Container Shipping

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

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

The “unprecedented” influx of imports continues on the West and East coasts.

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

“With our sustained focus on supply chain digitization, infrastructure investments and strong business relationships, we have the opportunity to build on this historic milestone,” says Executive Director Gene Seroka.

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

From A.P. Møller – Maersk to ZIM, the world’s shipping lines reported huge profit jumps.

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

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

The cranes cost $21.6 million to construct; a price tag on vessel and cargo damage has not yet been estimated.

There was a fair amount of “feel-good” talk regarding inventory build during the fiscal first-quarter retail earnings season. But for several chains, the year-over-year comparisons were easy. Further, sales have continued at an elevated clip, suggesting the massive merchandise restocking is far from over.

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

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

A mid-May blaze inside the roll-on/roll-off vessel was just the latest incident that halted removal of the Golden Ray, which capsized in September 2019.

After an 85% revenue jump, the South Korean carrier turns its attention to meeting its carbon neutrality target.

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

“Demand for products and services both domestically and abroad is driving significant gains in Georgia’s cargo volumes,” says Executive Director Griff Lynch.

“The supply of container equipment is currently one of our industry’s biggest challenges,” says Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.

Get your cameras ready along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina.

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

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

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

Dan Kopp, CEO of freight brokerage ITG Transportation Services, joins Trey Griggs, VP of sales at Lean Solutions Group, to discuss the ocean shipping environment at FreightWaves LIVE @HOME.

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

The capsized roll-on/roll-off vessel has been on its side near Georgia’s Port of Brunswick since early September 2019.

There have been no reported injuries, pollution or cargo losses aboard the vessel deployed on a ONE Atlantic service.

Freight shipments continue to break records with little signs of slowing. The year-over-year comparisons get tougher in the back half of 2021 but the current supply-demand dynamics may not change all that much.

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

“This was by far the busiest April in the port’s 114-year history, outpacing the previous record set just back in 2019 by a hefty 29%.”

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

E-commerce spurs a year-over-year container volume hike of 43.6%.

Containers, vehicles and rail moves contribute to a record April for the South Carolina Ports Authority.

A “truly outstanding quarter” lifts net profit from $27 million in 2020 to $1.45 billion this year.

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

Airfreight markets around the world are facing serious capacity constraints. Trade growth is overwhelming the physical ability of carriers to move goods and it’s reflected in transport prices.

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

Exported empties contribute to the Port of New York and New Jersey’s monthly volume record.

In the next two weeks, only two container ships are slated to berth at the new Leatherman Terminal. Forty are scheduled at the Port of Charleston’s neighboring Wando Welch Terminal.

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

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

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

The Port of Montreal is a major trade gateway for Canada. The Canadian government busted up a strike by unionized dockworkers and cargo will start flowing again.

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

Canadian lawmakers approve legislation to force an end to a strike by Port of Montreal longshoremen.

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

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

DSV Panalpina announced Tuesday it plans to acquire the logistics arm of Agility Public Warehousing for $4.1 billion. The deal is expected to turn the transportation and logistics company into a top 3 forwarder globally.

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

“Both Hapag-Lloyd and USMX were well aware that the work in question would have been handled by ILA members” if the vessel had gone to another port, the International Longshoremen’s Association lawsuit asserts.

Port of Montreal longshoremen began an unlimited strike on Monday morning, but the Canadian government is set to step in with back-to-work legislation to avert more disruption to the supply chain.

Port of Montreal longshoremen say they will begin a full, indefinite strike starting Monday after their employers moved to change regular schedules.

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

Evergreen should decide whether to leave the containers on board the vessel or come up with a way to transfer them.

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

“The container shipping industry is currently seeing unprecedented demand, which has led to a shortage of containers all over the world,” says CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.

“We have invested in the right infrastructure at the right time to handle growing cargo volumes and bigger ships,” says South Carolina Ports’ Jim Newsome.

The container ship now is expected to anchor in San Pedro Bay on May 1.

Savannah’s record March underscores why it’s investing hundreds of millions on new capacity upgrades.

