</a> two of the vessels, the Hansa Nordburg and the...

Evergreen Line has launched two new services, the ISC-Bangladesh Service and the Intra-Gulf Service, to enhance its network in the Indian subcontinent and the Persian Gulf. The ISC-Bangladesh Service, which connects West India and Pakistan directly to Bangladesh, will be jointly operated by Evergreen , NYK Line and Simatech Shipping. It will also serve as a double loop feeder service connecting the hub in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Chittagong, Bangladesh; Karachi, Pakistan; and Mundra, India. The weekly service will be employed by four vessels of 1,600 to 1,800 20-foot-equivalent unit capacities. Simatech will provide two of the vessels, the Hansa Nordburg and the Eleni. The service will commence with an inaugural sailing from Chittagong on June 27, and the rotation will be as follows: Chittagong; Colombo; Karachi; Mundra; Colombo; and back to Chittagong. Evergreen will also deploy a 1,600 TEU vessel on the weekly Intra-Gulf service, commencing July 5. The feeder service will bridge the line’s network hub in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, and Umm Qasr, Iraq.

Container lines

Evergreen Line to Launch Two Intra-Asia Services

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">CMA CGM and MSC have repurposed some of their vessels for feeder and shuttle activity while they await the opportunity for safe passage out of the war zone, sources say.</div>

CMA CGM and MSC have repurposed some of their vessels for feeder and shuttle activity while they await the opportunity for safe passage out of the war zone, sources say.

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<div class="phx-topic">As efforts to secure the safe passage of container ships trapped in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz face increasing uncertainty, affected liners have established contingency plans to keep their stranded vessels in operation as long as it’s feasible, according to industry sources with knowledge of the matter. Among the top liners, CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) have the most container ships stuck inside Hormuz — 13 and 15 vessels, respectively, available data shows. Sources say the French carrier has temporarily positioned five of its ships into container shuttle/feeder operations between ports north of the 100-mile-long strait, including Doha in Qatar, Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, Dammam in Saudi Arabia, and ports in Kuwait and Bahrain. MSC has also repurposed some of its ships unable to exit Hormuz for regional shuttle activity, the sources said. South of Hormuz, Khor Fakkan and Fujairah in the UAE and Sohar in Oman remain the focal alternative ports for carriers handling trades into the Persian Gulf. Khor Fakkan continues to battle significant congestion issues, with vessel waits stretching to a week in most cases, except for carrier calls seeking to discharge only UAE loads, the sources said. At the same time, the latest operational updates do not suggest any serious harbor-choking problems and/or cargo evacuation delays at Fujairah and Sohar. CMA CGM is now offering weekly calls out of West India (Mundra/Hazira/Nhava Sheva) for connections into Fujairah and Sohar by downgrading its BIGEX (India-Red Sea) network from a two-string operation into a single loop. A 21-day round-trip voyage involves three 2,500-TEU ships. Hapag-Lloyd has begun operating ad-hoc sailings out of Nhava Sheva into Fujairah, with cargo bookings for Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi handled by road or so-called land bridge options. <h3>Transshipment boom in India </h3>Meanwhile, the Middle East supply chain chaos is proving to be a heavy blow for Indian exporters already reeling under multiple demand headwinds. According to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from port sources, Indian containerized cargo movements to the Persian Gulf are down by almost 80% from the normal pattern on the trade lane. The UAE is the second-largest trading partner for India. While Indian export flows struggle, March port data points to significant additional transshipment activity at major Indian ports as carriers rerouted vessels away from the war zone. Nhava Sheva handled about 121,000 TEUs of container relays, up from 35,000 TEUs in February, whereas Mundra’s transshipments hit a new high of 220,000 TEUs last month, roughly 50,000 TEUs more than normal. As a result, some fresh congestion has emerged at those busy ports. Contact Bency Mathew at <a href="mailto:bencyvmathew@gmail.com">bencyvmathew@gmail.com</a>. </div>

