<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Zim Integrated Shipping Services will sell its minority stake in the Tin Can Island Container Terminal at the Port of Lagos to a new joint venture between China Merchants Holdings and the China-Africa</div>

Zim Integrated Shipping Services will sell its minority stake in the Tin Can Island Container Terminal at the Port of Lagos to a new joint venture between China Merchants Holdings and the China-Africa

<div>Zim Integrated Shipping Services will sell its minority stake in the Tin Can Island Container Terminal at the Port of Lagos to a new joint venture between China Merchants Holdings and the China-Africa Development Fund.Zim said it agreed to sell its 47.5 percent stake for $154 million, giving it a gross profit of $120 million on the sale. The sale was moved forward from its originally planned date of completion in 2011.China Merchants will own 60 percent of the venture, with China-Africa Development Fund taking a 40 percent stake after obtaining approval from Chinese regulators, the Chinese port operator said...

Zim Integrated Shipping Services will sell its minority stake in the Tin Can Island Container Terminal at the Port of Lagos to a new joint venture between China Merchants Holdings and the China-Africa Development Fund. Zim said it agreed to sell its 47.5 percent stake for $154 million, giving it a gross profit of $120 million on the sale. The sale was moved forward from its originally planned date of completion in 2011. China Merchants will own 60 percent of the venture, with China-Africa Development Fund taking a 40 percent stake after obtaining approval from Chinese regulators, the Chinese port operator said in a statement. The terminal is Nigeria's second largest container terminal. Zim will also sign an agreement to call at the terminal for the next 10 years and will sell additional rights in connection with the asset. Zim's partner in the container terminal is Bollore Logistics Africa, a unit of Paris-based Group Bollore. The Tin Can Island Container Terminal has three berths, with an annual capacity of 360,000 20-foot equivalent container units.fourth berth is being upgraded, which will increase the terminal's capacity to 400,000 TEU per year. Zim has extensive commercial activities in Nigeria, and operates a number of shipping lines, connecting Asia, Europe and the United States, to Nigeria, as well as a fully owned shipping and logistics agency in Lagos. Zim President and CEO Rafi Danieli said the proceeds from the sale would enable the company to develop and expand its shipping transportation activities in the international lines in Asia, North America and Europe.

Maritime

Forwarding

Zim Sells Nigerian Container Terminal Stake

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Some 320 gigawatts of new wind capacity are expected to be added worldwide between 2026 and 2030, comprising about 200 GW of onshore capacity and 123 GW offshore, according to a new report.</div>

Some 320 gigawatts of new wind capacity are expected to be added worldwide between 2026 and 2030, comprising about 200 GW of onshore capacity and 123 GW offshore, according to a new report.

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<div class="phx-topic">A surge in wind energy development globally over the next five years is expected to buoy operators of multipurpose and specialist equipment installation vessels, industry analysts say. But the growth in offshore wind capacity is expected to exacerbate a looming shortage of installation vessels, especially those capable of transporting heavier and larger components, they added. Some 320 gigawatts (GW) of new wind capacity are expected to be added worldwide between 2026 and 2030, comprising about 200 GW of onshore capacity and 123 GW offshore, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s latest annual survey, published Monday. New wind energy capacity is forecast to grow 5.2% a year over the next five years, Feng Zhao, GWEC’s head of strategy and market intelligence, told a webinar launching the report. The biggest onshore markets will be Europe, where a record 117 GW of new capacity will be installed between 2026 and 2030, followed by Africa and the Middle East with a combined 35 GW of new capacity, according to the report. Around 25 GW of additional capacity is planned in Latin America with Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia collectively accounting for 93% of the new onshore wind capacity in this region. Analysts speaking to the Journal of Commerce said the onshore projects will likely rely on multipurpose vessels (MPVs) to transport turbine blades and power generation equipment from manufacturers in Europe, China and India. <h3>China leads offshore capacity growth </h3>The biggest offshore markets in the forecast period are expected to be China, where 73 GW of new capacity will be added, and Europe, where more than 37 GW is expected to be fed into the grid between 2026–2030, the GWEC report said. In Europe, the key countries will be Britain, which is set to see 16 GW of new capacity — equivalent to 44% of Europe’s total over the next five years — while Germany will add 7.6 GW of offshore wind energy. Other countries that are planning significant offshore wind energy capacity growth are Poland (6 GW), the Netherlands (3.6 GW), France (1.7 GW) and Denmark (1.4 GW), the GWEC report said. In Asia, Taiwan is planning to add 6 GW of new capacity by 2030, followed by Japan and South Korea, which are both aiming for 3.2 GW of new capacity. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="38c07d12-e321-4b9f-8fda-25da31407805"></dynamic-object></div>Analysts said it will be offshore projects that will face vessel capacity constraints. Norway-headquartered offshore vessel operator Cadeler said the capacity crunch is set to hit in 2030 as new capacity installations are expected to peak. It said there are only 19 wind turbine installation vessels available capable of installing next-generation wind turbines of more than 15 megawatts (MW).   Highlighting the potential shortage, Cadeler said in a commentary that new orders for turbine and foundation installation ships slumped 67% in the three years between the second quarter 2023 and Q1 this year compared with the Q2 2020 to Q1 2023 period. There were no new ship orders between July 2024 and the end of last year, with only one new deal in the first quarter for a wind turbine installation vessel that will target offshore wind projects in South Korea. Paris-headquartered offshore energy consultant Spinergie said in addition to vessel shortages and other supply chain constraints, projects developers have also faced challenges getting finance for their plans. In response, developers are increasingly structuring projects through joint ventures with investment funds to get final investment decision approval, Maélig Gaborieau, Spinerige’s senior offshore wind analyst, said in a commentary last month. That could lead to a raft of FID approvals later this year for projects in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Gaborieau added. Contact Keith Wallis on <a href="mailto:keith.wallis@hotmail.com">keith.wallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

