The global shipping industry is constantly evolving, and the COVID-19 pandemic began a marked shift in how container shipping operates. Disruption caused by the pandemic has forced the industry to expand its capacity and reduce costs to remain profitable.
At the peak of the pandemic, containers essentially stopped moving. As manufacturers went into lockdown and closed factories, many of the containers used to ship those manufactured goods were left stranded at ports or storage depots, where they weren’t needed. Simultaneously, freight shippers were reducing the number of vessels in use due to the manufacturing slowdown. This limited global shipping capacity and disrupted the worldwide flow of containers and goods. As a result, some regions were left with an excess of stored containers, while other places were left with no containers at all.
As the pandemic slowed and the global economy began to rebound, labor shortages and congestion at ports have left many of these stored containers stuck where they aren’t needed. Now, instead of a shortage of shipping containers, the industry is dealing with too many. Many container storage depots are turning away new clients due to lack of space, and some shippers are even giving containers away to make room. Blank and cancelled sailings are increasing as well, as shippers decide to skip a port or cancel a trip altogether in order to manage changes in demand and capacity.
Check back here for the latest news and insights on the state of the container shipping industry. You can also visit our maritime news archive to learn more about cargo shipping, or our American Shipper archive for air cargo shipping industry news.
U.S. imports accelerated in July, with inbound cargo from China reaching a year-to-date high, according to Descartes.
July was a record month at the Port of Virginia. At SC Ports, July’s volumes were up from June as the Port of Charleston sought to improve port flows.
With East Coast ship queues high, port executive Gene Seroka says: “For cargo owners looking to rechart their course, come to Los Angeles.”
Trans-Pacific spot container shipping rates continue to head lower. Zim appears more at risk than some of its rivals.
Rates and sentiment in dry bulk shipping have fallen hard. Economic pressures in China appear to be a major culprit.
Inland port projects and rail cargo handling facilities are among the projects awarded grants through the Department of Transportation’s RAISE program.
The latest shipping company poised to delist has a market cap of $3.5 billion. The latest new entrant’s market cap is under $20 million.
Yang Ming summed up its second quarter and the first half of 2022 in about 150 words.
Hapag-Lloyd bookings point to a gradual unwind of the container shipping boom, not a crash.
South Korean ocean carrier HMM expects “downward pressure” on demand growth in the second half of 2022.
Tankers stocks are doing great. Dry bulk and container stocks temporarily stopped the bleeding. “Maxim stocks” still underperform.
Georgia Ports Authority kicks off the start of its new fiscal year with volumes at over a half million TEUs.
Port congestion and voyage cancellations by shipping lines are preventing a steeper slide in spot container freight rates.
The South Carolina cold chain facility opening next year will handle Port of Charleston imports and exports of proteins, fruits and vegetables.
It looks increasingly likely that war-driven changes to global crude flows will persist for an extended period.
Chinese military exercises in the Taiwan Strait will delay shipments. Further escalation could have dramatic supply chain effects.
FreightWaves chats with international trade attorney Ashley Craig about what the troubles in labor talks for both rail and maritime mean for the broader supply chain.
Container shipping giant Maersk sees continued strength in U.S. imports and ongoing supply chain disruptions globally.
The drop in ships waiting off Southern California is deceiving. The number of ships off all three coasts is back to all-time highs.
The new rail hub is designed to respond to a growing need to expand domestic intermodal capacity within the greater Seattle region.
Shipping lines are still racking up extraordinary profits. Hapag-Lloyd forecasts continued strength in the second half.
UAE-headquartered port operator Gulftainer says it has turned a “poorly performing past two years into a significantly positive first half of 2022.”
Consumer demand, vessel diversions and efforts to avoid congested West Coast ports drove the Georgia Ports Authority to break its record for annual volumes.
Last year was historically strong for some maritime businesses, terrible for others. No matter what the sector, maritime CEOs made millions.
Kuehne + Nagel continued profit growth in Q2 by charging customers more for extra service to keep supply chains fluid.