As efforts to secure the safe passage of container ships trapped in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz face increasing uncertainty, affected liners have established contingency plans to keep their stranded vessels in operation as long as it’s feasible, according to industry sources with knowledge of the matter. Among the top liners, CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) have the most container ships stuck inside Hormuz — 13 and 15 vessels, respectively, available data shows. Sources say the French carrier has temporarily positioned five of its ships into container shuttle/feeder operations between ports north of the 100-mile-long strait, including Doha in Qatar, Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, Dammam in Saudi Arabia, and ports in Kuwait and Bahrain. MSC has also repurposed some of its ships unable to exit Hormuz for regional shuttle activity, the sources said. South of Hormuz, Khor Fakkan and Fujairah in the UAE and Sohar in Oman remain the focal alternative ports for carriers handling trades into the Persian Gulf. Khor Fakkan continues to battle significant congestion issues, with vessel waits stretching to a week in most cases, except for carrier calls seeking to discharge only UAE loads, the sources said. At the same time, the latest operational updates do not suggest any serious harbor-choking problems and/or cargo evacuation delays at Fujairah and Sohar. CMA CGM is now offering weekly calls out of West India (Mundra/Hazira/Nhava Sheva) for connections into Fujairah and Sohar by downgrading its BIGEX (India-Red Sea) network from a two-string operation into a single loop. A 21-day round-trip voyage involves three 2,500-TEU ships. Hapag-Lloyd has begun operating ad-hoc sailings out of Nhava Sheva into Fujairah, with cargo bookings for Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi handled by road or so-called land bridge options. Transshipment boom in India Meanwhile, the Middle East supply chain chaos is proving to be a heavy blow for Indian exporters already reeling under multiple demand headwinds. According to data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from port sources, Indian containerized cargo movements to the Persian Gulf are down by almost 80% from the normal pattern on the trade lane. The UAE is the second-largest trading partner for India. While Indian export flows struggle, March port data points to significant additional transshipment activity at major Indian ports as carriers rerouted vessels away from the war zone. Nhava Sheva handled about 121,000 TEUs of container relays, up from 35,000 TEUs in February, whereas Mundra’s transshipments hit a new high of 220,000 TEUs last month, roughly 50,000 TEUs more than normal. As a result, some fresh congestion has emerged at those busy ports. Contact Bency Mathew at bencyvmathew@gmail.com .

Carriers redeploy Hormuz-stranded ships for intra-Gulf shuttle operations

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Decisions that before the conflict would have taken months are now being decided in days, speeding up road transits, freeing urgently needed capacity and easing customs procedures, industry executives told a webinar. </div>

Decisions that before the conflict would have taken months are now being decided in days, speeding up road transits, freeing urgently needed capacity and easing customs procedures, industry executives told a webinar.

<div class="phx-topic">The huge volume of diverted Middle East-bound ocean cargo that overwhelmed land transport systems in the region has accelerated collaboration between countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that will outlast the war, regional industry leaders say. Decisions involving cross-border trade that before the conflict would have taken months are now being decided in days, speeding up road transits, freeing urgently needed capacity and easing customs procedures, a webinar organized by global road transport association IRU heard Wednesday. “What we have witnessed so far is that it's not six countries in the region responding independently to a crisis,” said Achraf Ellili, CEO of Flow Progressive Logistics in Saudi Arabia. “It's a coordinated effort and the entire logistics ecosystem is working together.” Ellili noted that cooperation between regional port authorities and customs regimes was happening “in real time across borders.” “That level of GCC coordination is something that I've never seen before in nearly three decades in this industry, and it signals a maturity in the regional logistics ecosystem,” he said. “The corridors we have created are not going to go back into the box. This is a new normal for the Middle East.” Around 95% of all goods in the Persian Gulf countries are imported, mostly by ocean and routed through the Middle East’s largest port — Jebel Ali in the UAE. When the war started on Feb. 28, the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed to commercial traffic and ocean carriers offloaded containers at ports en route, such as Singapore or Colombo, or at the ports of Fujairah and Sohar on the Gulf of Oman just outside Hormuz, or Salalah on the Arabian Sea. Forwarders scrambled to find road transport solutions to get the stranded boxes to destinations in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq, and the land logistics were quickly overwhelmed by the wave of inbound volume. <h3>Proactive decisions ease bottlenecks </h3>But seven weeks on and with improving coordination between regional governments, the land transport bottlenecks, while still a challenge on some routes, have eased. “It was remarkable how proactive governments were with decisions taken in one or two days that normally would take months to happen,” Rami Karout, senior manager of Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) and transit development at the IRU, told the webcast. Karout attributed much of the smoother cross-border flows to the conflict-accelerated use of TIR, which was rolled out in the GCC in 2017. It is a UN-mandated, IRU-managed global customs transit system that simplifies cross-border trade. TIR allows sealed containers to transit GCC borders with minimal inspection using a single guarantee, cutting transit times by up to 92% and lowering costs. “The use of TIR in submitting advanced cargo information has been optimized during this crisis to facilitate the movement of goods and it has been severely tested,” Karout said. ”Time is critical when it comes to cargo movements at the borders, especially now with costs skyrocketing, and if you have an element where operators can save time at borders, that is precious,” he added. While road transport will never be able to handle the millions of containers imported into the Persian Gulf every year, its role in the regional logistics chain has been strengthened by the war, according to Hasan Boz, deputy director general at the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. “After the crisis, the corridor connecting Turkey with Middle Eastern countries, should not be considered only as an alternative or transit road,” Boz told the IRU webcast. “The corridor will help increase trade between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, between Turkey and Europe, Jordan and Romania or Bulgaria and Syria. “This corridor may be a transit route, but it will also increase bilateral trade in the region,” he added. Ellili said over the past few weeks, shippers have experienced reliability in transit times and predictability of GCC overland corridors and will likely keep a portion of their volume on land as a permanent diversification strategy. “Optionality is now a strategy for traders and manufacturers and carriers,” he said. “Single corridor dependency is no longer acceptable as a risk option and boards of directors are demanding dual corridor strategies. “In the last 49 days, we have stress tested the optionality of different corridors and optionality works,” Ellili added. Optionality has moved from a nice to have to a must have.” Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

