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Greg Miller

Greg Miller covers maritime for FreightWaves and American Shipper. After graduating Cornell University, he fled upstate New York's harsh winters for the island of St. Thomas, where he rose to editor-in-chief of the Virgin Islands Business Journal. In the aftermath of Hurricane Marilyn, he moved to New York City, where he served as senior editor of Cruise Industry News. He then spent 15 years at the shipping magazine Fairplay in various senior roles, including managing editor. He currently resides in Manhattan with his wife and two Shih Tzus.
Oct - 2021 -
22 October
Greg Miller

Shadow inflation: Shipping costs are up way more than you think

Ocean cargo shippers are paying more than they ever have before for the worst service they’ve ever experienced.

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20 October
Greg Miller

$25B worth of cargo stuck on 80 container ships off California

California port congestion is as bad as ever. Some imports have been stranded offshore for over a month.

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18 October
Greg Miller

First containers, then dry bulk, now LNG shipping rates are spiking

The ocean shipping boom is spreading across vessel types. Spot LNG shipping rates just topped $150,000 per day.

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15 October
Greg Miller

As shipping prospects rise, field of shipping stocks shrinks

More public shipping companies go private as IPOs remain rare. Here’s why exits outpace new listings.

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13 October
Greg Miller

Container ship owners see boom lasting through 2022

Liner deals in the ship-leasing market imply strong confidence in high freight rates for the foreseeable future.

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12 October
Greg Miller

Container shipping’s ‘hockey stick’: Liner profits just keep on climbing

As America struggles with a growing supply chain crisis, ocean carriers rake in even more profits.

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11 October
Greg Miller

China port congestion falls sharply, trans-Pacific shipping rates retreat

Pullback in trans-Pacific shipping rates: beginning of the end or brief reprieve with end still not in sight?

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07 October
Greg Miller

Yet another worry: Price of ship fuel is now highest since 2014

Cost of fuel consumed by container ships, bulkers and tankers is effectively at a seven-year high.

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06 October
Greg Miller

OceanWaves: How to navigate the port congestion minefield

Shipping Asia-U.S. via regular ocean service and rail? “I would bet your goods will not arrive in time for Christmas,” says Flexport’s Nerijus Poskus.

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Greg Miller

OceanWaves: Los Angeles port boss lays out congestion-fighting plan

Los Angeles is at the front line of the port congestion crisis. Its executive director outlines his strategy to clear anchorages.

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05 October
Greg Miller

Ship at anchor off California ports may have caused major oil spill

How will public view ships anchored off Los Angeles/Long Beach if one of them is tied to Huntington Beach spill?

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Greg Miller

Dry bulk shipping rates hit $80,000 per day as buyers scramble for coal

Capesize bulkers haven’t earned this much since 2009, and freight futures just made “monstrous” move up.

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04 October
Greg Miller

How sky-high costs and supply chain squeeze could last until 2023

With no end in sight for global supply chain crisis, importers warned to brace for high costs throughout next year.

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Greg Miller

Despite exodus of empty containers, US exports are hitting new highs

Containerized exports continue to struggle but overall, U.S. exports are rising. Sales are at record levels for some commodities.

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Sep - 2021 -
27 September
Greg Miller

Power crisis deepens in Asia and Europe: What it means to shipping

As some Chinese factories go dark, more delays for container imports but bullish sign for coal, LNG and oil shipping.

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24 September
Greg Miller

Container ships now piling up at anchorages off China’s ports

Trans-Pacific traffic snarl is bicoastal: More container ships waiting off Shanghai and Ningbo than Southern California.

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21 September
Greg Miller

Just how many containers of cargo are stuck off California’s coast?

Southern California ports would need two weeks with zero vessel arrivals to clear logjam — but the ships keep coming.

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20 September
Greg Miller

Shipping stocks hammered as China fears intensify

Dry bulk shares suffer double-digit declines, with tanker and container stocks also caught up in the sell-off.

