Maritime

The new vessel-sharing agreement will see the introduction of non-CMA CGM ships into a string that runs between the West Coast of South America and ports in the US Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The electronics giant said the “staggering” detention and demurrage charges it paid for US imports carried by Cosco and OOCL threaten its ability to serve the North American market.

Negotiations between the railroads and the Teamsters have hit a stumbling block over salary and mandatory rest periods, prompting the union to schedule an April 8 start date for voting on a possible strike notice.

The latest capacity push comes from a three-member consortium led by Wan Hai Lines, which will begin a Southeast Asia-West India connection from the end of April. 

Container lines are increasing capacity to a 17-month high in May and have pulled back on their blank sailings to adjust to longer transits due to Red Sea disruptions.

With the busiest roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) port in the US closed to ship traffic, automobile manufacturers and ro/ro carriers are shifting to alternative ports.

Nearby gateways are preparing to handle the diversion of vessels and freight that would have landed at Baltimore at least through May following the port’s indefinite closure.

The cost of moving flatbed loads from Baltimore to warehouses in western Maryland jumped more than $100 per load compared with February’s average cost, according to data from DAT Freight & Analytics.

Given the ample supply of marine chassis available in the US, chassis providers are confident they can handle any rerouted cargo from the closed Port of Baltimore to other East Coast ports in the short term without issue.

US importers accustomed to shipping through Baltimore are facing the prospect of higher drayage and warehousing costs as they look for drivers, chassis and space at alternate ports.

While China’s shipping and ports behemoth was cautious about the outlook for 2024, it said inventory restocking in Europe and the US would drive an increase in demand for container shipping.

ONE and Yang Ming say the partnership will maintain most of its existing services into next year as it readies for a direct-call model and “speed buffers” to boost schedule reliability.

Recently passed House legislation amending landmark shipping reform takes a hard approach to China’s maritime influence on US ports but holds back on reining in the limited antitrust exemption container lines use to participate in alliances, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Carriers have been unable to shake a perception among shippers that surcharges were being set above cost-recovery levels, with a report this week directly accusing carriers of “profiteering” from the ETS.

Some of the 18 container ships that were due to arrive at the now-closed Port of Baltimore over the next couple of weeks are now scheduled for new calls at New Jersey, Norfolk and Philadelphia.

Freight diversions to more distant ports will raise trucking costs for US importers and shippers, but excess truckload capacity is expected to dilute the disruption. 

Still, forwarders generally believe that while prices have room to fall further, it's unlikely the market will return to the end-2023 pre-crisis pricing trendline as long as the uncertain security situation in the Red Sea persists.

Maersk has been a lone exception to the truism that customer demands for neutrality inevitably lead carrier-owned forwarders to be structurally independent.

With the fifth-largest container port on the US East Coast now effectively isolated from waterborne traffic, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship will, at least temporarily, reconfigure the region’s supply chain.

Oil and gas supply chains are in jeopardy as the government of Equatorial Guinea announces that it plans to nationalize a major port asset owned by Netherlands-based UAL Group.

The Georgia Ports Authority is expanding the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal to eventually grow its annual container capacity from 300,000 TEUs to 1.5 million TEUs.

The top end of the global 3PL sector is populated by companies that see a down market as a chance to focus on higher-yield customers and those that see a chance to build market share.

The port is struggling to relieve excessive rail container dwells on its docks caused by an unexpected jump in imports and what some stakeholders say is an inadequate supply of railcars.

Maersk is the first container line to publicly promote a direct pipeline of ocean freight to what’s known as Section 321 shipments, though the model has been used for years by freight forwarders.

Meeting interim emissions benchmarks will be increasingly difficult unless decisive policy action is taken, according to a new report from consultancy AlixPartners.

The acquisition will add significant volume of air and ocean cargo to the MSC subsidiary and extend its reach into European markets.

The letter is a further sign that the work of the non-profit carrier group has stalled at the adoption phase for its members.

But there remains significant horse trading ahead as IMO member states try to reach agreement on a fuel standard and a global greenhouse gas pricing measure that need to be decided on by next year and rolled out in 2027.

The legislation is an attempt to give federal maritime law more teeth to go after what its backers see as market manipulation and potential espionage from China.

The carrier said the restored TP20 service will offer “competitive” transit times just as shippers need to ensure products are in stock for spring and summer.

The carrier gave a highly uncertain outlook for the industry, outlining a litany of potential disruptors for 2024 that include Red Sea vessel diversions, high interest rates and geopolitical tensions.

The global forwarder is up for sale, and its high level of profitability during an otherwise challenging year for logistics could improve a selling price that analysts have already said could top $20 billion.

The purchase of an industrial site next to the terminal is part of Charleston’s plan to allow the facility to handle container ships that are double the size of the vessels it can currently accommodate.

The terminal operator said it hatched a new agreement with a Vietnamese logistics company that increases its involvement in developing an ultra-large container terminal in the country’s northern region.

As the market softens, carriers have jettisoned previously announced rate activity for March, with Mediterranean Shipping Co. canceling a $1,000-per-container general rate increase and CMA CGM again postponing a peak season surcharge.

The railroads say they are deploying more intermodal railcars to Los Angeles-Long Beach and adjusting their operations so marine terminals can clear out rail containers and reduce dwell times following strong import volumes early this year.

US imports from Asia last month were up 40% over February 2023, the biggest year-over-year jump for any month since May 2021.

The deaths of three bulk carrier crew in early March has spurred an international body representing seafarers to downgrade the busy shipping lanes from “high risk” to “warlike” and has urged all carriers to avoid sailing through the region.

Tougher environmental rules are expected to drive more MPV scrapping even as the order book expands thanks to new MPV and open-hatch ship orders.

This year’s annual service contract negotiations are occurring amid the latest disruption in container shipping as vessels divert away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to avoid possible attacks by Houthi militants.