International ports

Typhoon Dolphin, the strongest to strike China so far this year, also disrupted coastal and inland supply chains after torrential rain caused extensive flooding in a broad swathe of the country.

With a slew of 18,000 to 24,000-TEU newbuilds due to launch over the next three years, the search is on for new deepwater terminals on existing big-ship routes, but also in new geographies, writes Jeremy Masters.

A string of major port investments this summer highlights how ocean carriers are increasingly locking in marine terminal capacity.

An influx of additional cargo volumes as carriers seek to avoid hostilities in the Persian Gulf has gridlocked Saudi Arabia’s port of Jeddah, a critical gateway on the Red Sea.

With Europe gripped by a blistering heatwave, operators on the crucial waterway warn the river may soon be impassable for cargo-laden barges.

But the growth is overwhelming the port and inland logistics infrastructure needed to support it as enormous volumes from Asia flood the continent.

The service had switched over to the Suez route in January before halting in early March when the Middle East war broke out.

Strong demand was offset by a sharp drop in transshipment volume as constraints in container handling infrastructure were exposed in the port’s performance.

Bad weather in the first quarter, major infrastructure works in and around the port and geopolitical factors affecting trade networks are clouding the terminal operator’s full-year outlook.

With vessel space increasingly scarce, cargo rollovers on certain premier westbound services out of India’s key gateway ports of Nhava Sheva and Mundra have been as high as 2,000 to 3,000 TEUs per sailing in recent weeks, industry sources say.

Hapag-Lloyd said there’s a 72-hour wait at Shanghai’s Yangshan deepwater port for vessels operating Gemini services, while ships operating non-Gemini services are having to wait six days before being able to berth.

Trade between Europe and its partners continues to adjust to the ever-changing geopolitical environment, and that uncertainty is being felt in the port’s container handling business.

Sources in India told the Journal of Commerce ONE has agreed to charter about 500 TEUs of slot space per week on Hapag-operated ships working the trade lane.

The Sharjah-based company is the third port operator in the UAE to embark on an end-to-end logistics journey, following its larger Dubai-based neighbor DP World and Abu Dhabi-based AD Ports.

The agreement follows a series of concessions between carrier-controlled terminal operators and Vietnamese companies in the last few years to develop port facilities at Lach Huyen.

The delays in Asia helped propel global port congestion to a four-year high, with almost 11% of the container fleet waiting at anchorage as of June 28, according to Linerlytica.

The carrier’s acquisition of a 49% stake in the Vizhinjam transshipment hub is said to be the single-largest foreign direct investment into the Indian port sector to date.

The port has played a key role during the Middle East war, with its location just south of the Strait of Hormuz providing the Persian Gulf with a multimodal gateway to global markets while the strait has been effectively closed.

The planned addition is part of the carrier’s “Strategy 2030” expansion plan outlined in April 2024 that aims to add between 10 and 15 terminals to its portfolio by the end of the decade.

But the terminal’s COO says that continued extreme temperatures forecast for the coming days would keep landside operations under pressure.

With most upcoming vessels overbooked, major India-Europe services have closed spot window bookings until early-July sailings, according to forwarder sources.

Capacity on the trade lane fell when US tariffs were imposed last year, and now Brazilian shippers are trying to beat the clock ahead of a new round of duties scheduled to be implemented next month.

The Marseille-based carrier has ended a 14,000-TEU per week service that called Asia and both US Coasts, deploying bigger ships on an existing East Coast service and a new West Coast express service.

Ocean carriers are warning shippers to expect additional costs and delays for shipments through India’s busiest container port amid an influx of transshipment cargo rerouted due to the Middle East war.

Empty containers trapped on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz are impacting export markets, forcing ocean carriers to seek out lessors for more equipment.

The ocean carrier halted the Pearl service about a year ago due to weak market fundamentals, but said current demand merits its return.

Huge rail bottlenecks are being reported across the busy network, with carriers, forwarders and rail freight operators battling to keep cargo flowing as demand begins to build in an early start to peak season.

Industry sources say operations have been affected by yard congestion and associated delays in inter-terminal transfer activity, which is an integral part of transshipment operations.

The Shanghai-based carrier has launched two new services connecting Asia to the Middle East as the Persian Gulf trade corridor presents strong green shoots of capacity demand amid ongoing mainline service disruptions.

Main construction started Friday and includes the development of four berths capable of handling ships of more than 21,000 TEUs, plus 15 berths for regional feeder vessels.

The Abu Dhabi group is following its larger Dubai-based neighbor DP World in growing its end-to-end reach across the container shipping sector.

Carrier sources have reported an average berthing delay of two days for regular services and up to five days for ad-hoc vessel calls at both ports, with the problems driven by inadequate drayage capacity.

The carrier is increasing capacity in response to growth in Indian imports from China and other Asian production markets in recent years, propelled by input sourcing to support rapid industrial development.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is the most recent example of how maritime chokepoints can be leveraged as a useful political tool, forcing global supply chains to adapt to a more complex geopolitical landscape, writes Lars Jensen.

Khor Fakkan and Fujairah in the UAE and Sohar in Oman had kept carriers restricted to imports since the war began due to severe yard space and cargo evacuation constraints.

The 14-day lead time now in place at Asian hubs would become a “global standard” for vessels seeking bunker fuel should the key waterway remain closed for another month, says S&P Global’s Fotios Katsoulas.

The move coincides with plans by XCTG to develop new berths, upgrade existing berths, and develop a multimodal smart logistics center.

Stockholders representing 97% of the shares in Zim, equivalent to 57.2 million shares, voted Thursday in favor of the $4.2 billion deal that was announced in mid-February.

With lower space allocations offered by Gemini, competing carriers have been able to keep their sailings on the routes maxed out and push rates higher, sources say.

The conflict could also spur increased spending on ports and landside infrastructure in the Middle East as investors seek to develop alternative transport solutions to avoid areas that have been closed or heavily impacted by the hostilities, executives said Thursday on a pair of webinars.