Container lines

Maersk Line today signed an order for eleven 19,630 TEUs container ships, in a $1.8 billion deal aimed at consolidating its ranking as the world’s largest ocean carrier.

Fesco’s first-quarter earnings rose 5.4 percent as cost savings offset a slump in container volumes resulting from a fragile Russian economy and a depreciating rouble.

United Arab Shipping Co. is seeking to broaden its service reach by adding refrigerated container capacity and joining CMA CGM and Hamburg Sud in a weekly vessel-sharing agreement in a bid for a bigger slice of trans-Atlantic trade.

Pasha Hawaii will add a second weekly call at Los Angeles and discontinue direct calls at Tacoma in a service overhaul that follows the carrier’s takeover last week of Horizon Lines’ Hawaii routes.

India’s federal cabinet on Saturday gave final approval to an agreement allowing the introduction of coastal shipping services between the country’s east coast cargo gateways and ports in Bangladesh.

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s global ship management group has been awarded a contract to crew, operate and maintain four U.S.-flag domestic ships that Pasha Group is acquiring from Horizon Lines for operation in the West Coast-Hawaii trade.

Matson Inc. has completed its previously announced $469 million acquisition of Horizon Lines, clearing the way for Matson to enter the U.S-flag domestic trade between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

The cost savings brought by mega-ships are decreasing and might not even be realized as container ships get ever larger, the International Transport Federation warns.

The expansion of the Panama Canal early next year will make an enormous quantity of container ship tonnage available for services that transit the canal, wiping away current capacity restrictions that restrict usage to only small and inefficient ships by today’s standards.

Salvage and firefighting personnel have made progress in containing the fire on board the 33,772 dwt multipurpose ship Purple Beach in the German Bay near Wilhelmshaven.

Canada will not require domestic shipowners operating on the Great Lakes to equip their ships with costly ballast treatment systems until effective technology exists, Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said last week.

Construction has begun on the second of two liquefied natural gas-fueled ships that Crowley Maritime Corp. has ordered for the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico trade.

Container ship schedule reliability on the growing trans-Atlantic route during April was the lowest in at least three years, according to SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics swung to a net profit of Rs. 61.75 crore (about $9.6 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, a big turnaround from its loss of Rs. 4.32 crore ($675,000) in the previous year.

Rising charter rates helped Greek container shipowner Box Ships narrow its first-quarter loss close to break even.

The results of the 2015-2016 trans-Pacific contracting season are mostly in, and although carriers dug in their heels to get rate increases, for the most part they fell short of getting what they wanted.

Vessel reliability in the trans-Pacific trades is beginning to improve now that West Coast labor issues have been resolved, but it still has a long way to go before it is acceptable, metrics provided by Seaintel Maritime Analysis and the Marine Exchange of Southern California show.

CMA CGM is launching a trans-Atlantic service with Hamburg Sud and United Arab Shipping Co., and enhancing another service after the French carrier shipped 35 percent more volume between the U.S. East Coast and North Europe in the first three months compared to the same period year ago.

Canadian containerized imports are slated to rise 4 percent this year compared to last year, according to World Trade Services, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime & Trade.

The idle container fleet shrank slightly to 101 vessels with a total capacity of 323,000 20-foot-equivalent units on May 18 from 106 ships aggregating 348,000 TEUs two weeks earlier, according to Alphaliner.

Two decades after the enactment of NAFTA, the debate over free trade has again risen to the top of the U.S. political agenda. This time, the controversy rages around the looming Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade bloc that would unite the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim countries in a wide-ranging pact that would establish new rules for international trade, intellectual property and foreign investment.

Rising charter costs and bunker prices might slow container lines' rate push. It has been a sobering fortnight for the liner shipping sector, with most of the freight increases from the May 1 general rate increases on several trade lanes disappearing fast

Shipping businesses in China are finally emulating their Western peers by embracing the opportunities and challenges brought by the internet, cloud computing, and big data.

Mexican exports this year are set rise 5 percent on increased demand for automobile shipments and other manufactured goods built in Latin America’s second-largest economy.

United Arab Shipping Co., a member of the Ocean Three Alliance, has taken delivery of the world’s greenest ultra-large container ship.

A new report from the International Maritime Organization warns that shipping emissions could spike 250 percent over the next 35 years.

It’s no secret that specialized carriers are losing refrigerated cargo market share to containerized carriers, but details about why it’s happening, how much cargo is really shifting and who ultimately will control which pieces of the market are less apparent.

Shipping Corporation of India swung to $31.5 million net profit in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31, from a $43.2 million loss in the previous year, driven by continued cost-cutting and improved freight earnings that helped compensate for a marginal decline in operating revenue.

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are the biggest beneficiaries of increased U.S. demand for European goods and materials, according to PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Martime & Trade.

Demurrage and per-diem detention fees at gridlocked U.S. ports have turned into a multimillion-dollar hot potato. Cargo interests, truckers, ocean carriers and marine terminals are locked in noisy, seemingly nonstop argument over responsibility for the fees. It’s a complex problem with no easy solution — but plenty of finger-pointing.

DFDS, the short-sea shipping and logistics group, raised its full year earnings outlook after operating profit surged 150 percent in the first quarter as higher freight traffic on its North European network offset lower volumes on Russian routes.

The Suez Canal is scheduled to be wider and deeper by the end of the summer, but the potential savings of time and money for shippers and carriers is not a concern for Panama Canal Authority CEO Jorge Quijano said Wednesday.

Maersk’s SeaLand brand focused on Americas trade on Wednesday said it would tie-up with APL to launch a weekly service connecting Colombia, Panama and the U.S. East Coast, starting as soon as next month.

Container lines’ on-time reliability in April was the best since October, indicative of a return to “normal” operations in the major trade lanes, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services returned to profit in the first quarter as a multi-billion dollar restructuring and sharply lower fuel prices accelerated its financial revival after seven straight years in the red.

Footwear importers are doing more business in Southeast Asia than ever before, and imports from that region will grow even faster if the U.S. approves the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Despite an environment of overcapacity, two of the largest carriers in the Asia-Europe trade intend to increase freight rates on June 1.

Sluggish demand and unfavorable exchange rates are driving down U.S. containerized exports to Africa and having the reverse effect on American imports from the continent.

Long-haul banana trades continue to flourish as consumers in Asia add more of the fruit to their diets.