Container Shipping News

Shippers and forwarders are reporting slowdowns at several inland gateways that are linked to seasonality, equipment placement, labor disruption and carrier behavior

Shippers and forwarders are reporting slowdowns at several inland gateways that are linked to seasonality, equipment placement, labor disruption and carrier behavior.

Jens Lund this week emphasized the earnings potential of the takeover, pointing to greater scale and a wider portfolio of services that would increase the combined entity’s reach.

The agency said it has secured more refunds and waivers for shippers in disputes with ocean carriers over detention and demurrage charges, with more investigations pending.

Beth Ann Branch is taking the reins as New Orleans develops the $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal, which will allow the port to service ultra-large container ships.

The Port of Montreal’s maritime employers warn that even a brief strike will add to shipper uncertainty over routing cargo through the port given other recent job actions taken by the union.

The first signs of solid third-quarter performances are being reported by ocean carriers, and with greater visibility over the rest of the year, they are ramping up their profitability expectations.

A report from the US Governmental Accountability Office shows the possible, but narrow, path for adoption of automation at US ports as maritime employers and longshore labor along the East and Gulf coasts attempt to hammer out a new master contract.

The move comes as container shipping affiliate Cosco Shipping Holdings is expanding services between China and Thailand and as overall shipping capacity is growing between the two countries.

Rising competition and tough negotiations with customers are believed to be behind the narrowing profit margins that were plainly displayed in the financial results of the two forwarders.

Carriers are making up for lost time and accept, as the reality of doing business in this market, that actions that benefit them often work to the disadvantage of their customers, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Market sources say cargo leaving ports in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay is being delayed because ships bound for those ports are arriving from the US with disrupted schedules following the Oct. 1-3 strike.

It marks the second time since August the carrier has increased its 2024 earnings guidance, an indication Maersk expects robust demand and rising rates to deliver a strong finish to the year.

The aim of the partnership with Suez is to establish a long-term industrial collaboration on biomethane, with the fuel generated supplying the carrier’s alternative fuel fleet.

The carrier will exit the 2M Alliance next January and has been on an acquisition spree over the past year to shore up its global logistics and container terminal operations.

The country could be on the verge of undoing legislation that abolished cabotage restrictions, saying the boost received by foreign-flag carriers has come at the expense of local shipping interests.

Despite its brevity, shippers can expect to see ongoing impacts on tonnage supply on some trade lanes from the Oct. 1-3 strike, Lars Jensen told the South Carolina International Trade Conference.

The group, comprising ONE, HMM and Yang Ming, said the changes apply to two trans-Pacific services and an Asia-Mediterranean service.

The port’s main container terminals are among the facilities affected by the overtime strike that Montreal’s dockworkers have deployed as part of contentious contract negotiations.

Forwarders say their containers are sitting at some terminals for 10 days or longer before they can be retrieved, although some relief in import volumes and dwell times is expected next month.

Barbara Melvin says 2024 hit Charleston in unexpected ways, but the full reopening of the Leatherman terminal was a major achievement for the port’s future expansion.

Spot rates on the westbound route, India’s largest trade lane by volume, have nearly halved in the last two weeks, according to new data obtained by the Journal of Commerce.

Ocean carriers have so far been unable to stem the rate slide in the traditionally slow post-Golden Week period that followed an early peak season on the trade lane, but they are pulling hard on capacity management levers in a bid to balance supply and demand.

While longshore wages will not increase until a formal contract is signed, the container shipping industry is starting to tally up the billions in new costs that will come with the almost 62% wage hike, according to a Journal of Commerce analysis

The port reopened on Saturday after engineering firm Woolpert performed a survey to check for storm debris in shipping channels.

DP World’s group chairman and CEO had initially ordered the cancellation of Monday’s announcement after being angered by comments made last week by two UK government officials.

The move comes after two UK government officials sharply criticized the March 2022 mass layoffs at DP World subsidiary P&O Ferries while launching new legislation to protect seafarer rights.

Carriers began pulling the charges shortly after the end of the strike was announced last week, while pressure to do so came even earlier from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Some have speculated that specific issues were raised that persuaded at least some of the carrier group CEOs to direct their representatives on the USMX to boost their offer of a pay increase.

Port officials say their facilities did not experience widespread flooding but are still being affected by power issues, adding that port tenants will make independent decisions on when to resume their operations.

Ocean carriers are trying to balance huge investment in their order books with a lack of certainty over the availability of green fuels and a slow-moving regulatory regime critical to supporting shipping’s net-zero transition.

The huge import volumes that moved across US docks in August are also muting the post-Golden Week bounce that normally occurs in mid-October when retailers ship their high-value holiday merchandise through the West Coast.

Local freight forwarders say carriers on the trade lane are willing to strike special rate deals with large-volume customers on a per-sailing or short-term contract basis.

With no improvement in the Red Sea security situation and shippers preparing for 2025 contracts, Gemini has jettisoned the traditional shorter route in favor of the longer transit around southern Africa.

Rates were driven by an early peak season as shippers consigned cargo ahead of the longshore strike along the US East and Gulf coasts last week and a capacity crunch as vessels continued to divert around southern Africa.

MSC’s departure from the 2M Alliance gives the world’s biggest shipping line the chance to be more operationally flexible to cater to changing supply chain demands, Soren Toft told the International Association of Ports and Harbors’ conference in Hamburg.

Last week’s three-day longshore strike on the East and Gulf coasts is not expected to disrupt transportation supply chains ahead of the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said.

The union’s refusal to work overtime has prompted Montreal’s employer group in turn to decline to pay longshore crews that do not have a full complement of workers.

Market participants yearning for a market where adverse events never lead to major supply chain hiccups are essentially asking for a reality that has never existed, writes Lars Jensen.

With the 62% wage increase being an unprecedented offer to the union, the USMX will be hard-pressed to give in on other key demands the ILA is making, sources tell the Journal of Commerce.