The huge volume of diverted Middle East-bound ocean cargo that overwhelmed land transport systems in the region has accelerated collaboration between countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that will outlast the war, regional industry leaders say. Decisions involving cross-border trade that before the conflict would have taken months are now being decided in days, speeding up road transits, freeing urgently needed capacity and easing customs procedures, a webinar organized by global road transport association IRU heard Wednesday. “What we have witnessed so far is that it's not six countries in the region responding independently to a crisis,” said Achraf Ellili, CEO of Flow Progressive Logistics in Saudi Arabia. “It's a coordinated effort and the entire logistics ecosystem is working together.” Ellili noted that cooperation between regional port authorities and customs regimes was happening “in real time across borders.” “That level of GCC coordination is something that I've never seen before in nearly three decades in this industry, and it signals a maturity in the regional logistics ecosystem,” he said. “The corridors we have created are not going to go back into the box. This is a new normal for the Middle East.” Around 95% of all goods in the Persian Gulf countries are imported, mostly by ocean and routed through the Middle East’s largest port — Jebel Ali in the UAE. When the war started on Feb. 28, the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed to commercial traffic and ocean carriers offloaded containers at ports en route, such as Singapore or Colombo, or at the ports of Fujairah and Sohar on the Gulf of Oman just outside Hormuz, or Salalah on the Arabian Sea. Forwarders scrambled to find road transport solutions to get the stranded boxes to destinations in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq, and the land logistics were quickly overwhelmed by the wave of inbound volume. Proactive decisions ease bottlenecks But seven weeks on and with improving coordination between regional governments, the land transport bottlenecks, while still a challenge on some routes, have eased. “It was remarkable how proactive governments were with decisions taken in one or two days that normally would take months to happen,” Rami Karout, senior manager of Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) and transit development at the IRU, told the webcast. Karout attributed much of the smoother cross-border flows to the conflict-accelerated use of TIR, which was rolled out in the GCC in 2017. It is a UN-mandated, IRU-managed global customs transit system that simplifies cross-border trade. TIR allows sealed containers to transit GCC borders with minimal inspection using a single guarantee, cutting transit times by up to 92% and lowering costs. “The use of TIR in submitting advanced cargo information has been optimized during this crisis to facilitate the movement of goods and it has been severely tested,” Karout said. ”Time is critical when it comes to cargo movements at the borders, especially now with costs skyrocketing, and if you have an element where operators can save time at borders, that is precious,” he added. While road transport will never be able to handle the millions of containers imported into the Persian Gulf every year, its role in the regional logistics chain has been strengthened by the war, according to Hasan Boz, deputy director general at the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. “After the crisis, the corridor connecting Turkey with Middle Eastern countries, should not be considered only as an alternative or transit road,” Boz told the IRU webcast. “The corridor will help increase trade between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, between Turkey and Europe, Jordan and Romania or Bulgaria and Syria. “This corridor may be a transit route, but it will also increase bilateral trade in the region,” he added. Ellili said over the past few weeks, shippers have experienced reliability in transit times and predictability of GCC overland corridors and will likely keep a portion of their volume on land as a permanent diversification strategy. “Optionality is now a strategy for traders and manufacturers and carriers,” he said. “Single corridor dependency is no longer acceptable as a risk option and boards of directors are demanding dual corridor strategies. “In the last 49 days, we have stress tested the optionality of different corridors and optionality works,” Ellili added. Optionality has moved from a nice to have to a must have.” Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Maritime

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Supply chain

Surface

Middle East war accelerates regional cross-border cooperation

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Ocean carriers say there is still enough bunker fuel availability in general, but the different fuel types are unevenly distributed and affecting key refueling hubs in Asia, notably Singapore. </div>

Ocean carriers say there is still enough bunker fuel availability in general, but the different fuel types are unevenly distributed and affecting key refueling hubs in Asia, notably Singapore.

