Category: Sea

With rail workers striking tomorrow and Saturday nationally and the Felixstowe Port strike starting on Sunday, for potentially eight days, UK supply chain operations and infrastructure are facing the biggest industrial action challenge in decades. Two of the UK’... Read more

Europe’s heatwave forced the closure of the Rhine to barge traffic from last Friday as water levels fell 4cm below the depth necessary for operations, raising fears for container shipping and industrial disruption. The Rhine, the second-largest river in central and western Europe, runs 760 m... Read more

As we enter the traditional peak season for sea freight, demand for space from China is falling and the lines are taking action to counter over-capacity in the North Europe and Mediterranean trades, while transPacific demand in stasis. As Hapag-Lloyd published its Q2 2022 results, the impact o... Read more

Capacity from Asia to the West Coast will be 20% higher through September, than last year, but inland supply chain disruption is continuing and threatens to wipe out any benefit from the increased capacity. Carriers serving the US West Coast will have 20% more peak-season capacity from Asia, c... Read more

With around 80% of global trade transported by sea and three major shipping alliances controlling 95% of the critical trade lanes from Asia to North America and Europe, a handful of shipping lines have massive influence over the cost and effectiveness of international trade. The three major sh... Read more

Increasing COVID case numbers in China are cutting cross-border trucking capacity, prompting carriers to drop calls at Hong Kong, raising fears that the city is losing shipping line favour as a transhipment hub. With almost one million people in lockdown in Wuhan, where COVID was first detecte... Read more

The vote in favour of strike action in August, in a dispute over pay, would bring Felixstowe to a standstill and cause major disruption to port operations and road haulage transport of containers to and from terminals. The Unite Union’s 1900 members at the port voted overwhelmingly in favour... Read more

The operational efficiency of shipping lines are reaching dizzying levels, with the leading carriers generating an average operating margin of 57.4%, versus an average of just -0.2% in the decade preceding the pandemic. All carriers reported higher margins in the latest quarter, compared to 55... Read more

With individual district lockdowns and mass testing again underway, the trade press have been reporting that Shanghai could go back into lockdown, which would be a major disruption as we enter the traditional peak season. It’s been just six weeks since Shanghai emerged from its two-month zer... Read more

Despite the UK’s recent rail strikes having little impact on container movements, the global increase in workplace militancy will inevitably start to disrupt supply chain operations, adding to port congestion. In the same week that the RMT union ran its first week of strikes, road, rail and ... Read more

With the Asia/Europe trade typically mirroring trans-pacific trends within weeks, we are watching how much US importers are pulling back on orders from Asia, and the degree to which container lines will adjust capacity, if demand suggests a slack US peak season, or alternatively a hectic and cong... Read more

The re-opening of Shanghai after its extended COVID lockdown has not triggered the surge of sea freight that had been feared, but while volumes softened as a consequence, many UK and North European ports are still struggling with congestion. High yard densities at container terminals and inlan... Read more