International ports

A range of factors including full yards, labor unrest and carrier network changes are making it difficult for the hubs to clear container bottlenecks.

With demand expectations faltering, carriers have either jettisoned or substantially lowered the increases they were planning to implement beginning May 1, forwarder sources tell the Journal of Commerce.

The issue of transit time variability in Latin America has downstream impacts for projects, with forwarders often having to get creative to figure out workarounds due to unforeseen delays.

The flagship of Santos Brasil is Tecon Santos, the largest container terminal in South America with a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs that will soon be expanded to 3 million TEUs.

But executives at both northern range hubs highlighted the extreme volatility of the first three months and the US tariff-driven uncertainty that lies ahead.

Multiple sources who spoke with the Journal of Commerce say Chinese exporters facing demand headwinds in the US due to soaring tariffs will likely attempt to dump inventory stocks in other markets, with India widely viewed as a key target.

With the door to US trade effectively slammed shut by tariffs, Chinese manufacturers are urgently looking for alternative markets in which to offload their surplus inventory.

Sources at some of the big liners say there’s been a noticeable decline in their traditional India-Mediterranean volumes due to the new competition taking advantage of Red Sea-linked shipping dislocations that have created a “new normal” operating environment.

A full evaluation of on-time performance will not be possible until July once the transition to the new deep-sea services has been completed, but data for February and March is positive for the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd alliance.

The ad hoc call was a precursor to the Gemini Cooperation carriers preparing to position two regular services out of the Colombo West International Terminal beginning next month, sources in Colombo told the Journal of Commerce.

For Singapore-based PSA, the investment cements a beachhead in a West India market primed to benefit from Asian trade diversification and burgeoning consumer demand.

While the Gemini Cooperation is hitting its schedule reliability goals, Hapag-Lloyd’s chief executive said fully unwinding its former carrier alliance and dealing with terminal congestion in some locations are providing challenges.

The terminal operator says buying the railroad that connects ports on the canal’s Pacific and Atlantic sides fits into its overall strategy of offering more services to shippers.

Forwarders say they are seeing utilization only near 50% on the Asia-Mexico lane amid seasonally low demand and tariff uncertainties.

The move comes as Hutchison is facing increasing pressure from the Chinese government over the $22.8 billion sale of its ports business outside of China to BlackRock and TiL, especially the Panama ports.

Major carriers had lined up rate increases with the intention of strengthening their bargaining power during service contract negotiations, but overcapacity seems to have kept that tactic in check.

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 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.

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

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

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.

The Dubai-based terminal operator’s end-to-end supply chain strategy is paying dividends with strategic investment in forwarding services attracting business from high value verticals.

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.

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.

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.

The carrier’s new investment push seems to be an attempt to catch up with its peers, particularly MSC, which has dedicated terminals at Mundra and Ennore/Chennai through joint venture arrangements with Adani.

The tonnage injection comes amid an uptick in Asian manufacturers expanding business in Latin America, particularly Mexico.

Cargo tracking shows no clear advantage for Chinese-based ocean carriers transiting the critical waterway, throwing doubt on the US president’s claims of China’s influence, according to a report from the visibility data provider.

As the new US administration looks to strengthen its regional sphere of influence, bipartisan political support is building to boost US shipbuilding, and thus, the country’s ability to project power in the Arctic and reduce dependence on foreign carriers.

SeaLead is offering a new service from Turkey after Hapag-Lloyd ended one of its standalone loops following the launch of the Gemini alliance with Maersk.

Forwarders say shippers are booking space to the US for low-value commodities such as plywood, tile and paper, which prior to the rate drop had been limited to less-expensive routes.

A new report from software vendor Kaleris has found that terminal operators around the globe believe they are providing better visibility data than shippers say are they receiving.

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

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.

The Belgian port has restored the throughput that was lost following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, filling the gap in part by capturing market share from its northern range rivals.

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.