Container shipping

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.

Legislation now in Congress would put commercial shipping under the oversight of the US Clean Air Act and set increasing targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

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.

The Delaware port could be turned over to terminal operator Enstructure, which has committed to advancing the proposed Edgemoor container terminal project.

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 year-on-year gap in monthly import volumes will only narrow as shippers start to ramp up back-to-school and seasonal product ordering, says the National Retail Federation.

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 latest labor-related port disruptions along the West Coast came as coastwide contract negotiations between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association were scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Shippers diverting goods away from the West Coast typically like what they see: Ports up and down the East and Gulf coasts that have invested significantly to handle growth, are customer-focused, take fluidity seriously and have experienced virtually no labor disruption since the late 1970s.

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.

US consumers are still spending, but at a slower rate, and that’s pushing major restocking of goods further toward the back half of 2023, analysts and retailers say.

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.

The air and ocean shipping sectors have set out their decarbonization agendas, but policy help is urgently required to underpin investment in new fuel technology and production, a global trade group says.

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.

ILWU Canada rank-and-file will vote later this week on whether to issue a 72-hour strike notice, raising the unprecedented prospect of disruption on Canada’s West Coast amid job actions by labor along the US West Coast.

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.

The Container Port Performance Index for 2022 showed that among large ports, China’s Yangshan ranked No. 1, while Ningbo and Guangzhou were among the top 10.

The ILWU Friday shut down some terminals at West Coast ports after coastwide contract negotiations broke down Thursday because the union and employers are reportedly far apart on wages.

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.

Air cargo carriers are set for a bleak few months, with high inventory levels and economic issues in destination markets further dampening the traditionally slow summer season.

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.

Union Pacific’s launch of direct intermodal service from Houston comes two weeks after competitor BNSF announced it would begin a new service from the port’s Barbours Cut marine terminal.

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.

The carrier's CEO said inflation and destocking in global markets heralded a “phase of normalization” for container shipping.

End-to-end supply chain visibility remains an elusive goal for providers in a market where shippers are expecting better data quality than they have seen.

The drive to decarbonize European inland transport by switching freight from the road to greener alternatives took a step forward this week.

Ocean carriers are pulling all available capacity management levers to address a supply-demand imbalance that is set to widen significantly through 2024.

With spot freight rates largely stabilized, ocean carriers have blanked fewer sailings in May and instead opted for more biweekly sailings.

Although the container shipping order book is the highest it has been in many years and demand remains subdued, the ground is shifting under the ocean market in new and unfamiliar ways, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Price is once again on the side of shippers, with excess ocean capacity allowing them to extract lower rates from service providers.