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16 September
Greg Miller

How high can container shipping profits go? Will 2022 top 2021?

Liner profits still rising: second half looks stronger than first and Deutsche Bank sees even higher earnings next year.

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Greg Miller

Record shattered: 73 container ships stuck waiting off California

Supply chain crisis deepens as more imports snared in historic ship queue off Los Angeles/Long Beach.

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14 September
Greg Miller

Investor scores a fortune selling container ships named after Patriots

Container ships named The Brady, The Belichick and The Gronk just sold for six to eight times their purchase price, spurring a nine-figure payday.

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13 September
Greg Miller

Shipping stocks hit fresh highs amid COVID-era supply chain chaos

Dry bulk and LNG shipping stocks now at 52-week peaks with container stocks not far from the top.

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10 September
Greg Miller

Container sector is so hot that ships rent for $200,000/day

Demand for container ships is so extreme that some operators are paying unprecedented sums to rent them.

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09 September
Greg Miller

CMA CGM caps its rates. What does this mean for container shipping?

In unprecedented move, CMA CGM unilaterally halts rate increases until February amid rising global supply chain chaos.

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02 September
Greg Miller

Case closed: How drug ring hid $1B worth of coke on a single ship

New details on record 2019 cocaine haul aboard MSC Gayane — which may not have been the first run — as U.S. wraps up convictions.

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Aug - 2021 -
31 August
Greg Miller

Shipping lines come out swinging in high-profile profiteering case

Cosco and MSC fight back against accusations that they inflated rates, violated contracts and broke U.S. law.

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30 August
Greg Miller

California port pileup shatters record and imports still haven’t peaked

More container ships are stuck at anchor off California than ever before. The gridlock is about to get even worse.

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27 August
Greg Miller

Shipping chaos gives top importers ‘massive competitive edge’

As stimulus-fueled demand overwhelms trans-Pacific capacity, a widening freight spread leaves small shippers behind.

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25 August
Greg Miller

Battle of the shipping booms: Containers ‘21 vs dry bulk ‘07-‘08

Container mega-spike recalls epic dry bulk run over a decade ago. Here’s a look back at the last time shipping had it this good.

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22 August
Greg Miller

How long does it take to build a shipping container?

Demand for new containers has been historically high. Even so, the Chinese factories that build the world’s boxes are churning them out efficiently.

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20 August
Greg Miller

China bulker pileup dwarfs California container-ship gridlock

Extreme measures to contain delta variant create unprecedented backlog of dry bulk ships off China.

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18 August
Greg Miller

Supply chain ‘anarchy’ is gold mine for ocean carriers like ZIM

Ocean carrier ZIM now expects to earn $4.8 billion-$5.2 billion this year — five times what it earned in 2020.

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17 August
Greg Miller

Clock ticking for Christmas imports as West Coast congestion mounts

Port of Los Angeles boss warns: ‘Anchorage and dwell times are trending in the wrong direction.’

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16 August
Greg Miller

California congestion nears new high, East Coast gridlock worsens

Queue of container ships off U.S. ports keeps building, with months’ worth of peak-season cargo still to unload.

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06 August
Greg Miller

Global demand isn’t booming. So why are shipping rates this high?

Maersk results offer more evidence that capacity constraints and U.S. — not worldwide — demand drive rates.

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05 August
Greg Miller

Beware ‘nasty side effects’ if government targets ocean carriers

“Be careful what you wish for,” warns industry expert Lars Jensen of proposals to rein in container shipping’s boom.

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03 August
Greg Miller

In the eye of the congestion storm: Q&A with Port of LA’s Gene Seroka

Los Angeles’ port boss speaks to American Shipper about congestion challenges — and potential release valves.

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02 August
Greg Miller

Maersk posts blockbuster Q2 results — and Q3 looks even better

Container giant earned $5.1 billion in the second quarter and expects earnings of $18 billion-$19.5 billion for the year.

