A new survey by VesselsValue has found a “significant increase” in the average speed of containerships.
The maritime valuation and market intelligence service said average laden containership speeds had increased by 5.5% since last June to 14.76 knots, and by 8.5% in the larger sectors.
Report author Olivia Watkins said there was a direct correlation between increased speeds and charter hire rates, which, for 8,500 teu ships, had increased by 350% during the same period, as fuel had become a much lower percentage of operating costs.
Source: The Loadstar
The European Union and India agreed to resume long-stalled talks on a free trade deal in an effort to strengthen their economic cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The deal was struck at a virtual summit between EU leaders and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday and aims to reboot relations and boost cooperation across key fields including digitalization, health and climate change.
Source: AJOT, Bloomberg
The Suez Canal Authority’s (SCA) claim against Japanese shipowner Shoei Kisen Kaisha over the grounding of the Ever Given, and subsequent six-day blockage of the waterway, has been reduced by some 30%.
SCA chairman Osama Rabie told Egyptian television channel MBC Masr the SCA had reduced its claim against the shipowner to $600m, from $916m.
Source: The Loadstar
Retail imports set a new record this spring contributing to the continuing surge in volumes at the primary U.S. container ports. Driven by continuing consumer demand for goods, the volumes are on track to exceed the records achieved in 2020 despite the pandemic according to new forecasts from the National Retail Federation.
The retail trade association reported that container import volumes at the major U.S. container ports were the highest monthly total since the NRF began tracking imports in 2002. While the year-over-year comparison for March 2021 was artificially high due to the pandemic beginning to impact volumes a year ago, the NRF’s Global Port Tracker reports that in March this year 2.27 million TEUs came into the U.S. ports it tracks, a three percent increase over the previous highest month, which was October 2020.
Source: The Maritime Executive
Some of the reasons for the recent price spike in air cargo rates tie into increasing signs of geographical lane imbalance in market demand and capacity availability, according to analysis based on data from the Baltic Air Freight Index (BAI).
“That imbalance is manifesting via pricing and has significant implications for global supply chains as the market continues to recover from the pandemic. Shippers, 3PLs, and other stakeholders may struggle to right-size their transportation networks in the wake, in our view,” noted Bruce Chan, vice president and senior research analyst, Global Logistics and Future Mobility, at US-based investment bank and financial services company, Stifel.
Source: Llyod´s Loading List
Contract rates in container shipping are soaring to record levels. The contract rates published on the China Containerised Freight Index (CCFI) last Friday hit 2,074 points. Putting this in context, the combined index peaked at 2,072 points on February 19 following Chinese New Year. The CCFI is defined as being equal to index 1,000 at the beginning of 1998. The previous record was set in May 2012 at an index level of 1,335. Aside from that, the CCFI has only been above index 1,250 at one other time: in the first week of October 2004.
Since the new record of 2,072 was set in February, the CCFI slowly declined to 1,853 on April 16 whereafter the ripples from Suez Canal blockage started having an impact.
Source: Splash 24/7
Emirates SkyCargo has marked its one-year anniversary of carrying PPE and other vital cargo in the cabins of its Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft.
A year ago, to bridge the capacity shortfall and enable the transportation of cargo urgently needed in the global fight against the pandemic, Emirates SkyCargo began carrying cargo on the passenger seats and inside the overhead bins in the cabins of its Boeing 777-300ERs.
Source: AirCargo News
Hundreds of thousands of seafarers risk being stuck at sea beyond the expiry of their contracts because of India’s surging coronavirus outbreak, according to one of the world’s largest independent crude ship owners.
The situation suggests that a maritime labor crisis sparked by the pandemic is continuing into 2021, as a growing number of major ports around the world restrict entry to Indian crew members, which constitute about 15% of the world’s total.
Source: AJOT
The Bangladeshi government is to double the number of off-dock depots in Chittagong to handle growing numbers of export and import containers and reduce the pressure on the port yard.
The existing 19 inland container depots are not sufficient for current volumes and are restricting future trade growth and a recent meeting between the port authority, government bodies and port users ended in a decision to set up more depots as quickly as possible.
Source: The Loadstar
As global trade booms, the container shipping industry is introducing another new vessel service at the Port of Oakland. The Port said today that Taiwan-based Wan Hai Lines launched its weekly AA5 Service here last month. The route links three ports in China and one in Taiwan with the Ports of Oakland and Seattle.
Wan Hai’s move marks the second new service at the Port of Oakland in the past three months. French carrier CMA CGM introduced a weekly service in February that includes an Oakland first call. That means CMA ships make Oakland their first stop in the U.S.
Source: AJOT
