Container Shipping News

Overweight shipping containers can cause accidents at sea and on the roads, but difficulties clamping down on false declarations of the weight and context of the boxes, potential slowdowns caused by weighing all containers and possibly billions of dollars in extra costs are also concerning, according to a panel of experts at the WISTA-UK Liverpool Forum.

Thieves increasingly are using computer data to steal high-value cargo by generating cargo-release codes for containers, according to transportation insurance and risk specialist TT Club.

Retailers are making new pleas for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to agree on a contract and avoid a West Coast port shutdown after the ILWU-PMA contract expires next week.

The UK’s competition regulator today ordered Groupe Eurotunnel, the operator of the subsea rail link between Britain and France, to cease operation of its roll-on, roll-off shipping service within six months.

Several container lines have planned general rate increases in multiple trade routes to take effect in July, although any gains achieved could be temporary as overcapacity and sluggish global demand continue.

CMA CGM’s new container ship, the 9,400-TEU CMA CGM Danube, is slated to begin its maiden voyage next week

The Panama Canal Authority is already thinking beyond the limits of the current expansion project.

New Zealand freight and logistics company Kotahi has pledged to provide Maersk Line with 2.5 million 20-foot containers of exports over the next 10 years.

Damco, Maersk Group’s logistics unit, has started operations at the first international container freight station in Myanmar.

Nautilus Holdings Ltd., which charters 16 container ships to ocean carriers, filed for bankruptcy protection, citing a “depressed” charter market.

The worst is over for the Asia-Europe container trade as slow-steaming and scrapping of old vessels begin to address excess capacity, according to a recent report from HSBC’s transport analysts.

Container lines will continue to look to vessel-sharing agreements to reduce their operational costs, but new alliances will likely be less ambitious following the Chinese rejection of the P3 Network, SeaIntel Maritime Analysis CEO Lars Jensen says.

U.S. private equity fund KKR is reportedly mulling the sale of UN Ro-Ro to its previous owners.

The European Union today extended by five years an antitrust exemption for liner shipping consortia, in the face of opposition from shippers.

Kongsberg Norcontrol IT will lead a new three-year research project, SESAME Straits, that it hopes will improve ship traffic management in the straits of Malacca and Singapore and lay groundwork for the International Maritime Organization’s e-navigation implementation strategy.

After 13 years of working closely with container lines to develop their electronic cargo booking and tracking capabilities through INTTRA, its former CEO Ken Bloom is moving on to solve a different problem: how to change the way the shipping industry operates.

European shipowners have asked the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers to endorse a maritime security plan aimed at safeguarding ships around the globe.

Several container lines have planned general rate increases in multiple trade routes to take effect in July...

Japan’s exports to the United States fell for the first time in 17 months in May on a year-on-year basis.

Overcapacity problems in both maritime and air freight markets will continue to hurt the industry in the coming months, according to a new Stifel survey.

At the end of this month, four ocean carriers will launch a new joint service connecting China, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Hamburg Süd said it will focus on further cost cuts and expansion of its core routes to and from South America through 2014.

Hapag-Lloyd has plans to restructure its West Africa service network, including its West Africa Service and West Africa Mediterranean Express, in June and July.

China’s rejection of the P3 Network is a blow to Maersk Line, which had expected the global container ship alliance to produce large savings, analysts say.

A shortage of seafarers in the officer corps is expected to worsen, threatening carriers’ bottom lines, according to Drewry’s recently published Manning 2014 Annual Report.

Cheaper ship charter rates and growth in cargo volumes are bringing gains to the bottom lines of ocean carriers operating in services between Asian countries, Drewry says.

Multiple container lines have planned general rate increases in various trade routes to take effect in July...

Happy days are here again, at least for non-vessel-operating common carriers.

A port shutdown due to an impasse in ILWU contract negotiations would be disastrous for agricultural exporters in the short term, but the loss of business resulting from a failure to address persistent productivity issues would be even more damaging to West Coast ports and dockworkers in the long term, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said today.

A small business based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, took home one of the state’s most coveted business awards with an aggressive export strategy.

The trade community is looking to the negotiations in San Francisco to see if an agreement will be reached without disruptions at West Coast ports.

Container ships with capacities of 10,000 TEUs or greater are more likely to be delayed at European ports than smaller vessels.

A Greek ship manager said it is working with Lloyd’s Register and Daewoo Shipbuilding to develop LNG-fueled ultra-large container ships of 14,000 TEUs.

Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India are poised to kick their export growth into higher gear over the next five years.

Container shipping veteran Richard “Dick” Craig was promoted to CEO of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. America on June 9.

Eleven sailors from the Malaysia-flag container ship Albedo held hostage for more than three years by Somali pirates have arrived safely in Kenya, according to mediators who helped secure their freedom, Al Jazeera reported.

Despite recent improvements, global container lines’ schedule reliability and on-time container delivery have been worse every month so far this year versus last year.

Asia’s export growth will bounce off the lows of 2012-13 and still be the envy of the world over the next five years.