Container lines

The capacity of container ships ordered so far this year is up 60 percent on the same period in 2014, at just over 1 million 20-foot-equivalent units, driven by a wave of contracts for mega vessels, according to Alphaliner.

U.S. containerized imports are forecast to rise 5.4 percent year-over-year in the second half of the year after inbound volume at the major gateways for retail goods hit normal levels in April, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker.

The volume of containers shipped via publicly-owned major ports in India expanded 4.3 percent year-over-year in April and May, the first two fiscal months, according to provisional port statistics collected by JOC.com.

Declining U.S. exports are offsetting U.S. imports and confronting container lines with tough decisions in the Mediterranean-North America trade.

LONDON – Eurotunnel, the operator of the subsea rail link between the U.K. and France, has sold its ferry operation to rival carrier DFDS a year after British regulators demanded its withdrawal from the cross-Channel route.

Brazilian shoe manufacturers are this month eyeing up export opportunities to Italy, with the national footwear association mounting an expedition to Lake Garda in an effort to find Italian markets.

CMA CGM has ordered six ships with capacities of 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units for delivery in early 2017 by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Ulsan shipyard.

Container ship lines are shaking up their alliances operating between Asia and the West Coast of South America.

Belgian container ship owner and operator Delphis has doubled its order for two liquefied natural gas-ready ships that will be carry up to 1,900 twenty-foot-equivalent units and be strengthened for operation in ice.

LONDON –The intra-Asia trade will continue to drive container ship demand as carriers launch new services across the region, according to Alphaliner.

Shipping Corporation of India has revamped its intra-regional SCI Middle East India Liner Express service deployment to include additional domestic port coverage. The change provides a big push to the Narendra Modi-led government’s “sagar-mala” project, which is designed to upgrade the national freight transportation system via coastal shipping.

The U.S. and European Union are in talks over a new trade deal that could give shipping lines greater bargaining power over port services and give multimodal operators priority to tap inland freight connections, according to documents shared Wednesday by Wikileaks.

Unmanned cargo ship will usher in a whole new era in shipping, requiring a rethink of operations and business models in the industry, according to panelists at Nor-Shipping in Norway.

LONDON – Eurotunnel, the operator of the rail tunnel between the U.K. and France, announced its exit from shipping operations between the two countries in July, ending a bitter three year battle with British competition regulators.

China United Lines, part of Unitrans Group, has become the latest ocean carrier to try to tap growing demand on the intra-Asia trade lane by introducing a direct service between India and China.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services has restructured its participation in two U.S. Gulf-east coast of South America services it shares with other carriers.

China and South Korea have cleared the way towards implementing a free trade agreement later this year that will eventually scrap duties on 90 percent of the goods traded between the two nations.

In the latest sign of the challenge facing Asia-Europe carriers to make money in the busiest global shipping lane, the G6 Alliance said it would cancel two sailings, citing low demand. Yet canceling individual sailings will likely do little to quell analysts’ view that significantly more capacity, such as entire services, would need to be suspended in order to meaningfully impact supply and demand in the Asia-Europe market.

In its new mega-ship order announced on Tuesday, Maersk Line took a conservative road, achieving a 7 percent capacity increase in ships of almost identical hull dimensions to its Triple-E class. In the process, it is showing how carriers are not automatically opting to build ever-larger ships to push the boundaries of economies of scale.

Taiwanese carrier Evergreen Line and Turkey's Arkas Line are launching a new collaborative West-East Mediterranean Service.

Maersk Line today signed an order for eleven 19,630 TEUs container ships, in a $1.8 billion deal aimed at consolidating its ranking as the world’s largest ocean carrier.

Fesco’s first-quarter earnings rose 5.4 percent as cost savings offset a slump in container volumes resulting from a fragile Russian economy and a depreciating rouble.

United Arab Shipping Co. is seeking to broaden its service reach by adding refrigerated container capacity and joining CMA CGM and Hamburg Sud in a weekly vessel-sharing agreement in a bid for a bigger slice of trans-Atlantic trade.

Pasha Hawaii will add a second weekly call at Los Angeles and discontinue direct calls at Tacoma in a service overhaul that follows the carrier’s takeover last week of Horizon Lines’ Hawaii routes.

India’s federal cabinet on Saturday gave final approval to an agreement allowing the introduction of coastal shipping services between the country’s east coast cargo gateways and ports in Bangladesh.

Crowley Maritime Corp.’s global ship management group has been awarded a contract to crew, operate and maintain four U.S.-flag domestic ships that Pasha Group is acquiring from Horizon Lines for operation in the West Coast-Hawaii trade.

Matson Inc. has completed its previously announced $469 million acquisition of Horizon Lines, clearing the way for Matson to enter the U.S-flag domestic trade between the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

The cost savings brought by mega-ships are decreasing and might not even be realized as container ships get ever larger, the International Transport Federation warns.

The expansion of the Panama Canal early next year will make an enormous quantity of container ship tonnage available for services that transit the canal, wiping away current capacity restrictions that restrict usage to only small and inefficient ships by today’s standards.

Salvage and firefighting personnel have made progress in containing the fire on board the 33,772 dwt multipurpose ship Purple Beach in the German Bay near Wilhelmshaven.

Canada will not require domestic shipowners operating on the Great Lakes to equip their ships with costly ballast treatment systems until effective technology exists, Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said last week.

Construction has begun on the second of two liquefied natural gas-fueled ships that Crowley Maritime Corp. has ordered for the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico trade.

Container ship schedule reliability on the growing trans-Atlantic route during April was the lowest in at least three years, according to SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

Shreyas Shipping and Logistics swung to a net profit of Rs. 61.75 crore (about $9.6 million) in the fiscal year ended March 31, a big turnaround from its loss of Rs. 4.32 crore ($675,000) in the previous year.

Rising charter rates helped Greek container shipowner Box Ships narrow its first-quarter loss close to break even.

The results of the 2015-2016 trans-Pacific contracting season are mostly in, and although carriers dug in their heels to get rate increases, for the most part they fell short of getting what they wanted.

Vessel reliability in the trans-Pacific trades is beginning to improve now that West Coast labor issues have been resolved, but it still has a long way to go before it is acceptable, metrics provided by Seaintel Maritime Analysis and the Marine Exchange of Southern California show.

CMA CGM is launching a trans-Atlantic service with Hamburg Sud and United Arab Shipping Co., and enhancing another service after the French carrier shipped 35 percent more volume between the U.S. East Coast and North Europe in the first three months compared to the same period year ago.

Canadian containerized imports are slated to rise 4 percent this year compared to last year, according to World Trade Services, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS Maritime & Trade.