A surge in wind energy development globally over the next five years is expected to buoy operators of multipurpose and specialist equipment installation vessels, industry analysts say. But the growth in offshore wind capacity is expected to exacerbate a looming shortage of installation vessels, especially those capable of transporting heavier and larger components, they added. Some 320 gigawatts (GW) of new wind capacity are expected to be added worldwide between 2026 and 2030, comprising about 200 GW of onshore capacity and 123 GW offshore, according to the Global Wind Energy Council’s latest annual survey, published Monday. New wind energy capacity is forecast to grow 5.2% a year over the next five years, Feng Zhao, GWEC’s head of strategy and market intelligence, told a webinar launching the report. The biggest onshore markets will be Europe, where a record 117 GW of new capacity will be installed between 2026 and 2030, followed by Africa and the Middle East with a combined 35 GW of new capacity, according to the report. Around 25 GW of additional capacity is planned in Latin America with Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia collectively accounting for 93% of the new onshore wind capacity in this region. Analysts speaking to the Journal of Commerce said the onshore projects will likely rely on multipurpose vessels (MPVs) to transport turbine blades and power generation equipment from manufacturers in Europe, China and India. China leads offshore capacity growth The biggest offshore markets in the forecast period are expected to be China, where 73 GW of new capacity will be added, and Europe, where more than 37 GW is expected to be fed into the grid between 2026–2030, the GWEC report said. In Europe, the key countries will be Britain, which is set to see 16 GW of new capacity — equivalent to 44% of Europe’s total over the next five years — while Germany will add 7.6 GW of offshore wind energy. Other countries that are planning significant offshore wind energy capacity growth are Poland (6 GW), the Netherlands (3.6 GW), France (1.7 GW) and Denmark (1.4 GW), the GWEC report said. In Asia, Taiwan is planning to add 6 GW of new capacity by 2030, followed by Japan and South Korea, which are both aiming for 3.2 GW of new capacity. Analysts said it will be offshore projects that will face vessel capacity constraints. Norway-headquartered offshore vessel operator Cadeler said the capacity crunch is set to hit in 2030 as new capacity installations are expected to peak. It said there are only 19 wind turbine installation vessels available capable of installing next-generation wind turbines of more than 15 megawatts (MW).   Highlighting the potential shortage, Cadeler said in a commentary that new orders for turbine and foundation installation ships slumped 67% in the three years between the second quarter 2023 and Q1 this year compared with the Q2 2020 to Q1 2023 period. There were no new ship orders between July 2024 and the end of last year, with only one new deal in the first quarter for a wind turbine installation vessel that will target offshore wind projects in South Korea. Paris-headquartered offshore energy consultant Spinergie said in addition to vessel shortages and other supply chain constraints, projects developers have also faced challenges getting finance for their plans. In response, developers are increasingly structuring projects through joint ventures with investment funds to get final investment decision approval, Maélig Gaborieau, Spinerige’s senior offshore wind analyst, said in a commentary last month. That could lead to a raft of FID approvals later this year for projects in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, Gaborieau added. Contact Keith Wallis on keith.wallis@hotmail.com .

