Container Shipping News

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.

The fees come as dwell times for refrigerated containers in Houston exceed a week and reefer volumes topped 10,000 TEUs for the first time in three years.

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.

Iran has yet to make good on its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, but nervous carriers are preparing contingency plans as the region moves onto a war footing.

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.

Strong demand for much of the year has kept North European ports under pressure, slowing attempts to ease the bottlenecks.

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.

Despite ongoing efforts to clear out logjams triggered by the brief work stoppage, berth waiting times for vessels arriving at the country’s busiest port have risen to their highest this year.

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.

A wide-ranging report commissioned by Canada’s Labor Ministry says British Columbia’s ports are vulnerable to strikes in part because of disparate longshore unions involved in contract talks.

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.

Forwarders moving cargo on monthly contracts have pegged average week-to-week gains at $200 to $300 per FEU for bookings from West India to Felixstowe/London Gateway or Rotterdam.

Sea-Intelligence said elevated freight rates are drawing small carriers to the eastbound trade lane, but the additional capacity should dwindle by mid-August.

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.

Organic growth in the logistics business is hard to find with the global economy slowing and trade heavily disrupted by US tariffs, so forwarders have moved into acquisition mode.

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.

But all eyes are on the July 9 end to the 90-day pause on US tariffs that forwarders believe will determine the level of demand through the rest of the year.

The group that oversees maritime contracts said the complex nature of the USTR’s new port fees needs to be made clear through a standard clause in shipping contracts.

The terminal operator said it has reduced the inventory of rail-bound containers at its Elizabeth facility to about 1,600, down from about 4,000 in early May.

The shift of some capacity to the Asia-US trade to meet surging demand there is contributing to tighter vessel space in the ECSA market, forwarders tell the Journal of Commerce.

The hub in northern Germany is expecting rapid volume growth for the rest of the year following a record first quarter spurred on by the launch of the carrier alliance.

The carrier continues to ramp up its non-ocean businesses that were acquired from Performance Team with the lease of a new warehouse located about 10 miles from the Port of Philadelphia.

Adding to recent capacity cutbacks, the carrier has redeployed vessels serving its premier Himalaya Express service between India, Europe and the Mediterranean onto Asian trades.

Carriers are looking to ride the higher rates as long as they can before the fresh vessel capacity that is making its way to the trans-Pacific begins to dull the momentum.

Despite sustained and pending capacity injections, major liners have the ability to alleviate short-term losses and produce healthy profits, writes Jeremy Masters.

While terminal operators had hoped that problems stemming from the mid-May work stoppage would be mostly over, forwarders are still reporting cargo delays.

Labor shortages and low water levels in Europe are intensifying persistent port bottlenecks, while the trans-Pacific demand is pulling vessels out of Asia-Europe.

Ocean carrier profits this year are expected to be less than half of what they were in 2024 amid an uncertain macroeconomic outlook.

That the port is the largest transshipment hub makes it convenient for carriers to transship cargo as they redeploy vessels from European and other long-haul trades to US-focused services.

Within a span of roughly 24 hours, one court decision blocked the US tariffs and a separate ruling restored the tariffs through June 9, if not longer.

Sources have linked some of the US-India blankings to carriers shifting capacity to capitalize on surging volumes on the eastbound trans-Pacific trade following a temporary 90-day tariff truce between the US and China.

A portion of the money will be used for Project 11, which will ultimately allow an additional 1,400 vessels of all types to call the port each year by deepening portions of the channel to accommodate larger ships. 

The US Court of International Trade on Wednesday stated that President Donald Trump’s tariffs exceed his authority.

Whether the expected capacity injection on tap for June is enough to stem further rate increases remains unclear.

The Seoul-based carrier is teaming with Singapore’s PIL and X-Press Feeders on a new service that will be inaugurated from Tianjin on June 19.

The Marseille-based carrier has finalized operational plans to shift vessels deployed on its MEDEX service back to the normal sailing journey through the Suez Canal beginning next month, sources say.