<div class="phx-topic">Container lines face the prospect of major global shortages of bunker fuel within two or three months if oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted. Such a scenario where fuel scarcity — particularly the low-sulfur kind — expands from South Asia to other bunkering locations globally would put a premium on ships equipped with exhaust scrubbers that are able to burn high-sulfur fuel. Around 40% of the global container shipping fleet have exhaust gas cleaning systems, according to Alphaliner. The scrubbers remove harmful sulfur oxides and particulate matter from marine exhaust fumes, allowing ships to burn high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) while complying with international IMO 2020 pollution regulations. Carriers say there is still enough bunker fuel supply in general, but the different fuel types — very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), HSFO, marine gasoil (MGO) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) — are becoming unevenly distributed at key refueling hubs in Asia, notably Singapore. “As of mid-April 2026, the Strait of Hormuz closure remains the primary driver of supply anxiety, forcing a significant shift in where vessels choose to lift fuel,” said Fotios Katsoulas, director and head of tankers, freight and alternative fuels research at S&amp;P Global Energy. S&amp;P Global is the parent of the Journal of Commerce. "The global bunker market is currently defined by a sharp divide between well-stocked Western hubs and severely constrained Eastern corridors,” he added. “While we aren't seeing widespread ‘dry’ ports, the tightness in specific regions — particularly around low-sulfur blends and high-viscosity fuel for project cargo vessels — is definitely a valid concern.” <h3>Scrubber-equipped vessels more flexible </h3>The greater availability of HSFO, at least for now, provides an advantage to vessels equipped with scrubbers, according to Paolo Montrone, senior vice president and head of global trades at Kuehne + Nagel. “If there are big shortages, we believe the availability of high-sulfur fuel will probably be more spread out through many bunkering ports, including the smaller ports,” Montrone said in an interview with the Journal of Commerce Tuesday. “Ships with scrubbers will have an advantage in terms of flexibility, not necessarily just over-availability of supply or cost, but purely on where you can actually bunker,” he added. “It will become not so much about supply and demand and price, but about how to get the fuel where you need it and when you need it.” Jan Tiedemann, senior analyst for liner shipping and ports at Alphaliner, agreed that flexibility was key, with some LNG and methanol dual-fuel vessels even equipped with scrubbers. For instance, Mediterranean Shipping Co. retrofitted scrubbers on 35-year-old ships and also had scrubbers fitted on brand new LNG vessels, he noted. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said fuel type was just one of many factors in how the carrier deployed its ships. “What matters most are stable schedules, network needs and our commitments to customers,” he told the Journal of Commerce.“Scrubber-equipped vessels do provide some additional flexibility, but any changes in deployment would be made very carefully and based on overall network requirements ‒ not just on fuel availability.” The industry welcomed a two-week ceasefire agreed to between the US and Iran last week, but peace talks between the two parties in Islamabad on April 11-12 collapsed after less than 24 hours. Then tensions over oil exports from the Persian Gulf were further ratcheted up Monday when the US launched a counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz to force Iran to abandon its blockade and allow toll-free shipping to resume through the waterway. Commercial transit through Hormuz has now effectively halted, Crane Worldwide Logistics said in a Middle East update Tuesday. While approximately 17 vessels transited the strait on April 11 — the highest post‑ceasefire volume — traffic fell to near zero as the US blockade implementation approached. “Major operators have confirmed they will not attempt passage without full insurance cover, citing mines in the main channel and enforcement risk,” Crane noted. “More than 3,200 vessels, including over 800 tankers, remain stranded across the Gulf, with charter and insurance markets re‑hardening sharply and all ceasefire‑era relief erased.” <h3>Visibility to manage fuel types </h3>Carriers say they are still able to find the bunker fuel they need, but it is not always in the locations where it is needed. Some carriers are topping