Container lines

Asia-Europe

Supply chain

Surge in global wind energy capacity growth to propel MPV volumes

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Higher tariffs prompted importers to shift some manufacturing out of China last year, but other markets simply don’t have the expertise and capacity to wrest much more volume away from the still-dominant source for toys.</div>

Higher tariffs prompted importers to shift some manufacturing out of China last year, but other markets simply don’t have the expertise and capacity to wrest much more volume away from the still-dominant source for toys.

<div class="phx-topic">(The following story appears in the Top 100 Importers and Exporters issue of the Journal of Commerce magazine to be published May 4, 2026.) US toymakers increased their sales last year on lower import volumes by absorbing higher tariff costs rather than passing them on to consumers, according to industry analysts and executives. Overall US retail toy sales grew 6% in 2025, led primarily by games, puzzles, building sets, and trading cards — like Pokémon or Magic the Gathering — according to the Toy Association, an advocacy and research group representing toy manufacturers and retailers. Containerized imports of those products, however, fell 7.7%, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&amp;P Global. Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, said sales were helped by a surge in spending in the early part of 2025 by adults buying toys for themselves, a boon to an industry that historically has relied heavily on holiday spending for children. “Our category is not recession-proof, but it is recession-resistant,” Ahearn said. “It’s the last thing that parents and caregivers will pull back on.” Ahearn estimates manufacturers absorbed roughly two-thirds of the higher tariffs imposed by the Trump administration to shield their customers from price hikes, while suppliers absorbed the other third. “Consumers maybe picked up 5% or so at the most,” he said. “Manufacturers looked very selectively at which products could support a price increase.” Instead, toymakers “redesigned” their supply chains to account for the rapid changes in tariff levels, Ahearn said. Potential refunds of tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) will bolster toymakers and retailers, even as they brace for existing Section 122 tariffs of 10% through July, and the possibility of new tariffs resulting from ongoing Section 301 investigations. “Tariffs on toys fluctuated incredibly over a short period of time given that development of toys takes two years on average. They went from 30% to 70% before settling at 30% for most of last year,” he said, adding that he doesn’t “believe tariffs will go beyond 30%, even with” Section 301 tariffs. <div class="wrapper-narrow"><dynamic-object type="jocchartid" resource-id="98baa24c-d299-426d-81c8-ed24f551c65a"></dynamic-object></div>Gina Goetter, CFO and COO at Hasbro, pegged the company’s tariff costs at $70 million for 2025. However, “supply chain productivity nearly offset the cost of tariffs,” including manufacturing diversification efforts, she said during Hasbro’s Feb. 10 earnings call. The company is forecasting $150 million in cost savings from supply chain initiatives in 2026. “Tariff costs will be relatively flat year-over-year in the back half [of this year], with much of the incremental cost landing in the front half of the year,” Goetter said. In Mattel’s Feb. 10 earnings call, CEO Ynon Kreiz said the toymaker’s 6% revenue growth in 2025 underperformed expectations due to “uncertainty in US trade dynamics that affected retailer ordering patterns.” “After two challenging quarters where US retailers delayed orders, there was a significant acceleration in orders through most of the fourth quarter,” Kreiz said. “December, however, ended up growing less than anticipated in the US and our full-year results finished below expectations.” <h3>Still made in China </h3>The choice to keep prices relatively stable inevitably impacted toymakers’ margins, forcing some companies to lay off staff and others to shut down. “Our members are made up of 90% small businesses,” Ahearn said. “Some of those went out of business, whether small retailers or manufacturers. The largest companies were getting creative and driving units. They looked at the way they were manufacturing; they looked at partnerships with retailers and adjusted on the fly to be able to hold price inflation to reasonable levels.” Part of “getting creative” meant reducing their reliance on China as the dominant source of imports, but there is only so much capacity for toymaking in alternative markets. China’s share of the US containerized toy import market slipped to 75.8% in 2025 after holding steady between 83% and 84% since the COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnam was the primary beneficiary of diversification away from China, growing its share to 10.6% last year from 6.1% in 2024. However, Ahearn said it would take at least a decade, in the best-case scenario, before manufacturers in Vietnam could produce toys at the same quality and quantity as China. Other markets in Asia, as well as Mexico and the US, likewise lack the necessary expertise and scale to wrest significant volume away from China. “That’s a skill base that needs to be rediscovered in the US,” he said. Toymakers also learned not to overreact to individual developments during last year’s tariff rollercoaster. “As tariffs rates changed, those that tried to get ahead of the curve because they had facilities in India and Vietnam and Mexico, they moved their production forecasts to India, only to discover India’s tariff is 50% and China’s is now 30%,” Ahearn said of the Trump administration imposing higher tariffs on India in mid-2025. Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, Ahearn said toy importers will be selling into a “pretty uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic market,” in which an extended war in the Middle East could further increase manufacturing and transportation costs for shippers while dampening consumer spending. “Petroleum and oil are in everything,” he said. “That being a volatile component has everyone worried, in terms of the cost of components and movement of goods. But having come through the last year...we don’t think the things that are driving growth are going to slow down, because they are built into people’s lives.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