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Greg Miller

COVID threatens Chinese exports as US struggles to restock inventories

U.S. inventory-to-sales ratio still historically low as key import source — China — faces growing delta variant risk.

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Jul - 2021 -
30 July
Greg Miller

US ports face peak-season ‘gridlock plus’ as anchorages fill

Almost no container ships were stuck at anchor when 2020 peak season began. This peak season, terminals are pre-clogged.

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29 July
Greg Miller

Different container indexes, vastly different rates. Which is right?

Disparities between container index prices wider than ever after big course correction by Freightos.

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27 July
Greg Miller

Containers are being built at a record pace. It’s still not enough

Despite all-time-high container production, demand continues to outpace supply and new box prices keep rising.

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26 July
Greg Miller

If coal is dead, then why are ships so full of it?

Good news for dry bulk shipping stocks, bad news for decarbonization: The global coal trade is thriving.

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16 July
Greg Miller

A cruel summer for shipping stocks as tide turns

Despite epic container rates and hefty dry bulk profits, stocks fell by double digits over the past three weeks.

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Greg Miller

Full steam ahead: Why container ships are racing across the Pacific

Container ships in the congestion-plagued trans-Pacific trade have stepped on the gas, with some vessels now topping 20 knots.

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14 July
Greg Miller

Los Angeles port braces for Yantian catch-up, peak season combo

Wave of cargo delayed by COVID outbreak in Yantian, China, is starting to hit California’s already strained terminals.

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11 July
Greg Miller

How much do shipping CEOs make? (Here’s their 2020 pay info)

An in-depth look at CEO compensation in container shipping, bulk shipping and the cruise industry

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08 July
Greg Miller

Container lines set to topple quarterly profit records (again)

New disclosures by lines point to massive ocean-carrier profits in the second quarter.

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07 July
Greg Miller

Ship values are soaring amid secondhand sales ‘frenzy’

More box ships, bulkers and tankers are changing hands than ever before — good news for ship values and stocks.

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06 July
Greg Miller

Container lines are poised to hit a $100 billion profit jackpot

Ocean carriers could make up for two decades’ worth of losses in a single year as demand overwhelms vessel supply.

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02 July
Greg Miller

Container shipping’s stranger-than-fiction first half of 2021

California offshore traffic jam, Ever Given, Yantian closure, skyrocketing rates and volumes … what’s next for container shipping?

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Jun - 2021 -
30 June
Greg Miller

How COVID variants could impact container and tanker shipping

More problems loom for importers of Asian containerized goods and tanker slump could last even longer.

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28 June
Greg Miller

No letup yet in dry bulk shipping’s ‘remarkable rally’

Rates for smaller bulkers remain at decade highs with most dry bulk stocks up triple digits since November.

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Greg Miller

How China became the big winner of the COVID era

A year and a half after COVID emerged in Wuhan, China’s exporters, liners, shipyards and container factories are all booming.

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23 June
Greg Miller

More container ships score ‘astronomical’ $100,000/day rates

There has never been a better time to own container ships and lease them to liners. But some owners are selling ships and cashing out.

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21 June
Greg Miller

Mounting evidence that container crunch will persist until 2022

Americans are spending more on services. Contrary to predictions, this has yet to curb demand for containerized goods.

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17 June
Greg Miller

Rise in trans-Pacific rates is relentless with new highs hit

Spot pricing has surged even higher, propelled by carrier rate hikes and China congestion fallout.

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15 June
Greg Miller

20 tons of coke = 40+ years in prison for MSC container-ship crew

Former chief mate of MSC Gayane gets seven years behind bars for lead role in massive 2019 smuggling operation.

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14 June
Greg Miller

Home Depot now has its own ship. That’s an ominous sign

Decision to secure dedicated vessel highlights unprecedented strength of container shipping and risks faced by importers.

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11 June
Greg Miller

Container rates rocket even higher — and there’s no end in sight

Container spot rates spiked again, with new records set. For importers, the worst is yet to come.