As truckers protest for the fifth day, workers at the Port of Oakland have been busy setting up orange barricades at all four of the marine terminals in case demonstrations over controversial state law AB5 spill over into next week.
Exhaust gas scrubbers are allowing tankers, bulkers and container ships to keep burning dirtier — and much cheaper — marine fuel.
Cargo vessels allegedly are meeting at sea to transport stolen Ukrainian grain to Turkey and Syria.
America’s goods imports hit a capacity ceiling during the COVID-era boom. Volumes are still bouncing around near the top.
Tankers are very busy loading up with American crude oil and refined products sold to overseas buyers.
Container shipping spot rates continue to ease but are still many times higher than they were pre-pandemic.
Yang Ming’s newest 11,000-TEU container ship will call the Port of Los Angeles on its maiden voyage.
Insurance and risk management firm TT Club says “Book it right and pack it tight” provides guidance for preparing unitized consignments of dangerous goods for carriage by sea.
Ocean carrier HMM announced Thursday it will invest $7.5 billion over the next five years on ships, terminals and logistics facilities.
Drayage provider ContainerPort Group has announced the addition of truck capacity in key port markets.
Peak season imports are expected to remain strong but rail delays require ‘immediate’ attention, says Port of LA’s Gene Seroka.
Higher amounts of loaded imports and empty export boxes contributed to a nearly 15% increase in volumes.
Work is underway to develop container-handling terminals in as many as five states along the Mississippi River.
Southern California ports can’t evacuate import containers fast enough. The backlog has yet again reached critical levels.
There were 125 container ships waiting offshore on Friday, including 36 off Savannah, 24 off Southern California and 20 each off Houston and New York.
In the second quarter, new highs were set for Cosco profits, OOCL revenue per container, and Evergreen operating revenues.
The number of import containers sitting at LA/LB terminals for nine days or more has more than doubled since February.
West Coast port employers and labor won’t extend their contract during bargaining, as business groups would like them to do.
Spot freight rates are easing, but in a sign of resilience, container-ship charter rates remain near all-time highs.
A flood of newly built container ships will be delivered by shipyards in 2023-25. Can liners maintain pricing power?
Trailer Bridge signed a $62 million lease agreement with the Jacksonville Port Authority to continue operating a Blount Island terminal through at least 2041.
Both Democrats and Republicans representing the Pacific Northwest say the creation of a ship-to-rail container port at the existing Port of Coos Bay could boost West Coast port capacity by as much as 10%.
Three commissioners of the Federal Maritime Commission contend a merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern would result in diverting U.S.-bound intermodal traffic to Canadian ports.
Container shipping rates remain far above pre-COVID levels, yet there are more signs of prices easing.
The first half has been phenomenal for product tankers. How much of shipping upside is due to the war?
FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller analyzes the bullwhip effect on the current retail and trucking environments.
Retail sales are still up double digits compared to pre-COVID. Inventory-to-sales ratios have yet to fully recover.
A number of East Coast ports saw volumes increase in May, and Savannah was one of them.
Blackstone Group, one of the premier New York investment groups, is putting $130 million on fintech/freight tech firm PayCargo.
America’s peak cargo importing season will start early this year, by the end of this month, says the Port of Los Angeles boss.
Japanese shipping firm Ocean Network Express has filed a lawsuit against Union Pacific because a shipment of solar panels was stolen in transit.
Bulk commodity shipping stocks held up well before this month. Now they’re falling alongside container shipping stocks.
OceaNS Bridge Express, a partnership among NS, Union Pacific, Hapag-Lloyd and the Port of Virginia, could be a means to avoid West Coast port congestion while taking advantage of East Coast port capacity improvements.
May was one of the busiest months in history for the container ports of Long Beach and Charleston.
With President Biden to speak at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, here’s a look at how California’s San Pedro Bay emerged as America’s key port complex.
“We are pleased with this settlement as it creates a common understanding in close cooperation and coordination with the authority on the future handling of demurrage and detention charges in the U.S.,” Hapag-Lloyd said.
There is one reason behind this trade snarl. One. Can you guess? Bet you can’t unless you are an importer.