(The following story appears in the Top 100 Importers and Exporters issue of the Journal of Commerce magazine to be published May 4, 2026.) US toymakers increased their sales last year on lower import volumes by absorbing higher tariff costs rather than passing them on to consumers, according to industry analysts and executives. Overall US retail toy sales grew 6% in 2025, led primarily by games, puzzles, building sets, and trading cards — like Pokémon or Magic the Gathering — according to the Toy Association, an advocacy and research group representing toy manufacturers and retailers. Containerized imports of those products, however, fell 7.7%, according to PIERS, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, said sales were helped by a surge in spending in the early part of 2025 by adults buying toys for themselves, a boon to an industry that historically has relied heavily on holiday spending for children. “Our category is not recession-proof, but it is recession-resistant,” Ahearn said. “It’s the last thing that parents and caregivers will pull back on.” Ahearn estimates manufacturers absorbed roughly two-thirds of the higher tariffs imposed by the Trump administration to shield their customers from price hikes, while suppliers absorbed the other third. “Consumers maybe picked up 5% or so at the most,” he said. “Manufacturers looked very selectively at which products could support a price increase.” Instead, toymakers “redesigned” their supply chains to account for the rapid changes in tariff levels, Ahearn said. Potential refunds of tariffs paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) will bolster toymakers and retailers, even as they brace for existing Section 122 tariffs of 10% through July, and the possibility of new tariffs resulting from ongoing Section 301 investigations. “Tariffs on toys fluctuated incredibly over a short period of time given that development of toys takes two years on average. They went from 30% to 70% before settling at 30% for most of last year,” he said, adding that he doesn’t “believe tariffs will go beyond 30%, even with” Section 301 tariffs. Gina Goetter, CFO and COO at Hasbro, pegged the company’s tariff costs at $70 million for 2025. However, “supply chain productivity nearly offset the cost of tariffs,” including manufacturing diversification efforts, she said during Hasbro’s Feb. 10 earnings call. The company is forecasting $150 million in cost savings from supply chain initiatives in 2026. “Tariff costs will be relatively flat year-over-year in the back half [of this year], with much of the incremental cost landing in the front half of the year,” Goetter said. In Mattel’s Feb. 10 earnings call, CEO Ynon Kreiz said the toymaker’s 6% revenue growth in 2025 underperformed expectations due to “uncertainty in US trade dynamics that affected retailer ordering patterns.” “After two challenging quarters where US retailers delayed orders, there was a significant acceleration in orders through most of the fourth quarter,” Kreiz said. “December, however, ended up growing less than anticipated in the US and our full-year results finished below expectations.” Still made in China The choice to keep prices relatively stable inevitably impacted toymakers’ margins, forcing some companies to lay off staff and others to shut down. “Our members are made up of 90% small businesses,” Ahearn said. “Some of those went out of business, whether small retailers or manufacturers. The largest companies were getting creative and driving units. They looked at the way they were manufacturing; they looked at partnerships with retailers and adjusted on the fly to be able to hold price inflation to reasonable levels.” Part of “getting creative” meant reducing their reliance on China as the dominant source of imports, but there is only so much capacity for toymaking in alternative markets. China’s share of the US containerized toy import market slipped to 75.8% in 2025 after holding steady between 83% and 84% since the COVID-19 pandemic. Vietnam was the primary beneficiary of diversification away from China, growing its share to 10.6% last year from 6.1% in 2024. However, Ahearn said it would take at least a decade, in the best-case scenario, before manufacturers in Vietnam could produce toys at the same quality and quantity as China. Other markets in Asia, as well as Mexico and the US, likewise lack the necessary expertise and scale to wrest significant volume away from China. “That’s a skill base that needs to be rediscovered in the US,” he said. Toymakers also learned not to overreact to individual developments during last year’s tariff rollercoaster. “As tariffs rates changed, those that tried to get ahead of the curve because they had facilities in India and Vietnam and Mexico, they moved their production forecasts to India, only to discover India’s tariff is 50% and China’s is now 30%,” Ahearn said of the Trump administration imposing higher tariffs on India in mid-2025. Looking ahead to the rest of 2026, Ahearn said toy importers will be selling into a “pretty uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic market,” in which an extended war in the Middle East could further increase manufacturing and transportation costs for shippers while dampening consumer spending. “Petroleum and oil are in everything,” he said. “That being a volatile component has everyone worried, in terms of the cost of components and movement of goods. But having come through the last year...we don’t think the things that are driving growth are going to slow down, because they are built into people’s lives.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Container Shipping News

