Container Shipping News

Carriers on the trans-Pacific have unveiled a bold new pricing approach to the 2015-16 contract season that will establish minimum rate levels and improve the bunker fuel cost recovery mechanism.

A preliminary vessel design has been unveiled for a proposed domestic short sea container service connecting New York City and Portland, Maine.

Two indices show Chinese manufacturing production rose in September at a time that factories would normally be powering down as demand to fill Western holiday orders wanes.

Some bad news for shippers: Switching to low-sulfur fuel on a global basis in 2020 could cost the container shipping industry up to $100 billion per year, which will likely cause container freight rates to rise as carriers attempt to pass the costs onto beneficial cargo owners.

While congestion continues to plague ports in North America and northern Europe, a number of other incidents are popping up that are also likely to negatively impact the global schedule reliability of ocean carriers.

The benchmark spot rate from Hong Kong to the U.S. West Coast remained unchanged this week, despite the potential for weakness tied to China’s week-long Golden Week holiday in early October.

The pilots who guide ships through the Panama Canal fear that the navigation methods chosen to guide post-Panamax vessels into the new expanded locks and through the enlarged canal channels run higher risks of accidents than existing practices.

A Zim Integrated Shipping Services ship forced to abandon its scheduled call at the Port of Oakland over the weekend is now docked at the Port of Long Beach and unloading.

The Middle East-based short sea shipping line Admiral Feeders has introduced a direct feeder link between India and Iran.

Carriers operating in the Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific trades could fall victims to their own tactics, as Alphaliner predicts their refusal to trim capacity and the delivery of big ships could cause major spot rate erosion.

Nearly $300 million in subsidies were given to four Chinese ship lines today, as the Chinese government begins to roll out parts of a six-year plan to update its shipping industry.

Maersk Line has announced low-sulfur surcharges of up to $160 per 20-foot container on the North Atlantic and lesser amounts on other trade routes to offset the cost of complying with regulations requiring ships to switch to cleaner fuels in 2015.

The idle container ship fleet has shrunk to a three-year low, driven by rising carrier demand for Panamax vessels of 3,000 TEUs to 5,100 TEUs capacity, according to Alphaliner.

Bunker fuel prices in Rotterdam, a global indicator, held steady this week though the charge per metric ton is historically lower than in previous years.

Iran and Oman plan to launch a shipping line to boost maritime trade between the two countries by the end of the year.

The number of container ships passing through the Suez Canal is on an upward trend, after nearly three years of declining transit numbers because of rapidly increasing ship sizes.

Maersk is facing aggressive competition on its most lucrative north-south routes, which are being targeted by rival carriers seeking to offset losses from the overtonnaged Asia-Europe trade lane.

Trans-Atlantic spot container rates have been relatively stable in recent months on both eastbound and westbound shipping routes between northern Europe and North America, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

A Hapag-Lloyd vessel dropped three containers into the Suez Canal on Monday morning after colliding with a Maersk Line vessel, interrupting a southbound convoy through the Egyptian waterway.

Heavy investment in India by global car companies in the hope that the fast-growing market would soon rival China are faltering as car sales fall and the depreciating rupee pushes up costs, but the big brand carmakers such as Volkswagen, Ford and Renault-Nissan are now looking outwards.

Maersk Line-related stories dominated on JOC.com this past week. The No. 1 container carrier again made news with more 2M developments, plans for new ship orders and comments from its CEO.

“K” Line has pled guilty to U.S. price fixing charges in the roll-on, roll-off market and will pay a $67.7 million criminal fine and take an extraordinary loss of roughly the same amount in its fiscal second quarter

Hamburg Sud subsidiary Alianca Navegacao e Logistica has expanded its coverage of the east coast of South America by adding two new vessels into its Brazilian cabotage and Mercosur Gran Cabotage services.

United Arab Shipping Co. expects that as mega-alliances increasingly consolidate the container shipping market, freight rates will stabilize, which could be bad news for shippers.

Japan’s ClassNK plans to share findings of its investigation of last year’s sinking of the container ship MOL Comfort, which an official of rival classification society DNV GL criticized as having a “non-robust design.”

Multiple container lines have planned general rate increases in numerous trade lanes in October, although any gains achieved could be temporary as overcapacity and sluggish global demand continue.

Even though the $5.3 billion Panama Canal expansion has yet to be completed, Panama Canal Authority Administrator Jorge Quijano already envisions another expansion within 25 years to handle even larger container ships.

Emirates Shipping Line has expanded its Gulf-Indian subcontinent-Africa (GIA) service by adding a direct call at the Port of Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), India’s largest container gateway.

South American ports are struggling to keep up with explosive growth in demand. The average size of ships calling on the east coast of South America has increased 140 percent since 2006, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Finnish short-sea operator Containerships has ordered two more ships that will run on LNG or conventional marine fuels in the Baltic and North seas.

Thirty nine ships have arrived at U.S. ports with the Asian Gypsy Moth on board, U.S. Customs and Border Protection told JOC.com, as shippers fear the voracious tree eater will continue to delay cargo.

Concerns about Ebola transfer in western Africa continue to have the region’s shipping industry on edge with reports of possible boycotts ahead.

Surcharge-weary container line customers are preparing for a new and largely unspecified bunker levy from January as carriers start tallying the costs of a mandatory switch to low sulphur fuel in Europe and North America.

As “K” Line’s container shipping business hovers at break-even, the company says it will focus on growing other shipping segments while cost-cutting to keep its container business viable.

Maersk Line plans to invest $3 billion a year for up to five years to order ships with a combined capacity of 425,000 20-foot-equivalent units for delivery between 2017 and 2019, enabling the world’s largest carrier to grow with the market.

Maersk Line’s revived SeaLand brand will be ready to launch early next year to capture intra-Americas business and grow its market share on the north-south routes, CEO Soren Skou in Copenhagen today.

Expansion of the Panama Canal will cause operators of pure car and truck carriers mimic container lines by building larger ships and cascading smaller ones to secondary markets, says consulting group Maritime Strategies International.