Container lines

Carriers on the Asia to Europe and Mediterranean trades are lining up to levy highly optimistic May 1 general rate increases that, if successful, will double the spot rate on the struggling routes where prices each slid by 7 percent this week.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday showed little interest in getting directly involved with the controversy surrounding the SOLAS container weight rule.

Captain Timothy A. Brown, president of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots for 21 years before retiring at the end of 2012, died Sunday at the age of 73.

Brazil’s only surviving container line, Log-In Logistica, may be in deep debt, but that didn’t stop it from registering a 21.1 percent increase in Mercosur coastal and Brazilian cabotage movement during 2015.

The fleet of idled container ships is edging higher with more than 200 unemployed vessels above 3,000 20-foot-equivalent units, according to Alphaliner.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner Richard Lidinsky, Jr. said that U.S. shippers didn’t have enough of a voice in the creation of the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS container weight rule and criticized the World Shipping Council for “hijacking” the rulemaking.

DP World Southampton will fit container-weighing equipment to its entire straddle carrier fleet to support the weighing service that the terminal will offer shippers from July 1, when the new SOLAS regulation will be enforced.

The Port of Oakland has joined its Southern California peers and other U.S. ports in refusing to offer container weighing services for shippers, making it their responsibility to find other means to ensure compliance with the SOLAS container weight verification rule that takes effect on Jul. 1, 2016.

Crowley Maritime Corporation has combined its Puerto Rico facilities into a single location to streamline its operations on the island to handle cargo more efficiently.

Container traffic from South America’s east coast ports to Europe has rebounded so strongly in recent months that the northbound leg is now the dominant trade on the route, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

CargoSmart has joined global shipping platform Inttra to offer shippers an online container weight submission solution to help the industry comply with an amendment to the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea convention.

Shipping lines struggling under the burden of surplus capacity and weak demand appear to have abandoned all attempts to improve profitability this year, according to container contract rate data from Drewry.

Rapidly expanding United Arab Shipping Company announced that it is beefing up its East Coast South America operations with a new joint venture agency in Uruguay as part of a broader strategic push in the region, fueled by expected growth in refrigerated shipments.

Shippers will have to pay more to ship their products around the world when the International Maritime Organization’s new container weight verification requirements take effect on July 1.

With spot freight rates at stubbornly low levels on Asia-North Europe and Asia-Mediterranean over the last 12 months, Drewry expects the southern gateways to Europe to become increasingly viable versus the traditional mega-ports to the north.

The rally in spot freight rates on the Asia-Europe liner trades has fizzled out after just two weeks as the market resumes its slide to all-time lows, undermining container lines’ bid to push through the latest general rate increases.

The Federal Maritime Commission is trying to facilitate industry discussion of the new container-weight rules set to take effect July 1, FMC Commissioner William Doyle said.

Senior maritime and transport officials in Ghana identified piracy and corruption as central challenges in the development of an efficient port and supply chain network in West Africa.

Global container lines operating in Russia that were found guilty of collusion in 2012 and 2013 are appealing the controversial decision of Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Service that threw a shadow on their image in the country.

Maersk Line’s sister company Mercosul Line will beef up its cabotage and coastal operations along the East Coast of South America by adding a new vessel and service to help meet shipper demand for more options to Argentina.

Hyundai Merchant Marine, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, aims to reach an agreement with its ship charterers by the end of April or in early May, securing a critical pillar of its restructuring plan.

Wan Hai Lines surpassed Maersk Line as the world’s most profitable container line in 2015, based on operating margins, according to Alphaliner.

The U.S. Congress will look into the impact the global SOLAS container weight rule will have on exporters next week, the latest sign of how some shippers’ frustration with the rule is mounting ahead of the July 1 deadline.

Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines is negotiating with Hyundai Heavy Industries to purchase up to three mega-ships with capacities of 14,500 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

Spot rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific jumped inexplicably this week to both coasts after declining steadily for the previous 12 weeks. This could indicate the bottom in freight rates has been found and rates may climb as the trade moves closer to the busy summer and fall shipping season.

The asset value of the global shipping industry shrank by some $65 billion last year as almost all market sectors, barring tankers, plunged to historic lows or near lows, according to Barry Rogliano Salles.

A group of customs brokers and forwarders has urged the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to ask more questions before granting container lines’ requests to form vessel-sharing agreements for “super-vessels.”

Ship brokers have joined the chorus of concern over the impact of a regulation requiring shippers to verify the weight of a container before it is loaded on board a ship that comes into effect on July 1.

If recent trends are an indication, U.S. importers have little reason to be concerned the verified gross mass declarations of containers will be checked by the U.S. Coast guard when the SOLAS container weight rule takes effect July 1.

Standard & Poor’s has downgraded CMA CGM’s long-term corporate credit rating to B from B+, saying the French container line’s earnings will be "constrained" by the "challenging" conditions in container shipping through 2017.

Container lines’ “big ship obsession” could be about to end as they run out of profitable trades on which to deploy them, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Container lines are still slow-steaming their vessels despite the plunge in bunker fuel prices due to abnormal market conditions, including “rock bottom” ship charter and container leasing rates, according to Alphaliner.

Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will add a weekly Panama Canal service linking Asia with the U.S. Gulf ports of Houston and Mobile.

When the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin pulled out of Los Angeles in late December after an unprecedented effort by the port community to work the largest container ship ever to call at a North American port, no one was prouder than the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

The Suez Canal Authority has cut tolls to transit the canal by 30 percent after traffic shrank in 2015 and container lines began routing ships around the Cape of Good Hope because historically low fuel prices have made that route cheaper than paying the canal’s tolls.

Container lines in the G6 Alliance have canceled additional sailings on Asia-Europe routes where demand has been slack and rates have plunged to rock-bottom levels.

The fleet of idled container ships has fallen back from the record high reached in early March as 30 unemployed vessels found work in the past two weeks, according to Alphaliner.

Shippers that use forwarders to move full-container-load boxes will not escape responsibility to comply with global container weight rules even if they are not officially the “shipper” under the carrier’s bill of lading.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. said it will use Inttra’s eVGM software to receive shippers’ submissions of verified gross mass, which will be required July 1 under the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea amendment.

The president of an association representing container terminal operators is confident that Brazil will be ready for the Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, Verified Gross Mass rule and has established a Special Technical Group to resolve any final concerns.