Container rates across main and secondary tradelanes are exploding, with no hope of any easing of the pain for ocean freight shippers in the coming weeks, or possibly even months. Today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) comprehensive index value has doubled since May, with several tradelane components recording gains in spot rates...
As Atlas Air prepares to announce (presumably strong) third-quarter results tomorrow, the increasingly bitter battle with its pilots continues – out of the view of the keen eyes of investors. Negotiations appear to have gone from worse, to even worse and worse still. At The Loadstar’s request, both parties have explained their differences – but...
Shippers around the world face huge supply chain challenges from port congestion and an acute shortage of containers. And one carrier source The Loadstar spoke to today said the problems “will get worse”. “There are so many pinch points building now and they will only get worse before the holiday season and may...
Shippers from Asia to the UK container hub port of Felixstowe are being quoted rates of over $5,000 per 40ft, which is five times higher than the current spot rate for North Europe. A forwarding source told The Loadstar today that some carriers were refusing to accept bookings to Felixstowe “at any...
With the benefit of hindsight, ocean carriers would not have been anywhere near as bullish with their scrubber strategies, it was claimed this week. Japanese ocean carrier ONE has just 5% of its fleet fitted with the exhaust gas cleaning systems, compared with HMM’s 80%, Evergreen’s 57% and MSC’s 43%. Alphaliner said the...
The dearth of air freight capacity has led to an increasing number of offers for freighters that either do not exist, or are parked in the desert not ready to fly. Charter brokers claim scams became prevalent during the PPE rush, as governments and inexperienced bookers urgently sought capacity. “Regretfully, it’s becoming more...
Container shipping spot rates on the main deepsea east-west trades this week maintained the historic highs seen in recent weeks. Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index demonstrates that carriers continue to hold the upper hand as the annual round of contract negotiations on the Asia-Europe trades looms. The SCFI’s Shanghai-North Europe route ticked up...
Atlas Air, Kalitta Air, Western Global and Amerijet have been asked to return $631m in coronavirus funding, paid via the US Payroll Support Programme. Congressman James Clyburn, chairman of the select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, wrote to each chief executive asking them to demonstrate that the funds were needed to keep...
Major forwarders may abandon Maersk over concerns that the line’s new “integrated” business and “aggressive” strategy creates conflict of interests, and that it wants to cut forwarders from its business. DB Schenker confirmed to The Loadstar that it had lost key account status with the shipping line, but said it had already switched...
Today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) shows a further 10.65-point gain in its comprehensive index to 1,448.87 – 71% higher than at the end of May. The huge increase over the past five months, in the midst of the pandemic, has been driven by substantial gains in container spot rates across both...
