The share of US imports from China compared to all Asia imports plunged roughly 6 percentage points between February and April amid COVID-19 lockdowns in Shenzhen and Shanghai.
Key ports in Asia are closely watching the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in China and taking steps to ensure their gateways don’t begin to suffer congestion and delays as a result.
Reduced trans-Pacific connectivity has become particularly acute for shippers in South Korea and Japan who have seen carriers omit calls or drop sailings as they seek to maintain or restore schedule reliability on mainline services.
The new terminal for Busan comes as the port has been plagued by congestion for months, leading carriers to suffer schedule delays or skip the port on European, trans-Pacific, and intra-Asia services.
The falling level of connectivity from Japan and South Korea to North America has led shippers to use short-sea services to China, where cargo is transshipped to mainline trans-Pacific services.
While carriers are permitted to collaborate on freight rates under South Korea’s maritime shipping act, it must be done in discussion with shippers and details reported to the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry within 30 days.
HMM joined its peers in delivering record third-quarter results, with rising demand, increasing rates, and continued supply chain disruption set to keep the profitability spigot gushing.
Combi Lift’s forwarding operation will organize the shipment of equipment components or individual pieces of equipment that would normally be too small to interest its projects division.
HMM’s unionized staff, operating around half of HMM’s container ship fleet, had voted in favor of a strike in August if no agreement was reached, while around 300 seafarers had signed resignation letters and threatened to join rival carriers.
HMM has continued its profitable momentum in the first half and like its peers has no expectation the positive earnings environment will change for the rest of the year.