Category: Sea

EU carbon tax on shipping is additional cost to IMO2023

Ships emit around one billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, or 3% of global emissions and despite IMO 2023 aiming to reduce carbon emissions from international shipping by 40% by 2030 and 70% by 2050, the EU is including maritime emissions in its emissions trading scheme (ETS). The EU... Read more

Asia blanked sailings, rolled cargo and detours

Shipping lines have cancelled almost 30% of pre and post Chinese New Year sailings from Asia, with THE Alliance cutting 36% to Europe and diverting backhaul sailings around the Cape of Good Hope, which adds two weeks transit time to China.  In a normal year, the weeks building up to China... Read more

Complaints by shippers to FMC soar

The US Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA), which was passed into law last June, gives the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) more power to deal with shipping lines and mitigate supply chain disruption, leading to a slew of claims and jealous European shippers.  In just six months the Federal... Read more

Chinese carmakers look to container shipping for a reliable logistics solution

The global shortage of RoRo (roll on – roll off if you have ever wondered) capacity for finished vehicle shipments has intensified over the last two quarters, encouraging an increasing number of car manufacturers to look for control of vessel assets, while many others look to containe... Read more

Beating the transatlantic logistics challenge

The ocean freight trade-lane between Europe and the United States is dominated by a handful of large carriers and while we have good relationships and work closely with those carriers, we also maintain a roster of smaller carriers, for tactical use, including one which has a particular pedigree. ... Read more

December 2022; Freight market summary review

As freight prices on every mode return to relative stability and the worst effects of inflation work though, the market is expected to rebalance, achieve ‘correction’ and ultimately recover with slow growth in 2023. The spiking freight rates on all modes are falling away and... Read more

Carrier IMO 2023 fears may be misplaced

In just over two weeks, IMO 2023 will require containers ships to comply with new environmental efficiency and carbon intensity regulations, which older ships will have difficulty complying with and may prompt early scrapping, removing vast swathes of capacity from the market. According t... Read more

Metro lead the way with ocean freight electronic bill of lading

Just weeks after the Electronic Trade Documents Bill was presented before Parliament, Metro has commenced its first trial shipment with an electronic bill of lading (eBL), on Hapag Lloyd, which was a first for the German carrier too. Following large-scale frauds and disruption to global trade ... Read more

RoRo shipping the new sea freight carrier ‘golden goose’

Roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) ships are designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, trucks, buses, railroad cars, excavators and industrial vehicles and in this niche sector freight rates are increasing, with some routes fully booked four months out, which means if you have a wheeled cargo to move, ... Read more

The EU’s Emissions Trading System will add another surcharge

The decarbonisation of global shipping is currently the subject of regulatory intervention: at the international level, with the International Maritime Organisation’s ( IMO’s) 2023 rules, designed to further reduce emissions from vessels; and at the regional level, with the EU’s Emissions T... Read more

Metro witness the launch of environmental first – reducing vehicle carbon emissions before they have ever been driven

Operating a fleet of 17 pure car and truck carriers, United European Car Carriers (UECC) is the leading RoRo provider of short sea services for cars and other rolling cargo. Leading customer, Metro, was invited to Zeeburgge, to witness the naming of the world’s 1st hybrid pure car and truck car... Read more

Schedule reliability and port congestion in decline

The latest, market leading source, Sea-Intelligence schedule reliability figures show a slight decline of 0.7% in September to 45.5%, which is the first fall since reliability began to trend upwards in April and follows the year’s largest reliability increase of 5.8% in August. The average d... Read more