US toymakers absorbing tariff costs, importing less to preserve sales

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The ocean carrier said switching up Asia and US East Coast rotations on three trans-Pacific services will provide more reliability and consistency. </div>

The ocean carrier said switching up Asia and US East Coast rotations on three trans-Pacific services will provide more reliability and consistency.

<div class="phx-topic">Mediterranean Shipping Co. is reworking its trans-Pacific network starting next month to offer more reliable, direct China services into US Northeast and Southeast ports, while providing coastwide direct service from Southeast Asia. MSC said in a Thursday customer advisory that it is changing some port calls on its three main East Coast services to “enhance service reliability and schedule stability.” The new networks consolidate some China calls and will change some calls to Florida ports. MSC’s Empire Service will drop a Qingdao call, with the service now only calling Shanghai, Ningbo and Busan on the front haul. Empire’s US rotation will drop the ports of Jacksonville and Miami in favor of calls to Norfolk and Port Everglades on the backhaul. The service’s new rotation will commence with the scheduled May 27 departure of the 6,178-TEU MSC Leo VI from Shanghai. The carrier said Empire would be “less exposed to port congestion risks” due to the rotation change. Qingdao will be added to MSC’s Amberjack service into the US Southeast. However, MSC will no longer provide direct service from Yantian and Xiamen but instead focus the service on northeast Asia ports. The service will also replace a call to Norfolk with a call to Jacksonville. MSC said the Amberjack changes would improve transit times and network stability. The new rotation goes into effect with the service’s estimated May 20 departure from Qingdao. MSC also said it would rework its Emerald service from Southeast Asia to drop a call to Taiwan’s Kaohsiung in favor of Xiamen, providing a direct service from that port into the largest US East Coast ports. The new rotation is expected to take effect with the May 18 departure from Singapore of the 7,000-TEU Zim Topaz. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is reworking its trans-Pacific network starting next month to offer more reliable, direct China services into US Northeast and Southeast ports, while providing coastwide direct service from Southeast Asia. MSC said in a Thursday customer advisory that it is changing some port calls on its three main East Coast services to “enhance service reliability and schedule stability.” The new networks consolidate some China calls and will change some calls to Florida ports. MSC’s Empire Service will drop a Qingdao call, with the service now only calling Shanghai, Ningbo and Busan on the front haul. Empire’s US rotation will drop the ports of Jacksonville and Miami in favor of calls to Norfolk and Port Everglades on the backhaul. The service’s new rotation will commence with the scheduled May 27 departure of the 6,178-TEU MSC Leo VI from Shanghai. The carrier said Empire would be “less exposed to port congestion risks” due to the rotation change. Qingdao will be added to MSC’s Amberjack service into the US Southeast. However, MSC will no longer provide direct service from Yantian and Xiamen but instead focus the service on northeast Asia ports. The service will also replace a call to Norfolk with a call to Jacksonville. MSC said the Amberjack changes would improve transit times and network stability. The new rotation goes into effect with the service’s estimated May 20 departure from Qingdao. MSC also said it would rework its Emerald service from Southeast Asia to drop a call to Taiwan’s Kaohsiung in favor of Xiamen, providing a direct service from that port into the largest US East Coast ports. The new rotation is expected to take effect with the May 18 departure from Singapore of the 7,000-TEU Zim Topaz. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Trans-Pacific