up ships in Europe where VLSFO is available, and at a lower cost to Singapore, and transporting the fuel to Asia. Montrone said feedback from the major carriers is that they expect to see challenges if the distribution of fuel and bottlenecks in the Middle East continue for another two to three months. In preparation, Kuehne + Nagel has been poring over visibility data on its SeaExplorer tool to consider ways to manage potential bunker shortages of certain fuel types. “Eight years ago, in SeaExplorer we classified ships by fuel type and by scrubber or non-scrubber, and it was not that useful in the past,” Montrone said. “We have at our fingertips, loop by loop, what is LNG, what is VLSFO and what ships have scrubbers. “We are now looking at all these details to ensure that we have the right flexibility and capacity to be able to get in front of a potential issue, and we believe we are fairly well prepared,” he added. Jacob Moe, global head of full container load (FCL) and trade management at DHL Global Forwarding, said emerging shortages in bunker supply would bring the network resilience of maritime supply chains into the spotlight. "If Hormuz remains disrupted and replenishment becomes more constrained in key Asian hubs, carriers will need to operate with less flexibility across networks, which typically translates into reduced effective capacity, omitted or adjusted port calls, longer lead times and additional cost pressure,” Moe told the Journal of Commerce. “Cargo will continue to move, but with materially less predictability, and that is usually the first thing customers feel,” he added. Data from Signal Ocean shows global seaborne crude oil shipments have fallen 16% since the beginning of the Middle East war compared to the first nine weeks of 2026. “This represents a reduction of 7.6 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 38.4 mb/p,” Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at Bimco, said in a market update Tuesday. “Coincidentally, shipments during the past six weeks have likewise been 16% lower than during the same period last year. “Even if the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened, it may take a long time for crude oil and other energy shipments to return to previous volumes,” he noted. Contact Greg Knowler at <a href="mailto:greg.knowler@spglobal.com">greg.knowler@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Container lines face the prospect of major global shortages of bunker fuel within two or three months if oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted. Such a scenario where fuel scarcity — particularly the low-sulfur kind — expands from South Asia to other bunkering locations globally would put a premium on ships equipped with exhaust scrubbers that are able to burn high-sulfur fuel. Around 40% of the global container shipping fleet have exhaust gas cleaning systems, according to Alphaliner. The scrubbers remove harmful sulfur oxides and particulate matter from marine exhaust fumes, allowing ships to burn high-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) while complying with international IMO 2020 pollution regulations. Carriers say there is still enough bunker fuel supply in general, but the different fuel types — very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO), HSFO, marine gasoil (MGO) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) — are becoming unevenly distributed at key refueling hubs in Asia, notably Singapore. “As of mid-April 2026, the Strait of Hormuz closure remains the primary driver of supply anxiety, forcing a significant shift in where vessels choose to lift fuel,” said Fotios Katsoulas, director and head of tankers, freight and alternative fuels research at S&P Global Energy. S&P Global is the parent of the Journal of Commerce. "The global bunker market is currently defined by a sharp divide between well-stocked Western hubs and severely constrained Eastern corridors,” he added. “While we aren't seeing widespread ‘dry’ ports, the tightness in specific regions — particularly around low-sulfur blends and high-viscosity fuel for project cargo vessels — is definitely a valid concern.” Scrubber-equipped vessels more flexible The greater availability of HSFO, at least for now, provides an advantage to vessels equipped with scrubbers, according to Paolo Montrone, senior vice president and head of global trades at Kuehne + Nagel. “If there are big shortages, we believe the availability of high-sulfur fuel will probably be more spread out through many bunkering ports, including the smaller ports,” Montrone said in an interview with the Journal of Commerce Tuesday. “Ships with scrubbers