Ocean freight is set to play a bigger role in south-east Asia’s booming cross-border e-commerce market. According to regional e-commerce logistics specialist J&T Express, the Covid-crisis has accelerated online spending across the region, with the market on track to reach $153bn in sales by 2025. This was the prediction before the pandemic hit...
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,...
Container freight and charter markets are continuing to boom post-Chinese New Year, and analysts expect favourable conditions for carriers and shipowners to last at least into the second half. “Unseasonal strength in container volumes and port congestion have buoyed freight markets, while in the time-charter markets, demand for vessels has outstripped wider...
Ocean carriers are determined to keep container spot rates at their highly elevated levels for as long as possible, as they look to lock in annual contract customers with rate increases of 100% or more. And with no sign of a spot rate decline following the beginning of Chinese New Year last...
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...
It didn’t take long for privately-owned Dachser, a German 3PL with about €5.5bn of annual revenues, to change direction in 2021 after recent changes in its executive team. “With [Bernhard] Simon gone [operationally], the man who didn’t need advice from anybody, Dachser readies for a new adventure,” one source said. Simon is...
A new superport is set to be created in north-west Europe after the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge announced today that they will formally merge. Talks between the municipal authorities of Antwerp and Bruges began in 2018 and unification will put the superport within touching distance of nearby rival, Europe’s largest container hub, Rotterdam. Last year, the two ports handled 13.8m (Antwerp, 12m teu, and...
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...
High levels of congestion at major container gateways have led to declining direct port calls by mainline Asia-North Europe vessels, and increased the likelihood that the UK could become a feeder market. Over the past few months, the ranks of deepsea vessels omitting direct calls and unloading UK-bound cargo at north-west continental Europe gateways have swelled,...
