The main container ports in North Europe were eerily quiet at the weekend, due to the almost week-long blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given.
But now, an armada of late-running ULCVs is enroute from the Mediterranean, providing an intense challenge for vessel operators to turn ships around as quickly as possible and return them, as well as desperately needed empty equipment, back to Asia.
Source: The Loadstar
Ship congestion outside the biggest U.S. gateway for Asian imports remained elevated with the wait to offload containers lengthening to eight days, adding costs and complications for companies trying to stay well-stocked in an accelerating economy.
A total of 28 container ships were anchored awaiting entry into the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, as of Sunday, compared with 26 a week earlier though still below a peak of 40 in early February, according to officials who monitor marine traffic in San Pedro Bay. Another 16 are scheduled to arrive over the next three days, with seven of those expected to drop anchor and join the queue.
Source: AJOT, Bloomberg
Major airlines’ financial results for 2020 have revealed both how they viewed cargo, and how successfully they adapted to the new reality; some were far, far better than others.
A (non-exhaustive) list of major carriers which have reported results shows just two saw cargo revenues fall – in a year in which global rates were, on average, some 75% higher than in 2019, according to the latest data. (Although there were greater gains in some markets, such as China, and far lower rises in some other parts of the world.)
Source: The Loadstar
The World Trade Organization raised its projection for growth in global merchandise trade this year to 8% - the biggest increase since 2010 - while warning Covid-19 continues to pose the greatest threat to the outlook as new waves of infection could undermine any hoped-for recovery.
The rebound marks a significant bounce from 2020, when the pandemic saw global trade contract by 5.3%, less than the 9.2% decline estimated in October, the WTO said in a report released Wednesday in Geneva. Global trade may climb 4% in 2022, it said.
Source: AJOT
The union representing 1,125 dockers today (April 1) presented what was described as “a global offer” to the Maritime Employers Association to renew a collective agreement that expired on December 31, 2018. No details were immediately disclosed.
In a message released on Facebook, Martin Lapierre, president of CUPE 375, said the union’s negotiating committee tabled “a global offer to the Employer in the presence of mediators.”
Source: Maritime Magazine
MSC has reaffirmed its commitment to avoid considering the Northern Sea Route, including the Northeast and Northwest Passages on environmental grounds.
According to the carrier, an expansion of Arctic shipping could increase the emissions of so-called black carbon – physical particles of unburned carbon which can settle on land or ice, as well as compromising air quality and accelerating the shrinkage of Arctic sea ice.
Source: Container Management
The Panama Canal has improved global commerce, transportation, and connectivity for more than 100 years. Through its shortened route and strategic location, the Panama Canal continues to expand its partnerships across the world and innovate its services to uphold its commitment to creating, capturing and rendering value to its customers and Panama.
Since the opening of the Neopanamax Locks in 2016, the Panama Canal has come to serve 36 new maritime routes, connecting an additional 220 ports and 10 countries. Today, the waterway serves a total of 180 maritime routes that link 1,920 ports across 170 countries. Through this expanded number of routes, new terminals have become points of origin or destination for cargo that transits the Canal, such as the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals of Cove Point and Cameron in the United States and Port of Point Fortin in Trinidad and Tobago.
Source: AJOT
The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) called for action to address critical challenges being faced by the air cargo industry during a media day presentation. The organisation has completed a yearlong transformation program which has created a forward-looking association well positioned to unite and represent all sectors of the supply chain, reflecting its broad membership composition.
“The industry has demonstrated over the last 12 months, how effective it can be when all the supply chain partners unite around a common objective, supporting the global community through the Covid pandemic. Our industry came together initially by transporting PPE and other life essentials and then mobilised to provide the only effective transport mode to support global vaccine distribution,” stated Glyn Hughes, director general, TIACA.
Source: The Stat Trade Times
Ocean carriers enjoyed their best quarter in container shipping history in the final three months of 2020, but are expected to have significantly topped that record in the first quarter of this year.
According to New York-based Blue Alpha Capital, fourth-quarter net earnings for the 11 carriers that report their financials came in at $5.8bn, but assuming that the non-reporting operators, such as MSC, achieved similar results, based on the average for the 11 lines the consultancy estimated the cumulative net profit for the period was a staggering $9bn.
Source: The Loadstar
The Suez Canal Authority is contemplating the possibility of widening the southern section of the waterway, the agency's chairman told Reuters on Tuesday.
The canal is a critical maritime chokepoint, and last month's boxship grounding showed a unique vulnerability: the 400-meter-long Ever Given straddled the canal's entire width, halting all traffic for six days and stalling the movement of tens of billions of dollars' worth of goods. In an interview, SCA chairman Osama Rabie suggested that the authority might widen the waterway to a dimension equal to the length of its largest permitted vessels (400 meters).
Source: The Maritime Executive