The Teamsters call it a strike, but it is more of a protest. Still, it did garner support from another union on Wednesday.

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

Retail sales surged in March along with freight volumes. An increase in vaccinations and stimulus payments provided a “perfect alignment” for the blowout report.

As longshoremen begin partial strike, here are seven key questions about the Port of Montreal, the labor dispute and what might happen.

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

Port of Montreal longshoremen will begin a partial strike after employers moved to stop providing guaranteed minimum pay as labor dispute hits the skids, again.

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

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

If you ordered a fire pit or a rowing machine online, there’s a good chance it’s coming through the Port of Long Beach. The port is moving record amounts of containers and shipments are experiencing delays.

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

Pearl service customers’ imports likely will be delayed arriving from Asia.

“Our all-time container record reinforces that we are adding more capacity to the Port of Charleston at the right time,” says South Carolina Ports CEO Jim Newsome.

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.

“Imagine a port where a ship slows down on approach to reduce emissions, plugs into the electrical grid at berth instead of burning fuel to run vital systems and is worked by zero-emissions cranes, yard vehicles and trucks. That’s our reality in Long Beach.”

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

Maersk and ZIM ships are being deployed in response to “customers’ increased cargo demands.”

A ransomware gang is threatening to leak 2 terabytes of files stolen from shipping firm ECU Worldwide in the aftermath of a cyberattack as the owner vows to “take any steps necessary, legal and otherwise,” to protect customer data.

Third-party logistics provider GSC Logistics plans to add 100 more drivers and 400 chassis to meet the container volume surge on the West Coast.

You think you can just book your cargo on a plane to avoid the ocean shipping congestion at the Suez Canal? Guess again. Freighters were flying full even before the Ever Given got stuck, so finding space will be very difficult.

The South Korean container carrier expects the Suez Canal backlog to be cleared by the time the HMM Nuri arrives in mid-April.

Canadian police and border officers seized nearly $8 million in opium found in two shipping containers at the Port of Vancouver and then swapped the drugs with a dummy shipment to let the dragnet continue.

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

‘We pulled it off!’ says salvage company Boskalis after freeing the container ship.

Digging and pulling haven’t freed the giant Ever Given vessel that has stopped traffic in the Suez Canal. The next step might be to lighten the vessel by removing cargo.

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

Welcome aboard, freight customers. You’re now flying CMA CGM to the U.S. East Coast instead of taking a container ship.

Additional dredgers have been brought in to help dig out the 20,000-TEU Evergreen Marine container ship.

The Maersk Eureka is 650 miles off the coast of Alaska awaiting repairs

“Strong winds” are blamed for causing the 20,000-TEU Ever Given to get stuck and block Suez Canal traffic in both directions.

Vessels are backed up on both ends of the Suez Canal as tugs work to free the ultra large container ship Ever Given.

California’s container-ship traffic jam is slightly less jammed but import pressure remains high. One analyst warns the worst may be yet to come.

Ocean carrier ZIM just released record results and confirmed huge gains for contract rates. So why did its stock sink?

The world’s largest shipping line says it has changed its ways and is no longer playing the spot market, instead going steady with long-term partners.

Newbuild-to-fleet ratio now 15.3%, up from 9.4% in mid-2020. But orders are not high enough yet to wave red flags.

Two bullish equity research reports this week on transportation stocks both highlight expectations around consumer spending and what that means for freight demand.

More and more beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) are moving manufacturing and warehousing to Alabama.

“2020 has been exceptional, with stellar performance in the industry,” says Hapag-Lloyd CFO Mark Frese.

Fireworks could be stuck at sea by the time the Fourth of July rolls around. Blame massive port congestion and overloaded freight networks. The fireworks industry is asking the Biden administration to provide a fix, but what can it do?

Deutsche Bank’s Amit Mehrotra on how long import surge could last and upside potential for container, dry bulk and tanker stocks.

“Today we are in the seventh month of a historic import surge driven by unprecedented demand by American consumers,” says Gene Seroka.

Container, dry bulk and tanker stocks push forward. Biggest winner since mid-2020: Danaos, up (this is not a typo) 1,202%.