MSC revamps Asia-USEC network

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Port of Khor Fakkan “offers a relatively stable operating environment and will serve as the primary discharge hub operations,” Premier Alliance member Yang Ming said in an advisory.</div>

The Port of Khor Fakkan “offers a relatively stable operating environment and will serve as the primary discharge hub operations,” Premier Alliance member Yang Ming said in an advisory.

<div class="phx-topic">The Premier Alliance has tapped Khor Fakkan on the eastern side of the United Arab Emirates as its interim transshipment port for Middle East and Indian cargo on its Middle East-Asia-US West Coast GS2 service. The group, whose members comprise Yang Ming Marine Transport, Ocean Network Express and HMM, suspended calls at Arabian Gulf ports on the GS2 service in March following missile and drone attacks and Iran’s subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Khor Fakkan “offers a relatively stable operating environment and will serve as the primary discharge hub operations” for vessels originally scheduled to call Middle East ports, Yang Ming said in a Thursday customer advisory. “For cargo with final destinations within the Arabian Gulf region, onward transportation will be arranged via feeder vessels or alternative transshipment solutions to the respective final ports of discharge,” it added. The shift to Khor Fakkan comes as Iran’s foreign ministry Friday announced the Strait of Hormuz is now “completely open” to commercial shipping for the duration of the Iran-US ceasefire, although the situation remains murky. “We are currently verifying the recent announcement related to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, in terms of its compliance with freedom of navigation for all merchant vessels and secure passage using the IMO established traffic separation scheme,” International Maritime Organization secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said Friday on social media platform X. The Premier Alliance will begin calling at Khor Fakkan next week, with the first ship, the 16,000-TEU HMM Mir, due to berth Sunday and two other ships due to arrive by the end of the month, according to carrier vessel sailing schedules. The alliance has been holding cargo onboard ships for the past month while it decided what to do with Arabian Gulf cargo after attacks made ports such as Saudi Arabia’s Damman and Dubai’s Jebel Ali too risky to use. These ships are thought to include the 13,253-TEU HMM Peridot, which has been in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea since the end of March and is now due to call at Khor Fakkan early next week, according to vessel sailing data Friday. The 13,000-TEU HMM Garnet will be the third ship to call Khor Fakkan, with a scheduled arrival around April 26. The Premier Alliance had also curtailed some sailings to Gulf ports, opting instead to route some eastbound services to the US West Coast from Singapore. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

The Premier Alliance has tapped Khor Fakkan on the eastern side of the United Arab Emirates as its interim transshipment port for Middle East and Indian cargo on its Middle East-Asia-US West Coast GS2 service. The group, whose members comprise Yang Ming Marine Transport, Ocean Network Express and HMM, suspended calls at Arabian Gulf ports on the GS2 service in March following missile and drone attacks and Iran’s subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Khor Fakkan “offers a relatively stable operating environment and will serve as the primary discharge hub operations” for vessels originally scheduled to call Middle East ports, Yang Ming said in a Thursday customer advisory. “For cargo with final destinations within the Arabian Gulf region, onward transportation will be arranged via feeder vessels or alternative transshipment solutions to the respective final ports of discharge,” it added. The shift to Khor Fakkan comes as Iran’s foreign ministry Friday announced the Strait of Hormuz is now “completely open” to commercial shipping for the duration of the Iran-US ceasefire, although the situation remains murky. “We are currently verifying the recent announcement related to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, in terms of its compliance with freedom of navigation for all merchant vessels and secure passage using the IMO established traffic separation scheme,” International Maritime Organization secretary general Arsenio Dominguez said Friday on social media platform X. The Premier Alliance will begin calling at Khor Fakkan next week, with the first ship, the 16,000-TEU HMM Mir, due to berth Sunday and two other ships due to arrive by the end of the month, according to carrier vessel sailing schedules. The alliance has been holding cargo onboard ships for the past month while it decided what to do with Arabian Gulf cargo after attacks made ports such as Saudi Arabia’s Damman and Dubai’s Jebel Ali too risky to use. These ships are thought to include the 13,253-TEU HMM Peridot, which has been in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea since the end of March and is now due to call at Khor Fakkan early next week, according to vessel sailing data Friday. The 13,000-TEU HMM Garnet will be the third ship to call Khor Fakkan, with a scheduled arrival around April 26. The Premier Alliance had also curtailed some sailings to Gulf ports, opting instead to route some eastbound services to the US West Coast from Singapore. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

