Declining ship fuel prices equate to savings for containerized cargo shippers and lower costs for tanker and bulker owners.
Spot shipping rates continue their historic slide, putting even more pressure on container lines’ contract business.
Even if no oil moves under price caps, Russian exports could face deep discounts and continue to flow via “shadow tankers.”
Hopes that China will relax its zero-COVID policy are fading, raising concerns about shipping volume fallout.
Southern California’s container-ship logjam ends as congestion eases at East and Gulf Coast ports.
Ocean carriers have been shielded by lucrative annual contracts with cargo shippers, but contract coverage is starting to crumble.
Stratospheric LNG shipping rates offer a lesson on the do’s and don’ts of measuring earnings momentum.
Global energy trades face even more tumult ahead. “This could get crazy,” says Scorpio Tankers’ Robert Bugbee.
Earnings for Zim, the world’s 10th largest ocean carrier, peaked in the first quarter and continue to slide as rates fall.
The head of Los Angeles’ port is on a worldwide sales blitz, trying to convince shippers and carriers to come back.
Drop in imports from China in recent months comes on the heels of years of gains by exporters in the rest of Asia.
Container shipping fundamentals are not as bad as spot rates imply, says the head of the world’s fifth-largest ocean carrier.
Imports remain 7% higher than pre-pandemic levels, with volumes steadying last month after September’s plunge.
Some VLGCs carrying propane and VLCCs carrying crude have joined LNG carriers in shipping’s six-figures-per-day club.
Europe must replace all seaborne crude imports from Russia within the next few weeks. Crude tanker owners stand to gain.
Maersk’s guidance implies fourth-quarter earnings will plunge 39% compared to the third-quarter peak.
Product-tanker share prices are up triple digits year to date as investors position for sanctions upside.
The world’s seventh-largest ocean carrier expects profits to fall, yet its projections remain vastly higher than pre-COVID levels.
Spot rate indexes look like they’re stabilizing — at least temporarily — after double-digit plunges in August and September.
The “shadow fleet” is not large enough to save Russian oil exports from Western sanctions, according to multiple analysts.
Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd, gives his take on the “bullwhip effect,” rates and global trade.
Shipping lines face a minefield of surging capacity and sinking demand, but there is a path to safety, claims one industry expert.
Southern California ports are being hit by double-digit import drops as the COVID-19 cargo boom winds down.
As container shipping stocks get battered by collapsing rates, tanker shares could be poised for a long bull run.
Supply chain planners will walk a precarious path in 2023, according to S&P Global transportation expert Paul Bingham.
New disclosures by Asian ocean carriers confirm that container shipping lines remain extraordinarily profitable.
Demand for Asian goods began dropping earlier this year. This is now having a delayed — and highly negative — effect on U.S. imports.
With war raging and pipelines sabotaged, shippers are paying astronomical sums to transport LNG across the oceans.
Measures of supply chain bottlenecks, cargo transit times, bookings and spot rates are all down, yet inflation remains historically high.
Supply-demand dynamics that supercharged pandemic-era rates are now “exactly the opposite,” says Maersk CEO Soren Skou.
The EU is going to ban imports of Russian crude and petroleum products. It still has a long way to go to find replacement supplies.
The G-7 plan to squeeze Russia’s oil profits hinges on the EU revising its own sanctions. Those revisions face opposition.
East and Gulf coast ports handled more volume than ever before in August, pulling far ahead of West Coast rivals.
Container lines are pulling back fast from the ship-leasing market, signaling less confidence in future freight income.
Container shipping rates — particularly from Asia to the U.S. — are still falling hard and show no sign of finding a floor.
U.S. containerized imports are still near record highs, but not in Los Angeles, where they’ve fallen sharply.
“Right now, shipping companies around the world are looking at this and scratching their heads,” says sanctions expert Bruce Paulsen.
Tanker stocks are proving to be a shelter from the Wall Street storm as demand grows for ships that transport oil and natural gas.
Spot container rates for U.S.-bound cargoes are falling fast, yet import numbers at U.S. ports remain near their peak.
Shipping volumes are weakening in and out of China. Is this a temporary pullback or a sign of more serious trouble ahead?
Container and dry bulk shares soared last year, leaving tanker stocks behind. This pattern has now reversed.
If the U.S. curbed gasoline and diesel exports, tankers would sail longer distances to replace lost volumes — a plus for tanker earnings.
California’s container-ship traffic jam is almost gone, replaced by stubbornly high backlogs off the East and Gulf coasts.
Just two supertankers have been ordered in the past 14 months, raising the risk of a future shortfall in oil transport capacity.
The Russia-Ukraine war caused demand for LNG to surge. Owners of LNG carriers are in prime position to profit this winter.
The cost of marine fuels is down sharply from the wartime peak, except for ‘clean’ LNG, which is getting even more expensive.
Spot rates on most global shipping routes continue to fall. The trans-Atlantic market is the exception: It’s holding firm near its high.
U.S. imports accelerated in July, with inbound cargo from China reaching a year-to-date high, according to Descartes.
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.
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.
Hapag-Lloyd bookings point to a gradual unwind of the container shipping boom, not a crash.
Tankers stocks are doing great. Dry bulk and container stocks temporarily stopped the bleeding. “Maxim stocks” still underperform.
Port congestion and voyage cancellations by shipping lines are preventing a steeper slide in spot container freight rates.
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.
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.
Shipping lines are still racking up extraordinary profits. Hapag-Lloyd forecasts continued strength in the second half.
Fallout from the Ukraine-Russia war and concerns over power supply in Europe and Asia support demand for seaborne coal.
Last year was historically strong for some maritime businesses, terrible for others. No matter what the sector, maritime CEOs made millions.
Exhaust gas scrubbers are allowing tankers, bulkers and container ships to keep burning dirtier — and much cheaper — marine fuel.
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.
Peak season imports are expected to remain strong but rail delays require ‘immediate’ attention, says Port of LA’s Gene Seroka.
From crude tankers to product carriers to dry cargo ships, the largest vessels are earning less than their smaller counterparts.
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.
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?
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?
The drowning of over 15,000 sheep off Sudan is just the latest in a very long line of black marks for livestock shipping.
Retail sales are still up double digits compared to pre-COVID. Inventory-to-sales ratios have yet to fully recover.
America’s peak cargo importing season will start early this year, by the end of this month, says the Port of Los Angeles boss.
Bulk commodity shipping stocks held up well before this month. Now they’re falling alongside container shipping stocks.
May was one of the busiest months in history for the container ports of Long Beach and Charleston.
EU sanctions on Russian petroleum exports could have much more serious repercussions than earlier U.S. moves.
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.
Tankers are loading up on American crude, diesel and gasoline exports. Can the free market withstand political pressure?
Without sanctions, tankers will keep loading Russian oil. ‘We’re not taking a moral high ground,’ says Frontline’s CEO.
Safety stats show resilience despite aging ships, cut corners on maintenance and rising pressure on seafarers.
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.
Container shipping spot rates are easing, at least temporarily, and far fewer ships are stuck waiting off U.S. ports.
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.
Shares of ocean shipping companies have given back much of their 2022 gains after another big sell-off.
The pain at the pump keeps getting worse. Bad news for consumers. Good news for owners of refined product tankers.
‘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.
New reports from Maersk, Kuehne+Nagel and Drewry point to an ongoing boom for container shipping lines.
