The US Department of Transportation is looking to further fund its decade-old bid to bring more container-on-barge services to US waterways with $10 million in new grants available for 2021.

On the back of a deal with Bangladesh, India looks to expand its coastal shipping links with other countries in the region.

A study of shipper interest in moving cargo by barge on different routes around the Northeast Coast is expected to be underway by the end of the year in the latest exploration by New York and other authorities of ways to shift cargo from trucks to barges, reducing pollution and congestion.

The US Maritime Administration has awarded $6.79 million in federal marine highway grants to container-on-barge projects in Louisiana and Virginia and a waterborne service that will move farm products between Long Island and Connecticut.

The $421 million acquisition of P&O Ferries builds on the Dubai-based terminal operator’s purchase of European shortsea and feeder specialist Unifeeder last August.

A new weekly container feeder service, launched by Aliança Navegação e Logistica in December, is attracting shippers in northern Brazil looking for a new connection to the port of Pecem’s international and coastal services.

The lesson gleaned by shippers and transport movers from the 11-day strike is – don't put too many transport 'eggs' in one basket.

Resurrected by Maersk three years ago as a regional operator, SeaLand has gone global, and the result is SeaLand Americas, SeaLand Asia, and SeaLand Europe and Med. However, the rebrand does not change the three’s operational strategies.

The trial program applies to Bangladeshi goods transiting through the border checkpoint at Petrapole — known as a “land customs station (LCS)” — for transshipment via the ports of Kolkata and Nhava Sheva-JNPT.

With the cabotage relaxation, implemented May 21, foreign-flag carriers can transport laden export/import containers for transshipment and empty containers for repositioning between Indian ports without any specific permission or license.

New port data collected indicate Chennai is slowly establishing a footprint in transshipment handling.

The low water has stopped all barge transport on a huge section of the critical European waterway stretching between Kaub and the Swiss town of Basel, leaving high and dry shippers scrambling for truck transport that is in critically short supply.

The new Amsterdam link will provide greater service resilience for the Netherlands-Italy rail option, as the connections to the two Dutch ports will run on different routes, enabling a flexible response to any rail-related or port-related delays, according to Samskip UK trade manager David Besseling.

“We want to use the Colombo port for transshipment of goods towards Europe and America, as it will help us cut lead time by nearly 10 days,” said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Siddiqur Rahman.

DFDS underscored its confidence, moving forward by placing an order today for a sixth ro-ro vessel that is designed to carry about 450 trucking trailers just two months after the order for a fifth sister ship at China’s Jingling shipyard.

The synchronized, regional recovery that’s boosted global container shipping has also ramped-up short-sea container volumes to the benefit of Europe’s feeder ship sector. Still, the good times are hardly problem-free and there are hurdles ahead.