Container Shipping News

Hamburg Süd said one of its services between Europe and Turkey will start calling at the TCEEGE Terminal in Aliaga, Turkey, instead of the Alsancak terminal in nearby Izmir.

Damco, the logistics arm of A.P. Moller-Maersk, will open its largest office in a new facility in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan province in China.

Rickmers Maritime Trust chartered a containership of 5,060 20-foot equivalent units capacity to CSAV, the Chilean ocean carrier, for 12 months with an option for a further 12 months at a much higher r

DP World, the global container terminal operator, posted a 46 percent drop in 2009 profit compared with a year earlier but said signs of recovery in cargo volume began in the new year.

Japan's exports to the rest of the world rose for the third consecutive month in February, surging 45.3 percent compared with a year earlier to $56.99 billion, according to preliminary figures release

The Port of Seattle saw huge gains in container volume in February, while container volumes at its Pacific Northwest neighbors Tacoma and Portland were mostly down compared to the same month last year

The volume of containers handled by the Port of Savannah jumped 20.6 percent year-over-year to 202,620 20-foot equivalent units in February as the overall tonnage handled by Georgia’s ports incr

Taking advantage of the up-tick in demand for shipping capacity since last fall, CMA CGM announced on Tuesday that it is increasing freight rates on 11 different trade lanes on March 15 and April 1.

Hapag-Lloyd will raise freight rates on two major trade lanes covering the Indian Subcontinent, starting in April.

An independent auditor expressed “significant” doubt over whether Rickmers Maritime Trust can continue as a going concern.

Neptune Orient Lines plans to expand the capacity of APL, its container line, by about 7 percent this year to meet rising trade demand.

The government-affiliated Japan Bank for International Cooperation signed a loan agreement worth about $57 million to support Japanese vessel exports to a South Korean shipping firm.

In support of President Obama’s call to double U.S. exports in five years, the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma said they provided suggestions for the National Export Initiative to U.S.

Carriers in the eastbound Pacific predicted the volume of containerized imports from Asia will likely increase 6 to 8 percent this year.

Increased imports are pulling Canada’s largest seaport, Port Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, into a traffic recovery as the Canadian economy performs strongly after the recession.

Forth Ports, the UK's last listed ports group, reported its 2009 port operating profit fell 8.5 percent from a year ago on lower container traffic but said cargo volume rebounded in the first two mont

Zim Integrated Shipping Services will launch its new independent Asia-India-Mediterranean-Europe service, effective in early April.

Maersk Line launched the first direct deep sea liner service between Russia and South America.

The North Carolina State Ports Authority hired Peter F. Klaus as vice president of liner sales.

Carrier and shipper tempers, which have risen steadily into the red over who’s to blame for a shortage of cargo space and deteriorating service, are starting to cool down as the two groups gear

Just as an underdog sports rival wants to win the big game against a major competitor, it seems every port in North America wants to take cargo away from Los Angeles-Long Beach.

The columns of red numbers in the charts on these pages and those that follow provide more-than-ample proof of the woes global container lines have bemoaned over the last year.

While many supporters of marine highways are looking to the East and West coasts to support the strategy, the Gulf of Mexico is providing support for the system to take root.

Coming off a year with container and breakbulk volume flat at best, Gulf container ports from Tampa to Texas are positioning themselves for future opportunities.

The Port of Marseille Fos authority Friday said it granted to Hutchison Port Holdings the right to develop the proposed Fos 4XL container terminal.

Orient Overseas (International) Ltd., the parent of container line OOCL, reported a loss Friday of $400.6 million for the 2009 calendar year, compared to the profit of $275.5 million recorded in 2008.

Finnish longshoremen and port employers agreed to a new contract March 19, ending a two-week nationwide dock strike that crippled the country’s foreign trade.

The European Liner Affairs Association will phase out and transfer its responsibilities to the World Shipping Council as of July 1, the Brussels-based association of container shipping lines said Frid

Clipper Projects will be opening a new office in Singapore on July 1 after dissolving a long-standing Far Eastern partnership called APC Partnership with BBC Chartering.

MOL said it will revise the port coverage on its Asia-East Coast South America Service by adding calls at Xingang, Dalian, Qingdao, Pusan and Shanghai.

OOCL said it will partially reinstate some of the capacity it had previously withdrawn from the Asia-North Europe trade with the launch of a new service loop to meet rising demand as the trade recover

Five Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) ship-stowage planners who disrupted the carrier’s East Coast operations with a 28-day strike in 2002 refused to ratify a new contract but are continuing

Matson Navigation is supporting the one of three candidates in a special congressional election who supports the Jones Act, an online news source reported.

The Federal Maritime Commission is starting an investigation of tight vessel capacity that ocean importers and exporters say is hindering their ability to compete in global markets, the commission ann

Hamburg Süd is expanding its services this year between the U.S. West Coast and destinations as far apart as Australasia and North Europe.

Containership charter rates are rallying as ocean carriers scramble for tonnage in response to a stronger-than-expected rebound in cargo volumes as the industry emerges from its deepest recession.

Business, labor and port groups petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow imports of grapes from earthquake-devastated Chile to continue unrestricted next month.

NYK Group Americas on Wednesday announced a rotation of its top managers that will take effect on April 1.

Import-export container traffic through Port Authority of New York and New Jersey terminals fell 12.7 percent last year but leveled off in December and rose 10.9 percent in January.

Neptune Orient Lines said Tuesday that APL (Bermuda) Ltd., a division of its liner subsidiary APL, is taking a term loan of $300 million from a syndicate of banks and financial institutions.