The French and Danish container lines CMA CGM and Maersk are reinvesting big profits in their air cargo fleets and service offerings.
There’s no wave of containers coming to rescue U.S. freight markets. Booking data shows that U.S. imports are cratering.
CMA CGM, the world’s third largest liner company, froze spot rates in September-January, yet its revenue per container kept rising.
It took longer than expected, but the IMO 2020 investment pitch — save on ship fuel by installing scrubbers — is paying off big time.
The number of container ships waiting off Los Angeles/Long Beach recently sank to 25, the lowest tally since July 2021.
The Federal Railroad Administration grant will be used to upgrade the intermodal rail yards at the Seagirt Marine Terminal.
While the Federal Maritime Commission’s Rebecca Dye found no evidence of collusion among the major ocean carriers, an investigation into the “numerous charges” they assess still could be launched.
Freightos, a backed by FedEx, is raising capital through a special purpose acquisition company and IPO.
Tankers are loading up on American crude, diesel and gasoline exports. Can the free market withstand political pressure?
Supply chain bottlenecks on the West Coast last year were evident in global port ranking data.
The port is undergoing a modernization initiative and aims to double container capacity as part of a broader effort to attract market share from Northeast and Midwest customers.
Safety stats show resilience despite aging ships, cut corners on maintenance and rising pressure on seafarers.
The Jacksonville harbor deepening project “demonstrates Florida’s unwavering commitment to strengthen and grow supply chains.”
East Coast gasoline inventories are alarmingly low. Gasoline imports from Europe could help but may not be enough to fill the gap.
It has been a terrible year for the stock market, a great one (so far) for product tanker and dry bulk shipping stocks.
Zim continues to outpace growth rates of rival container shipping lines, but investor demand fears are on the rise.
According to maritime expert John McCown, the U.S. ports with the strongest April performance were Charleston, South Carolina; Houston; and New York/New Jersey.
It was another record month for GPA, with container volumes up by over 6% year-over-year.
Container shipping spot rates are easing, at least temporarily, and far fewer ships are stuck waiting off U.S. ports.
FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller lays out the premise of Freedom Trade.
Ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd sees consumer demand and spot rates slipping, with market highs in the rearview mirror.
First came a pause in cargo bookings to Russia. Now, ocean carriers have halted almost all of their Russian port calls.
April volumes at the Port of Virginia in Norfolk were at the second highest in port history, right behind December 2021.
A 34% increase in retail imports is driving cargo volumes higher, SC Ports said.
Shares of ocean shipping companies have given back much of their 2022 gains after another big sell-off.
China’s zero-COVID policy is a prescription for more inflation and supply chain “illness.”
‘Right now, we don’t see a huge buildup of volumes because of the closedown in Shanghai,’ reports Maersk CEO Soren Skou.
New container prices, new production, lease rates, lease durations and used container prices are all down.
Container-ship transits of the Panama Canal are up as liners favor the East Coast. LNG transits are down as U.S. gas heads to Europe.
Craig Fuller explains the impact of higher diesel prices on the U.S. economy and consumers.
“Higher shipping costs hit prices of imported goods at the dock within two months and quickly pass through to producer prices — many of whom rely on imported inputs to manufacture their goods,” IMF researchers wrote.
New reports from Maersk, Kuehne+Nagel and Drewry point to an ongoing boom for container shipping lines.
COVID lockdowns in major Chinese cities are bottling up freight shipments, but the full impact on global trade won’t be clear until this summer.
Retail stock pickers seem increasingly nervous about shipping. Shares of dry bulk, tanker, container and mixed-fleet owners all fell.
FreightWaves founder and CEO Craig Fuller writes about the impact of Chinese lockdowns on global supply chains and the U.S. trucking industry.
The Shanghai lockdown isn’t following the same supply chain script as the big Chinese disruptions of 2020 and 2021.
GTI Transport Solutions announced Thursday the acquisition of container transport provider Foxconn Logistics.
The trans-Pacific container trade is vastly different than pre-pandemic, with more ships, more competition, and a new leader: Maersk.