will have an advantage in terms of flexibility, not necessarily just over-availability of supply or cost, but purely on where you can actually bunker,” he added. “It will become not so much about supply and demand and price, but about how to get the fuel where you need it and when you need it.” Jan Tiedemann, senior analyst for liner shipping and ports at Alphaliner, agreed that flexibility was key, with some LNG and methanol dual-fuel vessels even equipped with scrubbers. For instance, Mediterranean Shipping Co. retrofitted scrubbers on 35-year-old ships and also had scrubbers fitted on brand new LNG vessels, he noted. A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd said fuel type was just one of many factors in how the carrier deployed its ships. “What matters most are stable schedules, network needs and our commitments to customers,” he told the Journal of Commerce. “Scrubber-equipped vessels do provide some additional flexibility, but any changes in deployment would be made very carefully and based on overall network requirements ‒ not just on fuel availability.” The industry welcomed a two-week ceasefire agreed to between the US and Iran last week, but peace talks between the two parties in Islamabad on April 11-12 collapsed after less than 24 hours. Then tensions over oil exports from the Persian Gulf were further ratcheted up Monday when the US launched a counter-blockade in the Strait of Hormuz to force Iran to abandon its blockade and allow toll-free shipping to resume through the waterway. Commercial transit through Hormuz has now effectively halted, Crane Worldwide Logistics said in a Middle East update Tuesday. While approximately 17 vessels transited the strait on April 11 — the highest post‑ceasefire volume — traffic fell to near zero as the US blockade implementation approached. “Major operators have confirmed they will not attempt passage without full insurance cover, citing mines in the main channel and enforcement risk,” Crane noted. “More than 3,200 vessels, including over 800 tankers, remain stranded across the Gulf, with charter and insurance markets re‑hardening sharply and all ceasefire‑era relief erased.” Visibility to manage fuel types Carriers say they are still able to find the bunker fuel they need, but it is not always in the locations where it is needed. Some carriers are topping up ships in Europe where VLSFO is available, and at a lower cost to Singapore, and transporting the fuel to Asia. Montrone said feedback from the major carriers is that they expect to see challenges if the distribution of fuel and bottlenecks in the Middle East continue for another two to three months. In preparation, Kuehne + Nagel has been poring over visibility data on its SeaExplorer tool to consider ways to manage potential bunker shortages of certain fuel types. “Eight years ago, in SeaExplorer we classified ships by fuel type and by scrubber or non-scrubber, and it was not that useful in the past,” Montrone said. “We have at our fingertips, loop by loop, what is LNG, what is VLSFO and what ships have scrubbers. “We are now looking at all these details to ensure that we have the right flexibility and capacity to be able to get in front of a potential issue, and we believe we are fairly well prepared,” he added. Jacob Moe, global head of full container load (FCL) and trade management at DHL Global Forwarding, said emerging shortages in bunker supply would bring the network resilience of maritime supply chains into the spotlight. "If Hormuz remains disrupted and replenishment becomes more constrained in key Asian hubs, carriers will need to operate with less flexibility across networks, which typically translates into reduced effective capacity, omitted or adjusted port calls, longer lead times and additional cost pressure,” Moe told the Journal of Commerce. “Cargo will continue to move, but with materially less predictability, and that is usually the first thing customers feel,” he added. Data from Signal Ocean shows global seaborne crude oil shipments have fallen 16% since the beginning of the Middle East war compared to the first nine weeks of 2026. “This represents a reduction of 7.6 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 38.4 mb/p,” Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at Bimco, said in a market update Tuesday. “Coincidentally, shipments during the past six weeks have likewise been 16% lower than during the same period last year. “Even if the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened, it may take a long time for crude oil and other energy shipments to return to previous volumes,” he noted. Contact Greg Knowler at greg.knowler@spglobal.com .