International ports

Port News

Premier Alliance taps UAE’s Khor Fakkan for war-diverted cargoes

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Domestic intermodal boosters have been waiting for three years for the competitive environment to improve, and perhaps that time has arrived, writes intermodal analyst Larry Gross. </div>

Domestic intermodal boosters have been waiting for three years for the competitive environment to improve, and perhaps that time has arrived, writes intermodal analyst Larry Gross.

<div class="phx-topic">The numbers are in for intermodal performance for the first quarter, and the reading is surprisingly strong, even though the headline numbers don’t look all that wonderful. According to the Association of American Railroads, total North American activity in the first quarter rose 1.8% versus the prior year. Growth for the US “Big Four” (BNSF, CSX, NS and UP) was even lower at just 1.2%. But keep in mind what this is compared with. In 2025, first-quarter activity was juiced by volume pulled forward in time to beat the tariffs. Remember, Trump’s “Liberation Day” was April 2 of last year, just a couple of days after the conclusion of the first quarter. Intermodal’s ability to not only keep pace with, but even modestly improve on last year’s performance is somewhat impressive. <div class="wrapper-narrow float-right-element"><img src="/images/phoenix/6205607_0.1.jpg"></img></div>Nonetheless, we can’t count on growth in international intermodal to once again save the day in 2026. Import TEUs trailed prior year throughout the first quarter, with my preliminary estimated decline from 2025 coming in at a bit less than 4%. We can expect major gyrations in the year-over-year comps over the next few months, not because of current variations, but rather because of the start-stop effects of the tariffs on last year’s volumes from month to month. Setting aside the year-over-year comparison, the sequential trend in import TEUs is looking quite favorable. After a weak performance in October of last year, seasonally adjusted import TEUs have moved significantly, with March showing the best numbers yet. For the time being, the SA numbers will be the most revealing in terms of current performance, rather than the comparison with last year’s erratic situation. Further, one of the anticipated headwinds for international intermodal in 2026 has, at least for the moment, evaporated. Earlier, it appeared likely that the Red Sea/Suez routing from Asia to the US East Coast would be fully re-opening in 2026. Now, the Iran War has made that unlikely in the near term. We should see the effects in the form of a boost in US West Coast import share in the coming months. This will help intermodal, as intermodal share off the West Coast is higher than out east. <h3>Headline-grabbing growth </h3>In my view, however, it will be domestic intermodal that will generate headlines in the coming months. Intermodal boosters have been waiting for three years for the competitive environment to improve, and perhaps that time has arrived. Truck rates are on the way up, thanks to actions by the Trump administration on several fronts. First and foremost are fuel prices. The price of diesel has skyrocketed with the Middle East war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and there seems to be little prospect for relief in the near term. This has transformed fuel prices from a net drag on intermodal conversion to a powerful booster. The second tailwind is the administration’s crackdown on immigrant truck drivers. Action is occurring on four fronts: English proficiency, non-domicile commercial driver’s licenses, working visa restrictions and immigrant documentation. The result is a diminution in truck capacity. While I don’t expect the decline to be sharp enough to cause a shortage, the effects on trucking rates are plainly visible. There are potential offsets. The most significant would be a dramatic slowdown in the US economy. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards just yet. The economy has shown remarkable resilience in the face of multiple headwinds, including the tariff gyrations. However, there are danger signs. Inflation is picking up, and there are signs that growth is slowing. The impact of the higher oil prices is only now starting to work their way through the system. A slowdown in the economy would of course result in reduced demand for truckload/intermodal services, counteracting the forces for growth. Intermodal share would likely still improve, but the overall pie could shrink. Another potential issue would be volume-related service stumbles by the railroads. History certainly tells us to be on guard against such problems, but recent STB service data shows no current cause for alarm. Service remains strong. In sum, current conditions provide a good opportunity for intermodal to end an extended period of market share stagnation. Much depends on how the intermodal industry opts to take advantage. If intermodal rates ride up in close concert with truck rates, then profitability will improve but volume gains will be modest. But if price increases are constrained, higher volumes and share should be the result. Larry Gross is president and founder of Gross Transportation Consulting. Contact him at <a href="mailto:lawrencejgross@gmail.com">lawrencejgross@gmail.com</a>. </div>

