Container Shipping News

Shipping a container from India can cost nearly double what it costs to ship the same container from China, according to a report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

Like a sparkling Ferrari on a showroom floor, the U.S. Southeast ports are sitting pretty when it comes to import and export automobile traffic growth.

Maersk Inc. has sold its U.S. headquarters building in Madison, New Jersey, for a reported $53.3 million and leased offices in nearby Florham Park, New Jersey.

Tiny, dirt-like egg clusters are waylaying cargo at ports in the United States, delaying thousands of containers for days at a time.

Carriers’ strategy to bundle logistics services with container shipping services appears to be “unraveling,” according to Alphaliner’s latest newsletter.

CSAV has announced plans to introduce a new weekly service, the IMEX Sling 1, connecting the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and North Europe, starting in late October.

The world’s largest container manufacturer, China International Marine Containers (CIMC), does not expect the U.S. government’s antidumping and countervailing duty investigation to be resolved before May next year.

Middle East-based Simatech Shipping has announced the launch of a fortnightly feeder service linking Dakshin Bharat Gateway Terminal, a new private facility in India’s Port of Tuticorin (V.O. Chidambaranar), with Colombo, Sri Lanka, starting this month.

German-Russian business ties were on full display at a reception in St. Petersburg hosted by the Port of Hamburg, where politics was a main theme of discussion.

The International Maritime Bureau said the threat of cyberattacks in the maritime sector has intensified in the past few months, as shipping and supply chains become the “next playground for hackers.”

Cargo is being rolled and space allocations are being cut on trans-Pacific eastbound services as capacity continues to tighten to the U.S. East Coast. Space to the U.S. West Coast is also extremely tight, shippers say, reflected in stronger volumes moving through West Coast ports.

APL and OOCL have imposed surcharges on import containers bound for India’s northern hinterland region.

Containerized furniture imports into the United States saw growth in the first half of 2014, as a strong number of shipments in the second quarter offset weak volumes in the first quarter.

At least two ships have been quarantined and all others coming from Asia to the United States will be heavily scrutinized as officials attempt to block an invasive species from making landfall in the U.S.

Protests will continue on the U.S. West Coast against Israel-based Zim Integrated Shipping Services, as new actions are scheduled in Seattle and Tacoma next week.

Another week of volatility in the spot market has brought container rates down over all of the major trade lanes, according to the latest readings of the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index.

CMA CGM, China Shipping Container Lines, Orient Overseas Container Lines and Pacific International Lines have plans to launch a joint service connecting Northeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Neptune Pacific Lines, an ocean carrier specializing in the Australia/Oceania trade, has purchased Polynesian Shipping Line Limited, another carrier in the same market.

Multiple container lines have planned general rate increases in numerous trade lanes in the coming months, although any gains achieved could be fleeting as overcapacity and sluggish global demand continue.

Containerized footwear imports into the United States plummeted in the first half of 2014, although the industry is optimistic sales will pick up in the second half of the year.

Thousands of containers of agricultural products heading to Russia are still on the water, in limbo until shippers can find new destinations for their goods.

Carriers and other transport companies are doing their best to dispel fears of spreading the deadly Ebola virus as shipping continues between the virus-stricken countries of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea and the rest of the world.

CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container line in deployed capacity, plans to make a port on a French island in the Indian Ocean into a transshipment hub to serve markets in Africa, the company said in a statement.

A good peak season will lead to a shortage of containers, with the inventory of new boxes standing at less than two months of the required levels, Singamas chairman Teo Siong Seng said in Hong Kong.

Singamas chairman Teo Siong Seng does not believe the antidumping and countervailing duty investigation the company is facing in the U.S. will have a lasting effect on its business.

Simatech Shipping, X-Press Feeders and Orient Express Lines have expanded their joint ASX Service between India and the Middle East by adding a direct call at Adani Hazira Container Terminal, a private facility in western India.

Japan’s exports to the United States rose for the first time in three months in July on a year-on-year basis despite a sharp decline in auto shipments, according to preliminary trade figures released by Japan’s Finance Ministry.

Port Metro Vancouver is receiving a modest windfall in container volume thanks to the uncertainties surrounding longshore contract negotiations on the U.S. West Coast, but it might have profited even more if its terminals had more capacity to handle diverted cargo. Projects are planned to expand its capacity substantially over the next 10 years.

The Port of Oakland was returning to normalcy Wednesday after four days of on-again, off-again demonstrations by anti-Israel protesters involving the Zim Piraeus container ship.

In reporting its second-quarter and first-half 2014 results this week, Maersk Line again showed how its financial fortunes are diverging from most of the rest of the container shipping industry.

The cost benefits of Evergreen Marine joining the CKYH Alliance were reflected in its second-quarter earnings, which saw the Taipei-based carrier returning to profitability.

Overall capacity operated by the Top 21 container carriers increased 5.6 percent or 847,000 TEUs in the last 12 months, according to industry analyst Alphaliner’s latest newsletter, furthering chronic overcapacity in the container shipping market.

Neptune Orient Lines said Wednesday media reports that it plans to sell its logistics business, APL Logistics, for up to $900 million are "preliminary and exploratory in nature.”

The melting polar icecap is reheating ages-old dreams of cross-Arctic shortcuts for deep-draft ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But logistics managers shouldn’t count on it happening next year — or even in the next decade.

Taiwanese ocean carrier Yang Ming Line has upgraded its intra-Asia service network to better meet growing demand in the region.

Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. do not require regulatory approval from China for their proposed “2M” vessel sharing agreement on the east-west trades, Maersk Line said today.

The findings of a Chinese Ministry of Transport probe into rate filing by container lines and NVOCCs in the China-Japan market are expected to be released shortly. The case is being watched closely by foreign carriers to see whether China applies the same standard to its own carriers as it did to the erstwhile P3 Network.

Maersk Line reported a profit of $547 million for the second quarter as the container shipping division helped drive up the Maersk Group’s half-year earnings by 42 percent year-over-year.

Despite generally strengthening spot rates in the head-haul east-west trades, the trend is unlikely to last because underlying volatility is growing, especially in the Asia-Europe trade, according to SeaIntel.

A shift from small container ships to fewer but larger ships could result in a decline in the number of vessels on the water this year, the first decrease in 20 years, Drewry Maritime Research said.