Container lines

The more aggressive approach to managing ship capacity seen in April and May has waned as new ships enter service and imports possibly see a nominal uptick.

Solid demand from both regions has encouraged the carrier to deploy its own vessels on the Asia-Med trade lane.

With most new trans-Pacific service contracts in effect only since late May, container lines are already nudging shippers to meet their minimum quantity commitments instead of taking advantage of spot rates that have been cratering for approximately three weeks, sources say.

Methanol will play a leading role in enabling the carrier to meet both its interim and long-term emissions reduction goals as it charts a course for decarbonization.

The IMO’s working group on emissions has gathered ahead of MEPC 80 next week to discuss proposals on the level of ambition required to decarbonize shipping and the measures required to get there.

After two attempts to push through GRIs largely failed, forwarder sources in India believe it will be difficult for carriers to achieve success under current tight booking conditions, but liners have nonetheless lined up further rate hikes.

While the London meeting of the IMO’s environment committee will revise its 2050 emissions targets, the next critical step is to quickly establish the global regulatory framework to underpin those ambitions.

Lithium-ion batteries are already classified as dangerous goods, but observers say the category needs to be upgraded to reflect rapidly evolving technology that is raising growing safety concerns around their transport.

Non-vessel-operating common carriers handle a growing percentage of US imports from Asia, but that hasn’t stopped traditional asset-owning companies from attempting to leverage core assets in a bid to differentiate themselves, writes Peter Tirschwell.

A combination of softer volumes and increased vessel capacity continues to drag on spot rates between Latin America and the US, but forwarders say they expect demand to begin to recover in September.

There’s growing concern among some US exporters that outbound container spot rates are too low, recalling memories of when unprofitable cargo was left on the docks and service levels fell in parallel with the bottom lines of ocean carriers, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

A report claiming that the lifetime fuel costs of achieving net-zero emissions through LNG will be approximately half those of other fuels does not present the full picture, according to climate campaigners.

In addition to a 32% increase in dockworker wages over the life of the six-year deal, the tentative US West Coast longshore labor agreement includes a one-time $70 million bonus for staying on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After 13 months of contentious negotiations that spawned numerous job actions by dockworkers, the ILWU and waterfront employers will engage in a ratification process expected to take several months.

Labor woes along the West Coast over the past year highlighted a stark difference: Shippers on the East and Gulf coasts are customers whose business is valued, while West Coast shippers are not customers in the traditional sense, but more like helpless bystanders, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Minor progress in West Coast longshore talks came as ports operated without significant disruption on the first shift Wednesday, but were not completely spared some measure of labor action by workers.

More supply chain disruptions are imminent for Indian containerized trade as Cyclone Biparjoy, a storm that is expected to make landfall Thursday, has now forced major ports on the western coastline to shut.

The two sides will attempt to use the apparent truce brokered by Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su to reach agreement on the highly contentious issue of wages, which triggered disruptive job actions by ILWU locals over the past week.

A proliferation of visibility vendors amid increased demand for container status events is putting pressure on the websites of carriers to support multiple requests for the same data.

The Pacific Maritime Association hopes Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su can get ILWU negotiators to move closer to a level of wage increases that puts an agreement within reach.

The deal made by the carrier highlights the challenges of securing the supply of green methanol from a global market that is in its infancy.

Talks between the ILWU and maritime employers continued Friday for a third straight day, which sources called a positive indicator with negotiations hitting the 13-month mark this weekend.

Cargo handling was back to normal Thursday in Los Angeles and Long Beach for the first time in a week, but the ports are now struggling with a large vessel backlog after not having sufficient longshore labor.

While the FMC has jurisdiction over ocean carriers, it cannot regulate railroads simply because of their association with container lines, CSX said in a motion to disentangle itself from a demurrage complaint.

The shift to green fuels needs to be “supercharged” by establishing a clear zero-emissions target at the IMO’s July meeting, according to an Oslo-based shipowner group.

There are growing expectations in the container shipping market that the Asia-Europe trade will see a peak season this year as European import volume growth continued in April.

The Marseille-based carrier continues to grow its terminal portfolio in strategic areas as part of a broad move to control the end-to-end logistics of customer shipments.

The carrier was found to have willfully engaged in retaliation against a Florida-based retailer who had sought relief for $40,000 in detention fees.

The International Maritime Organization has an opportunity next month to set more aggressive goals to slash carbon emissions, which could send a powerful signal to stakeholders needing direction, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The disruptions happening now are a repeat of events in April when ILWU locals up and down the coast slowed cargo handling to gain leverage on local issues, which prevented coastwide negotiators from addressing broader issues such as wages and pension benefits.

The ports of Boston and Halifax are getting additional trans-Atlantic coverage through a new rotation on Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s north-south service from Ecuador.

About 65% of the current carrier orderbook is for ships over 15,000 TEUs in capacity, the majority of which will be deployed on the already oversupplied Asia-Europe trade.

The White House said it was monitoring the fast-developing situation along the West Coast, while a major retail organization urged the Biden administration to intervene and warned about the ongoing diversion of cargo to the East and Gulf coasts.

Container carrier Evergreen argues the FMC ignored “critical facts” when applying the incentive rule in a December case and, in doing so, inadvertently set a precedent that detention cannot be charged on a holiday weekend.

The lack of security around the supply of alternative fuels in a highly fragmented market will undermine ocean carrier efforts to decarbonize the industry, according to the world’s largest container ship owner.

Slow-steaming has come to the fore of late as ocean carriers seek help in absorbing overcapacity, but analyst Lars Jensen says the common refrain that slower speeds also help to improve schedule reliability doesn’t hold water.

An emerging trend of sending smaller shipments more frequently is leading to growing demand for LCL services across the major trade lanes.

Shippers and port executives say the post-COVID shift of cargo back to Hong Kong is being hampered by the global slump in demand as developed countries grapple with elevated inventories and inflationary pressures.

Thanks to a recent GRI push, average contract rates for India to the US have seen modest gains in recent weeks and carriers are now looking to build around that limited success.

The port congestion in Asia and North America that compromised vessel on-time performance during the pandemic began to ease last fall with declining cargo volumes, and the reliability improvements have accelerated since.