Shipping lines have begun suspending cargo bookings into Myanmar. A nationwide general strike took place yesterday, with hundreds of thousands on the streets protesting against the military power-grab on 1 February. “The situation is becoming more and more tense,” according to Hapag-Lloyd. “Operationally, the terminals in Myanmar are close to full capacity, and feeder services,...
The 13,092 teu Maersk Eindhoven (pictured) lost “several hundred containers overboard” as it suffered an engine blackout in bad weather yesterday, near Japan, en route from Xiamen, China to Los Angeles. This latest box spill in the north Pacific will add urgency to a review of lashing practices on ULCVs, and could lead to...
The 2M alliance has announced a further blank sailing this week from Asia to North Europe to use the vessel on another service. The last-minute cancellation of the sailing of the 19,224 teu MSC Erica from Shanghai on 21 February is surprising, given that the ship is due at the port at 4am on Sunday...
Shippers are resigned to the probability that container spot freight rates from Asia will remain at their current high levels for some time after Chinese New Year. Today’s beginning of the Chinese lunar new year would usually herald several weeks of downward pressure on freight rates, but so far there are no indications...
Global container service scheduled reliability has declined to its lowest levels since records began, according to new data from SeaIntelligence Consulting. The analyst’s latest schedule reliability data for December shows just 44.6% of vessels arriving on time, “which means that for the fifth consecutive month, global schedule reliability has been the lowest...
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...
Containership charter rates continue to soar against a backdrop of tight supply across most sectors. This is reflected in the latest idle tonnage report from Alphaliner showing 23 fewer ships (for 123,462 teu) in the idle fleet. This is now down to 140 vessels, for 520,831 teu, representing just 2.2% of the global...
Having succeeded in aggressively raising container spot rates during the pandemic, ocean carriers are now laying the foundations for a substantial uplift in annual contract rates. Shippers and carriers traditionally start negotiations for the Asia-Europe trade in October and November, and for Asia to the US in February and March. Maersk, for example,...