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10 June
Greg Miller

What $70+ oil means to container, tanker and dry bulk shipping

Rising fuel costs are yet another woe for containerized cargo shippers, while widening spreads should benefit ships with scrubbers.

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09 June
Greg Miller

Top 10 liners control 85% of market — and they’re not done yet

Consolidation in the liner sector is already extreme. Newbuild orders will further concentrate market power in fewer hands.

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08 June
Greg Miller

Inside container shipping’s COVID-era money-printing machine

Congestion is cutting liner capacity just as freight rates are at all-time highs, incentivizing carriers to buy or charter more ships.

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06 June
Greg Miller

What is the shipping cycle — and can it ever be tamed?

Environmental regs could extend future dry bulk and tanker upside, while consolidation could change curve of container-shipping cycle.

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03 June
Greg Miller

US imports could stall as demand overwhelms trans-Pacific capacity

Retailers at increasing risk of not getting goods from Asia on shelves as ocean transport system hits limit.

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02 June
Greg Miller

Container ship scores ‘off the charts,’ ‘fantasy’ charter rate: $135,000/day

Freight forwarder will pay “absolute historic high” to secure container ship as “people are panicking” amid “out of control” market.

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May - 2021 -
26 May
Greg Miller

California’s massive container-ship traffic jam is still really jammed

Ships at anchor are unlikely to clear by peak season. Congestion is forcing wide-scale voyage cancellations.

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24 May
Greg Miller

How three Chinese companies cornered global container production

The containers that U.S. shippers need are all built in China, where factories could set a new production record this year.

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20 May
Greg Miller

FreightWaves LIVE recap: How to cope with ocean capacity crunch

How bad is it? A Vietnam-New York slot was just offered at $19,000 per FEU, reveals Flexport’s Nerijus Poskus.

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19 May
Greg Miller

How ZIM, a smaller ocean carrier, is blowing away the big boys

ZIM is the liner most exposed to upside from America’s import binge. It’s taking full advantage of the situation.

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17 May
Greg Miller

Time to start prepping for Christmas shipping capacity crunch

With the retail inventory-to-sales ratio still falling, U.S. importers are urged to move fast on their holiday import plans.

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16 May
Greg Miller

Why stratospheric container rates could rocket even higher

Container rates are in uncharted territory. If demand continues to outpace supply, there’s little to stop them from ascending further.

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13 May
Greg Miller

Container shipping spot rates just spiked yet again

The situation for importers is getting even more dire. Already extreme container rates are ascending to even higher peaks.

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11 May
Greg Miller

Why Wall Street’s best-performing shipowner is building a war chest

Danaos will stockpile cash from the current boom and spend it on new ships when environmental regs are clearer.

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10 May
Greg Miller

Tanker rate boost from pipeline cyberattack could be fleeting

Trans-Atlantic product tanker rates have spiked, but a quick pipeline restart would curb future upside.

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07 May
Greg Miller

Container shipping boom is bleeding over into dry bulk

Formerly containerized cargoes are being loaded onto bulkers. Box-ship orders are keeping future bulker growth in check.

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06 May
Greg Miller

Why this tanker shipping depression is different from past slumps

Tanker execs explain lack of distress sales and scrapping this time around, and why new orders will be more curtailed.

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05 May
Greg Miller

‘The best quarter ever’ for container shipping giant Maersk

Maersk reveals more details on its shift toward long-term contracts at the expense of spot exposure.

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04 May
Greg Miller

Brace for impact: Data shows US import demand still rising

Importers are scrambling as demand sails past ocean transport supply. The numbers paint an ominous picture for cargo shippers.

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02 May
Greg Miller

Which shipping stocks rose the most in wake of COVID pandemic?

COVID has been great for stocks. In ocean shipping, container and dry bulk shares rode the wave. Tankers stocks sank.