Port News

International ports

Container Shipping News

Bunker fuel shortages loom after US counter blocks Strait of Hormuz 

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The move comes amid softer volumes this year at the gateway, but NSWA’s chief operating officer says now is not the time to “pull back” on service levels. </div>

The move comes amid softer volumes this year at the gateway, but NSWA’s chief operating officer says now is not the time to “pull back” on service levels.

<div class="phx-topic">Officials at the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) of Seattle and Tacoma are criticizing a move by SSA Terminals to implement once-a-week gate closures at each of its two marine terminals in Seattle following the recent cancellation of a trans-Pacific service, saying it “enters friction” into the port’s operations. SSA is closing gate and yard operations at Terminal 5 on Mondays and Terminal 18 on Fridays in April, although maintaining seven-day vessel operations. The decision, it said, came amid softer volumes at the port; in March, the Sun Chief Express Service from Southeast Asia, which called at T-18, was terminated with the exit of Emirates Shipping Line from the trans-Pacific trade. Also affecting volumes has been recent void calls by the Ocean Alliance’s PNW1 and CPNW services, which call at T-18. SSA has not said whether the gate closures will extend into May. While the advisory it sent out about the April closures went to the port’s trucking community, it was not sent to the NWSA. Jeff Bellerud, chief operating officer of the NWSA, said SSA’s decision to close gates at its two Seattle terminals works counter to the port authority’s efforts to improve service for truckers and shippers. “We want to offer the highest quality service along the West Coast, and as gates are reduced it enters friction into the system at a time when we need to do just the opposite,” Bellerud told the Journal of Commerce Monday. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="ac60de38-7aa7-459a-8baa-a45ae18e2f38"></dynamic-object></div>Volumes into NWSA were down sharply at the beginning of the year, with imports from Asia of 160,144 TEUs for January and February combined down almost 23% from the same period in 2025, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. For all of the West Coast, imports from Asia of 931,450 TEUs in January were down 14.4% year over year, while imports of 886,280 for February were up 1.3% from a year earlier, according to PIERS. According to NWSA data, total imports and exports year to date through February at the gateway were down 16.6%. SSA, in a statement to the Journal of Commerce, said cargo volumes have been low “at every port in the United States since the start of 2026.” “Despite these conditions, SSA Terminals Seattle has maintained its operational processes and continues daily vessel operations, seven days a week, at Terminal 5 and Terminal 18 whenever there is demand,” it said. “SSA Terminals Seattle also remains committed to efficiently managing cargo volume changes and minimizing disruptions for our customers and the regional trucking community,” SSA added. “To ensure continued service, gate and yard operations continue at a minimum of one terminal, Monday through Friday.” <h3>Can’t ‘pull back’ on service </h3>There is likely a cost-savings component to SSA’s decision to cut back on some gate shifts. While the cost to the terminal operator of running a full gate shift varies based on the volume of containers lifted on and off a vessel and the number of longshore work gangs that must be employed, about $40,000 “is a good marker for a full-service day shift,” at NWSA, according to Bellerud. But if the NWSA is going to maintain its customer service standards in the highly competitive West Coast port environment, it is essential that all of NWSA’s terminals offer full daytime shifts Monday through Friday, he said. “It is in these soft markets when we need to lean into service, not pull back, if we are going to grow future volumes,” Bellerud said. He’s hopeful that volumes at NWSA will begin to pick up as spring and summer merchandise imports begin to arrive. “What we’re seeing now is vessels and volumes should start to pick up in that mid-May time frame, and thereafter,” Bellerud said. “We’re cautiously bullish on the second half of the year.” Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at <a href="mailto:bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com">bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com</a>.</div>

Officials at the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) of Seattle and Tacoma are criticizing a move by SSA Terminals to implement once-a-week gate closures at each of its two marine terminals in Seattle following the recent cancellation of a trans-Pacific service, saying it “enters friction” into the port’s operations. SSA is closing gate and yard operations at Terminal 5 on Mondays and Terminal 18 on Fridays in April, although maintaining seven-day vessel operations. The decision, it said, came amid softer volumes at the port; in March, the Sun Chief Express Service from Southeast Asia, which called at T-18, was terminated with the exit of Emirates Shipping Line from the trans-Pacific trade. Also affecting volumes has been recent void calls by the Ocean Alliance’s PNW1 and CPNW services, which call at T-18. SSA has not said whether the gate closures will extend into May. While the advisory it sent out about the April closures went to the port’s trucking community, it was not sent to the NWSA. Jeff Bellerud, chief operating officer of the NWSA, said SSA’s decision to close gates at its two Seattle terminals works counter to the port authority’s efforts to improve service for truckers and shippers. “We want to offer the highest quality service along the West Coast, and as gates are reduced it enters friction into the system at a time when we need to do just the opposite,” Bellerud told the Journal of Commerce Monday. Volumes into NWSA were down sharply at the beginning of the year, with imports from Asia of 160,144 TEUs for January and February combined down almost 23% from the same period in 2025, according to PIERS, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. For all of the West Coast, imports from Asia of 931,450 TEUs in January were down 14.4% year over year, while imports of 886,280 for February were up 1.3% from a year earlier, according to PIERS. According to NWSA data, total imports and exports year to date through February at the gateway were down 16.6%. SSA, in a statement to the Journal of Commerce, said cargo volumes have been low “at every port in the United States since the start of 2026.” “Despite these conditions, SSA Terminals Seattle has maintained its operational processes and continues daily vessel operations, seven days a week, at Terminal 5 and Terminal 18 whenever there is demand,” it said. “SSA Terminals Seattle also remains committed to efficiently managing cargo volume changes and minimizing disruptions for our customers and the regional trucking community,” SSA added. “To ensure continued service, gate and yard operations continue at a minimum of one terminal, Monday through Friday.” Can’t ‘pull back’ on service There is likely a cost-savings component to SSA’s decision to cut back on some gate shifts. While the cost to the terminal operator of running a full gate shift varies based on the volume of containers lifted on and off a vessel and the number of longshore work gangs that must be employed, about $40,000 “is a good marker for a full-service day shift,” at NWSA, according to Bellerud. But if the NWSA is going to maintain its customer service standards in the highly competitive West Coast port environment, it is essential that all of NWSA’s terminals offer full daytime shifts Monday through Friday, he said. “It is in these soft markets when we need to lean into service, not pull back, if we are going to grow future volumes,” Bellerud said. He’s hopeful that volumes at NWSA will begin to pick up as spring and summer merchandise imports begin to arrive. “What we’re seeing now is vessels and volumes should start to pick up in that mid-May time frame, and thereafter,” Bellerud said. “We’re cautiously bullish on the second half of the year.” Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at  bill.mongelluzzo@spglobal.com .

