Container lines

The investigation centers on terminal service agreements that may have required container lines to commit to route a share of their cargo through Port Houston.

But the longer voyages are also seeing container shipping companies cutting the average fuel intensity per TEU mile and ensuring vessels are sailing full.

The decline came despite a 4.4% increase in total container volumes to 2 million TEUs, the carrier said in a quarterly update Friday.

The Marseille-based liner has finalized operational plans to call off its remaining vessel-sharing agreements with the carriers after Gemini Cooperation-linked realignments.

Trans-Pacific carriers are facing rapidly declining demand and freight rates on the trade lane as the frontloading that occurred during the 90-day pause on new US tariffs — now extended to Aug. 1 — has largely lost steam.

With two attacks on commercial vessels in recent days, including one that killed three mariners, any thought that the risk in the Red Sea was easing to the point the Suez route might be restored in the near future has vanished.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is furthering its lead in vessel tonnage so far this year as it absorbs more than double the amount of new capacity added by No. 2 carrier Maersk.

But the mini rush will be short-lived, with imports falling month to month between August and November, the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said in their latest Global Port Tracker.

The moves by CMA CGM were made to improve westbound transit times that remain a challenge due to ongoing vessel diversions around southern Africa.

In the latest course correction in the US’ busiest trade lane, carriers are set to deploy less tonnage in August as spot rates fall and retail import forecasts weaken.

Beginning in September, the joint service will make added stops at Aarhus in Denmark, Gothenburg in Sweden and Rotterdam in the Netherlands as the last three European calls.

Instead of its 24,000-TEU ships making direct calls at West African ports, Hapag-Lloyd’s main Mediterranean hub is being used as a key transshipment point for Asia-Africa services.

Carriers are pulling back on their blanking campaigns on the Asia-ECSA lane in July after two months of blanking campaigns largely neutralized capacity additions to the lane.

Longer transits around southern Africa, restructured alliance networks and bottlenecks in Asia continue to cause ships to arrive outside their scheduled European arrival windows.

While vessels on the lead West India-US East Coast networks have continued to sail full, forwarders have linked the “sold-out” experience to capacity cutbacks and consequent cargo rollovers.

The fresh capacity carriers rushed into the US’ busiest trade lane in April and May is no longer needed, sending rates on a downward spiral and forcing carriers to shelve proposed price hikes.

The complaint from Dollar General alleges the carrier sold more of its capacity in the high-flying spot market of 2021, leaving shippers under fixed-price contracts in the lurch.

The deployment of 24,000-TEU ships on its Africa Express service allows the carrier to better leverage billions of dollars invested in West Africa in recent years, reducing exposure to congested North European ports.

The $177 million plan to enlarge Spain’s TTI Algeciras is in line with the strategy of ocean carriers to diversify revenue and exert greater control over their supply chains.

The uptick in rates comes despite a 9% surge in deployed capacity on regional services since February, according to figures from British transport consultant MDS Transmodal.

Although spot rates from Asia to the US are dropping due to waning demand and overcapacity, the carrier is zeroing in on the e-commerce sector with its expedited transit times and the quick delivery of containers upon discharge from vessels.

The trade group of ocean carriers is exempt from US antitrust scrutiny under an agreement it filed with the FMC five years ago, but the agency is now questioning that arrangement.

The carrier said vessels on the five-day transit to Philadelphia will carry food, apparel, industrial products and consumer goods.

Swire, UWL’s original partner for the express service to Seattle, will phase out its vessels during July while new partner Emirate Shipping Line rotates into the loop.

Tariff uncertainty, weakening demand and an abundance of capacity are hanging over the container shipping industry, the global bank said in a report Thursday.

A new service from Green Tide Logistics will connect Veracruz to Philadelphia in five to six days via truck and multi-purpose vessels capable of handling 1,200 to 1,700 TEUs.

The digital solution will be available for US imports this week and is set to roll out globally in August.

Peak shipping season began early on both trade lanes, but the advancing of US orders from China will hit trans-Pacific demand in the second half of the year.

The surge, however brief, will nonetheless be a welcome boost in business for the ports after a lackluster May and early June.

CMA CGM, Maersk, MSC and Cosco are among mainliners charging add-ons on overweight containers.

Internal and external forces in the first half of 2025 mitigated container vessel overcapacity, but steep challenges lie ahead, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

With little relief forthcoming, cargo owners need to build delays into their shipping plans as port and ship capacity remain tight, speakers at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s annual meeting said.

But sources do not think carriers will have an opportunity to net full recovery of the proposed amounts in the current market environment unless strategic capacity cuts occur.

Consultancy MDS Transmodal said the two companies will have just under half of the almost 176,700 TEUs in feeder ship capacity deployed in Europe and the Mediterranean.

A more than 30% one-week drop in rates from Asia to the US West Coast is showing that the import rush sparked by the temporary pause in higher US tariffs will apparently be short-lived.

The China-based liners carried a combined 1.09 million TEUs in imports to the US through April, up 23% over the same period in 2024, according to Journal of Commerce rankings.

It is reasonable to assume the larger container carriers are now going to earn above historical returns, but they will not be immune from significant dips when supply significantly exceeds demand, writes Jeremy Masters.

While just 2% to 3% of global container traffic transits the key chokepoint, any restrictions would further tie up global vessel capacity and cut off the ports of Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi.

Liners have enjoyed the higher rates and profits that come from external market shocks, but it’s fair to wonder how sustainable that is, writes Peter Tirschwell.

A widening spread between the West and East coasts comes as carriers have added fresh capacity, especially to Southern California, to take advantage of what had been a sharp jump in demand and rates following the US pause on higher tariffs against China.