The numbers are in for intermodal performance for the first quarter, and the reading is surprisingly strong, even though the headline numbers don’t look all that wonderful. According to the Association of American Railroads, total North American activity in the first quarter rose 1.8% versus the prior year. Growth for the US “Big Four” (BNSF, CSX, NS and UP) was even lower at just 1.2%. But keep in mind what this is compared with. In 2025, first-quarter activity was juiced by volume pulled forward in time to beat the tariffs. Remember, Trump’s “Liberation Day” was April 2 of last year, just a couple of days after the conclusion of the first quarter. Intermodal’s ability to not only keep pace with, but even modestly improve on last year’s performance is somewhat impressive. Nonetheless, we can’t count on growth in international intermodal to once again save the day in 2026. Import TEUs trailed prior year throughout the first quarter, with my preliminary estimated decline from 2025 coming in at a bit less than 4%. We can expect major gyrations in the year-over-year comps over the next few months, not because of current variations, but rather because of the start-stop effects of the tariffs on last year’s volumes from month to month. Setting aside the year-over-year comparison, the sequential trend in import TEUs is looking quite favorable. After a weak performance in October of last year, seasonally adjusted import TEUs have moved significantly, with March showing the best numbers yet. For the time being, the SA numbers will be the most revealing in terms of current performance, rather than the comparison with last year’s erratic situation. Further, one of the anticipated headwinds for international intermodal in 2026 has, at least for the moment, evaporated. Earlier, it appeared likely that the Red Sea/Suez routing from Asia to the US East Coast would be fully re-opening in 2026. Now, the Iran War has made that unlikely in the near term. We should see the effects in the form of a boost in US West Coast import share in the coming months. This will help intermodal, as intermodal share off the West Coast is higher than out east. Headline-grabbing growth In my view, however, it will be domestic intermodal that will generate headlines in the coming months. Intermodal boosters have been waiting for three years for the competitive environment to improve, and perhaps that time has arrived. Truck rates are on the way up, thanks to actions by the Trump administration on several fronts. First and foremost are fuel prices. The price of diesel has skyrocketed with the Middle East war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and there seems to be little prospect for relief in the near term. This has transformed fuel prices from a net drag on intermodal conversion to a powerful booster. The second tailwind is the administration’s crackdown on immigrant truck drivers. Action is occurring on four fronts: English proficiency, non-domicile commercial driver’s licenses, working visa restrictions and immigrant documentation. The result is a diminution in truck capacity. While I don’t expect the decline to be sharp enough to cause a shortage, the effects on trucking rates are plainly visible. There are potential offsets. The most significant would be a dramatic slowdown in the US economy. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards just yet. The economy has shown remarkable resilience in the face of multiple headwinds, including the tariff gyrations. However, there are danger signs. Inflation is picking up, and there are signs that growth is slowing. The impact of the higher oil prices is only now starting to work their way through the system. A slowdown in the economy would of course result in reduced demand for truckload/intermodal services, counteracting the forces for growth. Intermodal share would likely still improve, but the overall pie could shrink. Another potential issue would be volume-related service stumbles by the railroads. History certainly tells us to be on guard against such problems, but recent STB service data shows no current cause for alarm. Service remains strong. In sum, current conditions provide a good opportunity for intermodal to end an extended period of market share stagnation. Much depends on how the intermodal industry opts to take advantage. If intermodal rates ride up in close concert with truck rates, then profitability will improve but volume gains will be modest. But if price increases are constrained, higher volumes and share should be the result. Larry Gross is president and founder of Gross Transportation Consulting. Contact him at lawrencejgross@gmail.com .

Truckload

North-American rail

Intermodal providers

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Tailwinds for US intermodal volume growth strengthening: analyst

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