Container Shipping News

The largest US freight broker expects the first quarter of 2025 to be weak for trucking as the freight recession remains in place, but it is converting more customers to use its services for ocean freight.

It would be the 10th consecutive year the carrier has reported a profit as it capitalized on increasing demand supported by elevated rates.

Ports in the UK are already seeing rising operational delays as a string of storms moves in from the Atlantic and major ports in Europe issue high wind warnings.

The comments by Louis Sola during a Senate hearing come amid rising US scrutiny of Chinese influence over the crucial waterway.

The former Wisconsin congressman and Fox Business host was confirmed by a 77-22 vote on Tuesday.

Liners believe they left money on the table in 2024–25 service contracts, sources tell the Journal of Commerce, and are putting up opening quotes about 25% higher than a year ago in their initial talks with customers.

The arrangement allows international carriers to transship domestic import and export cargoes at Shanghai’s Yangshan deepwater port from selected ports in northern China.

China celebrates the Year of the Snake Tuesday, and while there is always a move to get export orders on the water before the holidays, the push this year came earlier than expected.

Sources at established carriers on the trade lane, such as CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd, have noted extreme rate pressures due to a significant capacity injection driven in part by the new shipping alliances.

Each month of last year saw reliability degrade compared with the corresponding month in 2023, although 2024 carried the burden of vessel diversions around southern Africa as carriers avoided the Suez Canal and Red Sea.

With voyages around southern Africa taking up to 45 days and most carriers continuing to divert away from the Red Sea, the shorter route cuts the transit time of Kawa Shipping’s China-Europe Express to just 26 days.

While a bit softer since the start of the year, rates are not falling at the same pace they were in the second half of 2024 when prices plummeted from almost $11,000 per FEU in early August.

The FMC complaint is a rare instance of a container line accusing a shipper of not living up to the terms of a service contract.

Donald Trump, just hours after returning to the White House Monday, signed an executive order to begin the process of pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement climate change treaty.

Ocean carriers may soon finalize a series of large ship orders as the newbuilding spree that took the order book to a record 8.3 million TEUs by the end of 2024 is set to continue.

President Donald Trump injecting himself into longshore labor talks and his recent threat to take over the Panama Canal are a precursor to the unpredictability container shipping will face over the next four years, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The ocean carrier made the changes ahead of the launch of its partnership with Hapag-Lloyd, referring shippers to the new alliance’s services as an alternative.

New services entered the trade last year amid elevated rates and high demand, but a seasonal lull is putting pressure on prices with plentiful space now on the lane.

Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk will alternatively use feeder connections to relay Indian loads to the US East and West coasts over Gemini hub ports in Asia.

By promising 90%-plus schedule reliability using a hub-and-spoke model, the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd alliance is tacking sharply away from the industry pack in attempting to solve the problem of unreliable schedules that continues to plague the industry well after the end of COVID-19.

Just ahead of November’s election, then-Commissioner Sola laid out “America First” initiatives during an October speech, highlighting the further development of LNG export facilities and the fuel’s impact on ship bunkering.

A pledge by Houthi militants to focus ship attacks on Israel-linked vessels is not enough to encourage ocean carriers to end their diversions around Africa and return to transits via the Suez Canal.

A new report from the Biden administration alleges that Beijing has a poor compliance record with the WTO, practices duplicitous trade policies that give the country unfair advantages, and operates with an overall lack of transparency.

The question is not whether the market will be strong in the first quarter, but rather how high rates will climb, writes analyst Richard Bright.

The moves by Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM come amid uncertainty about the outlook for the intra-Asia trade, with one analyst suggesting a possible rate war could see prices in the region tumble if there is no summer peak season.

The peace deal in Gaza is highlighting the capacity overhang facing container shipping once vessels absorbed by the longer voyages around southern Africa return to the shorter route via the Red Sea and Suez.

A handful of companies unveiled new products in the last week intended to enable decision-making based off the visibility data they provide.

The pricing move means a general rate increase planned by carriers for Jan. 15 will not be implemented, forwarders say, because demand is not sufficient to support another boost.

The carrier said its ability to capture market share was directly linked to a shift in trade dynamics as mainline operators outsourced intra-regional services to more agile operators.

The twin complaints to the FMC charge that several ocean carriers pushed the shippers into paying surcharges and premium rates totaling $5.5 million, while creating another $76 million in added spot market costs.

Multiple forwarder sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce confirmed that the portal booking specifics are still unavailable for February voyages from India to Europe.

The uncertainty surrounding the Red Sea was highlighted by member OOCL, and although the carrier provided both an around-Africa option and a version via the Suez, it said the Africa diversions will continue until further notice.

The decline reflects the wider slide in container freight rates from August, which accelerated in October and November as cargo demand eased.

The carrier’s top-line financials are a clear signal that container shipping is firmly back in profitable territory following a poor end to 2023 that left several carriers nursing losses.

A confluence of factors, including vessel bunching at Asian load ports and a pre-Lunar New Year cargo surge, have combined to cause congestion at the port and reduce its railcar availability.

With the threat of a US port strike averted, the transition to new global service networks will not be accompanied by widespread disruption, the analyst believes.

While the draft language of the tentative agreement was not disclosed, the two sides said the deal includes language that covers the contentious issue of port automation and new technologies.

With shippers under pressure to finalize production plans with Asian factories amid ongoing vessel diversions around Africa and elevated rates, there is little point in delaying the signing of annual contracts.

Local freight forwarders believe any extra capacity entering the Indian market from smaller ship operators working around an “opportunistic approach” has the potential to spoil rate recovery efforts by large carriers.

Carriers adopting a “wait-and-see” approach to the new regulation will face significant penalties and a potential loss of income from decarbonization-focused customers, according to a report from the classification society.