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Apr - 2021 -
30 April
Greg Miller

No relief: Global container shortage likely to last until 2022

Chinese container production still trails torrid demand. Ever Given accident was ‘icing on the cake’ — making box shortfall worse.

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29 April
Greg Miller

Importers lost their pricing power. How should they adapt?

Now that shipping lines hold the pricing cards, importers must reset strategies, says Sea-Intelligence’s Jochen Gutschmidt.

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27 April
Greg Miller

Matson CEO: Trans-Pacific trade to stay stronger for longer

West Coast congestion could last into the fall as retailers face stockouts on essential goods, says ocean carrier Matson.

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26 April
Greg Miller

Flexport: Trans-Pacific deteriorating, brace for shipping ‘tsunami’

Trans-Pacific container crunch is about to become even more severe, warns Flexport, with May sailings now effectively sold out.

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21 April
Greg Miller

‘Sky’s the limit’ for already lofty container-ship charter rates

Liners are paying historically high rates to charter ships and maximize their exposure to the booming freight market.

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20 April
Greg Miller

Trans-Pacific contract rates slip from peak but still historic

U.S. importers will be paying a lot more for annual ocean contracts this year, but pricing inflation has eased.

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19 April
Greg Miller

Shipping bulls are back: First container stocks, now dry bulk

Dry bulk shipping rates are now double to triple five-year averages. Stock prices of dry bulk owners are on the ascent.

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15 April
Greg Miller

Import gains at top US container gateways go ballistic

U.S. ports just booked their largest import hikes in memory, according to The McCown Report.

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14 April
Greg Miller

‘March madness’ at LA port amid ‘once in a lifetime’ surge

Imports into Los Angeles at not slowing down. Can the backlog be cleared before the peak-season swell begins?

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13 April
Greg Miller

Shipping’s billion-dollar coke bust: 8 plead guilty, sentencing begins

More than a third of the crew on the MSC Gayane smuggled cocaine in June 2019. The first prison term has just been handed down.

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12 April
Greg Miller

Container shipping is about to report blockbuster Q1 earnings

As cargo shippers struggle, container-vessel companies rake in massive profits. Early signals point to record Q1 results.

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09 April
Greg Miller

Could container shipping rates stay this red-hot until 2022?

Container shipping spot rates haven’t budged from COVID-fueled peaks. Cargo shippers’ hopes for a rate pullback are fading.

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Greg Miller

Light at end of the tunnel for battered tanker trade?

Glimmers of hope for the beaten-down tanker sector: more OPEC+ crude production and more long-haul exports from the U.S. to India.

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08 April
Greg Miller

Suez Canal still not back to normal — but it’s getting closer

Days after Ever Given backlog was declared cleared, the number of ships waiting to transit the Suez Canal remains high (with video).

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05 April
Greg Miller

How shipping giant MSC reacted to billion-dollar cocaine bust

Twenty tons of coke was found aboard an MSC ship in 2019. MSC just revealed that it’s spending $100 million more on security in response.

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02 April
Greg Miller

Demand boom on collision course with ocean transport ceiling

Bad timing: Still-rising cargo demand is coinciding with container-shipping constraints in the wake of the Suez Canal crisis.

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Mar - 2021 -
31 March
Greg Miller

Another shipping stock bites the dust as big tanker fleets merge

‘Bigger is better’ is the mantra of public tanker companies. The just-announced INSW-Diamond S merger is a step in that direction.

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29 March
Greg Miller

US ports, shippers face major fallout from Suez Canal chaos

Suez Canal accident aftermath: Extensive disruptions are ahead for key Asia-East Coast container shipping services.

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26 March
Greg Miller

Suez Canal crisis: Here are the cargoes in the crossfire

The longer the Suez saga continues, the greater the container, tanker and dry bulk shipping impacts. There could be big losers — and winners.

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24 March
Greg Miller

What the Suez Canal accident means to the tanker business

Back in the Aristotle Onassis era, a Suez Canal closure was a tanker game changer. Today, tanker upside from the canal accident is limited.

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