Container lines

Could a looming trade war shake up one of the most stable global shipping lanes?

A deal between the port of Santos and pilots will allow more cargo to enter the port and provide carriers with more operational flexibility.

Zim is linking up with the 2M Alliance in a bid to trim costs and capacity on the Asia-US East Coast trade.

A new service from APL will test the hypothesis that shippers will pay more for better service, if it is available.

It’s now an unavoidable fact that the precautions traditionally taken to avoid container ship fires — such as ensuring that stowage plans comply with dangerous goods guidelines and carriers scan bills of lading for keywords indicating the possibility of misdeclared cargoes — are failing to adequately mitigate the risk to crews, cargoes, and ships.

Eastbound Pacific spot rates rose for the second straight week as Cosco and Ocean Alliance partners became the third carrier alliance to announce peak season cuts in services.

Port owner Hutchison Ports said it will continue to work to improve productivity levels at Felixstowe.

Pushing data back to users may very well prove to be the pivotal point at which the container shipping industry shifted en masse to portals. But getting to that step will likely require another cultural shift.

The new Panama Canal’s larger locks appear to have hit the shipping industry at the right time, given at least one, and possibly two, global trends in international trade.

This much is known about rates for US importers from Asia heading into peak season: there are factors that would generate firm-to-higher rates, but also historical factors that would lead to a softening of rates.

The service, if added, would complement existing feeder services by other ocean carriers. A CMA CGM official said the company has held talks about the possible service.

Many experts argue that blockchain technology is tailor-made for container shipping’s international logistics work. But blockchain faces numerous hurdles — the biggest of which may be cultural.

US importers plan to bring in record container volume this peak season, which will translate into an impressive 2018 year-end gain compared with 2017.

Ocean carriers want to avoid being caught up in secondary sanctions that will be imposed by the United States on companies dealing with Iran.

However, far from being an omen of declining demand, headhaul rates from Europe to the United States have strengthened as peak season gets under way.

Beneficial cargo owners can anticipate higher rates this peak season as Yang Ming and its THE Alliance partners announce removal of a trans-Pacific string. This development follows a similar service reduction in late June by the 2M Alliance and was accompanied Friday by an increase of 20 to 30 percent in spot rates.

Global trade-oriented blockchain solutions are moving from pilot to purported commercial viability in Asia and Europe, as shippers evaluate whether blockchain is something in which they should invest in the short term and which project to back.

The Europe-based ocean carrier has created another specialized, end-to-end cold chain logistics operation, as it works vigorously to establish a stronger foothold in the emerging market economy.

A series of negative factors are lining up to deny ocean carriers a good year.

Like the US airline industry earlier, the global container shipping industry has reached a point where cost cutting and mergers will yield little if any additional value. This is the view of a longtime carrier executive, a Maritime Hall of Fame inductee who argues creating value for customers will characterize the current era, with customer service the first visible change area.

Maersk's annoucement that it has used the start-up software provider to build its new e-commerce interface makes two points that all stakeholders in container shipping should note.

Technology, and in particular visibility and cargo track/trace tech, offers a multitude of benefits, including improved efficiency. But along with a monetary cost/benefit analysis, potential users should ask if they are willing to accept any operational adjustments that will be required to use it.

Shippers have long pushed back against index-linked contracts, due to low rates from chronic overcapacity, but the methodology at the core of Xeneta’s new index might satisfy shippers — as well as solve several business operation problems.

The world’s largest container carrier this week handled a factory-stuffed, export consignment of refrigerated and dry cargo via India’s eastern port of Haldia to various destinations.

Ocean carriers have begun investing directly in start-ups, and in some cases deploying these solutions more broadly. Furthermore, as the tech sector worked through initial roadblocks, the market for sensor technology to track international freight has been steadily warming the last two years, as shippers seek more-accurate and real-time information.

Jacques R. Saade took a regional carrier to a Top 3 global operator over the course of his life.

Several factors, including mega-ships deployed, North Asia congestion, rising bunker fuel prices, and the impact of Trump administration tariffs, are compromising schedule integrity in the trans-Pacific.

CMA CGM believes expanding into land routes with supply chain services is the key to maintaining growth following the consolidation of the container shipping market.

Maersk's APM Terminals unit believes the authorized economic operator designation will substantially enhance its freight-handling efficiency and decrease operating costs, among other benefits.

Ocean carriers have announced a wide range of surcharges in recent months, and while the market is dubious, the carriers show no sign of retreat.

Having filled staff shortages at its US call centers and improved data integrity, the new Japanese liner company Ocean Network Express is providing beneficial cargo owners with the level of service they rightfully demand, but CEO Jeremy Nixon said carriers will struggle to implement meaningful peak-season surcharges this fall.

With manufacturing sectors in both nations in a strong uptrend, and China’s middle class expanding while US consumer spending is recovering after a long hiatus, only a full-bore trade war could deflect accelerating container trade between the two economic giants.

Liner shipping’s current exemption from anti-trust rules ends in 2020 and as part of its assessment of whether to grant another five-year block exemption order, the European Commission has called for feedback from those in the container supply chain.

SM Line said growing volume in the second half of the year should return rates to a level that covers operation costs.

In a strongly worded letter, Nik Delmeire, secretary general of the European Shippers Council (ESC), said container lines announced almost simultaneously that they would be applying a surcharge, which the ESC viewed as “tantamount to price signaling..."

Known as Eagle GO Guaranteed, APL is extending the service to Asia-Europe and Asia-Mediterranean trades, following a successful implementation of the shipping option on the trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, and Oceania routes.

The increase in the price of bunker fuel, driven by crude oil’s 2017 to 2018 surge, is real. But beyond that ocean carriers face a tough sell with shippers regarding the inclusion of other surcharges, given spare capacity and a continued competitive market for shipper business.

The tech enhancements could have potential benefits for importers in terms of better visibility of their cargo from the vessel discharge process to the out gate process, and for exporters in terms of better gauging the best time to deliver laden boxes to terminals.

Shippers using the BoxTech database to track container weight and other information will get greater reach through the database, which now contains information on 40 percent of the world’s containers after Mediterranean Shipping Co. added its information.

The ocean carrier’s Ze Box venture capital unit has signed a memorandum of understanding with PSA unboXed, the external innovation and corporate venture capital arm of Singapore’s PSA International.