Chinese express giant SF Holding is to acquire a 51.8% stake in Hong Kong’s Kerry Logistics Network – a landmark $2.3bn deal creating the “biggest logistics group in Asia”. In a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange late last night, SF Holding, which operates courier firm SF Express, said the move would...
Shippers face many more months of inflated freight rates, as ocean carriers show no sign of easing their strategy of keeping capacity tight and favouring high-paying spot cargo. In a customer Q&A session this morning, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said the carrier was still “flooded with bookings”. He said: “It will be...
Extra loaders deployed by transpacific carriers to meet booming import demand have overwhelmed the US gateways of Los Angeles and Long Beach. According to a survey by Alphaliner, the capacity of the 27 ships berthed and 41 at anchorage at the San Pedro Bay ports stood at a massive 579,100 teu on Monday. The consultant calculated that the 41 ships...
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...
Container shipping spot freight rates on the Asia-North Europe trade declined 2.7% this week – a further sign the recent exponential growth has levelled off. Today’s Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI) Shanghai-North Europe leg was $4,276 per teu, down $117 per teu from last week, as carriers began to release more equipment...
The European Commission has said it does not regard the huge container spot rate increases between Asia and Europe as sufficient justification to investigate carriers for an infringement of the Block Exemption Regulation (BER) for consortia. The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) and European freight forwarder association CLECAT had presented the EC with...
Container spot rates from Asia to North Europe are now 130% higher than at the start of the year, after a further spike this week. Today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) recorded a 13.5% increase in its North Europe spot rate, to $2,374 per teu – however, in practice, market rates are...
Some container vessels have been sailing from Asia to Europe under-utilised in recent weeks due to an acute shortage of empty boxes. A carrier source told The Loadstar: “We have had to sail light a few times recently as there are just not enough boxes at depots [in China] to meet the demand.” All...
“You need to spend time crawling alone through shadows to truly appreciate what it is to stand in the sun.” ― Shaun Hick It’s party time at Ceva Logistics! It was in the black in the third-quarter: $15m was the headline, adjusted number for the CMA CGM-owned 3PL’s bottom line ($8m unadjusted). And there is more good news,...
Container freight rates from Asia to Europe are going through the roof, mirroring the trend on the transpacific, with regulators seemingly unable to stop the relentless onslaught on shippers that threatens to sink business. European and US importers outside or in excess of contract are seeing their freight budgets destroyed by unprecedented...