Trans-Pacific

North American ports

Marine terminals

NWSA knocks SSA for gate closures at its Seattle terminals

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The deal is the latest in a growing trend by cash-rich carriers to develop terminals, particularly in Asia and especially in Vietnam, as they move to secure access at key regional ports to gain preferential berthing rights and minimize delays. </div>

The deal is the latest in a growing trend by cash-rich carriers to develop terminals, particularly in Asia and especially in Vietnam, as they move to secure access at key regional ports to gain preferential berthing rights and minimize delays.

<div class="phx-topic">Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) will broaden its network in Vietnam after being chosen as the majority shareholder of a consortium developing the $5 billion Can Gio international container port located south of Ho Chi Minh City. The deal is the latest in a growing trend by carriers, supported by recent record profits, to develop terminals, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/one-adds-to-asian-terminal-holdings-with-laem-chabang-deal-6195250">particularly in Asia and especially in Vietnam</a>, as they move to secure access at key regional ports to gain preferential berthing rights and minimize delays. The consortium was selected by the Ho Chi Minh City people's committee this week for a 50-year concession to build and operate the facility, which will mainly target transshipment cargo. TiL will hold a 49% stake in the venture, while state-controlled Vietnam Maritime Corp. (VIMC) will have a 36% shareholding. Saigon Port JSC Corporation will hold the 15% balance. The complex, covering 1,412 acres, will have the capacity to handle 4.8 million TEUs by 2030 spread across at least four berths capable of handling 20,000-TEU sized container ships. Plans call for the port to grow to 13 berths handling 17 million TEUs by 2047. Total berth length is almost 5 miles. It will be TiL’s second major port project in Vietnam after its Hai Phong Port TiL International Terminal Company inaugurated terminals 3 and 4 at Lach Huyen new port in northern Vietnam a year ago. Under the terms of its concession agreement with the Ho Chi Minh City government, TiL and its partners are prevented from selling the Can Gio terminal complex for 10 years and must complete the entire development within 20 years. City officials hope the Can Gio port will spur the development of the area as an urban logistics and industrial hub in southern Vietnam, potentially competing with the Cai Mep port and industrial region 12 miles to the northeast. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) will broaden its network in Vietnam after being chosen as the majority shareholder of a consortium developing the $5 billion Can Gio international container port located south of Ho Chi Minh City. The deal is the latest in a growing trend by carriers, supported by recent record profits, to develop terminals, particularly in Asia and especially in Vietnam , as they move to secure access at key regional ports to gain preferential berthing rights and minimize delays. The consortium was selected by the Ho Chi Minh City people's committee this week for a 50-year concession to build and operate the facility, which will mainly target transshipment cargo. TiL will hold a 49% stake in the venture, while state-controlled Vietnam Maritime Corp. (VIMC) will have a 36% shareholding. Saigon Port JSC Corporation will hold the 15% balance. The complex, covering 1,412 acres, will have the capacity to handle 4.8 million TEUs by 2030 spread across at least four berths capable of handling 20,000-TEU sized container ships. Plans call for the port to grow to 13 berths handling 17 million TEUs by 2047. Total berth length is almost 5 miles. It will be TiL’s second major port project in Vietnam after its Hai Phong Port TiL International Terminal Company inaugurated terminals 3 and 4 at Lach Huyen new port in northern Vietnam a year ago. Under the terms of its concession agreement with the Ho Chi Minh City government, TiL and its partners are prevented from selling the Can Gio terminal complex for 10 years and must complete the entire development within 20 years. City officials hope the Can Gio port will spur the development of the area as an urban logistics and industrial hub in southern Vietnam, potentially competing with the Cai Mep port and industrial region 12 miles to the northeast. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

Port infrastructure

MSC’s terminals arm extends Vietnam portfolio with new container port project

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