Container Shipping News

A group of seven Asia-based regional carriers are collaborating to add a weekly long-haul service on the eastbound trans-Pacific despite bearish market signals.

The growing backlog of boxes awaiting a return to Asia has resulted in finger pointing among stakeholders over how best to address the problem.

Canada’s labor minister will take a direct hand after the mediated talks for a new longshore contract at the port failed to achieve a deal after 18 months of negotiations.

The latest salvo in the US-induced global tariff war comes as the EU said Thursday that a 50% tax on imports of US-produced whiskey will take effect from mid-April.

Montreal’s port chief says a successful outcome after nearly two years of talks between port employers and the longshore union will be critical to restoring shipper trust.

The long-term agreement calls for the ocean carrier to add seven services with 10 weekly calls to Brazil’s largest port over the next two years.

Running loops with fewer ships will not be the current priority for an oversupplied industry, but new entrants may be more inclined to look at a lean, efficient product that has a competitive service edge in the key hubs it serves, writes Jeremy Masters.

The port will berth vessels at its smaller Ocean Terminal two miles downriver from the main Garden City terminal in order to cut waiting times outside the port and reduce ship backlogs.

Ports across the continent are struggling to clear bottlenecks as containers stack up in terminals and delay inland and feeder connections.

Multiple sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce have confirmed ongoing negotiations between the two liners covering India’s larger westbound trades to the US East Coast and North Europe.

Despite banking a collective operating profit of about $60 billion in 2024, a worsening supply-demand imbalance could make the next three years difficult for the container shipping industry.

The country’s competition watchdog is reviewing whether DP World’s acquisition of the logistics provider could lead to higher costs for shippers.

The Federal Maritime Commission is looking at areas where ships are having transit troubles with an eye on how US maritime influence can fix those problems.

A commentary published in a Hong Kong state-backed newspaper said the acquisition of Hutchison’s Panama assets by BlackRock and TiL would “Americanize” the canal and cause Washington to restrict Chinese access to the waterway.

Fresh questions about the direction of the US economy after the tariff chaos unleashed by the Trump administration in recent weeks has container lines resetting their rate expectations for the 2025–26 service year.

The dizzying pace of the Trump administration’s moves against longtime US trading partners is putting shippers at risk of facing hefty new costs as a result of tariff “stacking.”

But Yang Ming said significant uncertainties continue to affect the global trade outlook, saying “key risk factors” include US tariff developments that could lead to inflationary pressures due to rising operational costs.

The Cosco Shipping subsidiary recorded another highly profitable year but pointed to growing geopolitical uncertainties and industry-specific challenges that will test container shipping in the year ahead.

While shippers might have expected ocean carriers to make application programming interfaces widely available by 2025, negative incentives have inhibited that progress.

The National Retail Federation now says it expects a downward shift in the second quarter as importers face challenges from tariffs and elevated inventories in the wake of significant cargo frontloading.

Zim’s decision to keep more capacity available for spot rather than contract business on the trans-Pacific allowed it to capitalize on the expanded deployment of capacity on the trade.

While the 15-month-old Red Sea crisis is ever present, ocean carriers and their customers are also now navigating the vagaries of the trade policies and proposals of the Trump administration.

After raising rates in anticipation of higher volumes, several top carriers have now dropped spot booking rates from West India to North Europe by between $300 and $500 per container, according to freight forwarder sources in Mumbai.

As a top tier of mega carriers has emerged through consolidation and organic growth, so has the need of those carriers to align their dominance on the ocean with capacity at ports.

The threat underscores the fragility of the Red Sea security situation and the reluctance of ocean carriers to return to Suez Canal transits until the safety of crew, ships and cargo can be guaranteed. 

Having control over port operations has become a key element of container shipping that enables the fast turnaround of ships and improved schedule reliability.

The so-called Ocean Shipper Bill of Rights was distributed by the National Industrial Transportation League at the conclusion of the Journal of Commerce’s TPM25 conference.

European governments and the European Commission will carry out regulatory reviews to assess the level of market concentration MSC will have with the planned takeover of Hutchison’s port assets, with divestitures likely on the table.

Across all the terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach, average rail dwell times peaked at just under 10 days in October, according to the Pacific Maritime Shipping Association.

The carrier’s investment, announced while its chief executive met at the White House with President Donald Trump, comes amid heightened political sensitivities in the US as far as the container shipping industry is concerned.

Analyst Lars Jensen’s closing message to conference participants planning their supply chains for the coming year is to move slowly and carefully because it will take months before clarity emerges.

DHL group CEO Tobias Meyer recognized that the division’s performance remained lackluster, with the “volatile” gross profit/EBIT conversion rate below DHL’s 35% target.

Major carriers on the India-US East Coast trade are reporting success on their March rate recovery efforts, thanks in large part to recent sailing cuts, prompting some of them to announce even higher increases for next month.

The head of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition told TPM25 that US exports of logs, fruits, nuts, soybeans and other agricultural products appear to be slowing due to China’s tariff countermeasures.

The new service that will start in April will enhance Vietnam’s connectivity with Brazil, which is already Vietnam’s largest trading partner in Latin America.

The bleak timeline from Europe’s busiest port is based on the chaos that resulted when the Ever Given was freed after six days of blocking the Suez Canal in 2021.

ONE’s chief executive took the opportunity of TPM’s silver anniversary to look back at how the industry has changed for the better over the years and call out some of the existing hurdles.

The massive deal includes Hutchison’s 90% interests in the Panama Ports Company, which owns and operates the ports of Balboa and Cristobal on the Pacific and Atlantic entrances to the Panama Canal and has been the object of recent scrutiny from the Trump administration.

Large customers are looking for large logistics partners that can offer more control over supply chains as international trade becomes more complex, the CEO tells TPM25.

While the new network will need two cycles to be fully phased in through the next two or three months, the Hapag-Lloyd CEO said Gemini was “off to a good start” with 550 port calls made so far and 45 of 57 services already started.