Category: Sea

COVID outbreak impacts Ningbo port

The suspension of trucking services in several parts of China’s Zhejiang province, followed a COVID outbreak just over a week ago and has slowed the movement of cargo through one of China’s biggest and most important ports, Ningbo. Strict controls were imposed on lorries moving goods to or... Read more

2021; a year of supply chain challenges

All around the world, companies have been impacted by supply chain challenges in 2021. With the pandemic’s disruption exacerbated by ‘Black Swan events', from Brexit, to the Suez Canal blockage, we have been working tirelessly to help our customers overcome these challenges and share critical... Read more

Freight market report – December 2021

With supply chains battling through overwhelmed transport systems, material shortages, and infrastructure disruptions for close on two years, we asked our partners in seven key markets to share their thoughts on critical operational elements, including demand, capacity and rates.  BANGLAD... Read more

First autonomous and emission-free container ship

Yara Birkeland, the world's first all-electric and emission-free container ship has completed its maiden voyage in Norway, travelling nine miles, from Porsgrunn to the port of Brevik, in the Oslo fjord. The fully electric and self-propelled 120 teu container ship will cut 1,000 tonnes of ... Read more

Maersk ‘blanking’ Felixstowe until March from/to Asia

Delays in receiving and turning vessels around, apparently due to continuing land-side operational disruptions, has prompted 2M partners Maersk and MSC to extend Felixstowe’s omission from the AE7/Condor loop until next March. The world's largest container shipping alliance, 2M, has announce... Read more

Port congestion eases, but challenges will continue to remain

Asia’s largest ports are showing signs that congestion is easing ahead of the Christmas holiday season, with Shanghai traffic declining 0.2%, Hong Kong ship count dropping 10.4% and Singapore dropping 14.7% according to an analysis by Bloomberg. While any easing of volume is welcome, Bloombe... Read more

Foldable containers may be cure. Just not yet…

The bulk of the world’s trade is shipped in intermodal shipping containers, which have remained largely unchanged since IMO standardisation 50 years ago, but innovation may be the key to reducing supply chain congestion. Is this a new era of global container shipping? Few tools of the global... Read more

Ocean freight carrier profits grow as global supply chain woes continue

CMA CGM has published their Q3 results and in line with the other major Asia/Europe and trans-Atlantic carriers, they have made an extremely high degree of profit, due to the continued demand for space, exacerbated by global disruption diminishing the amount of vessel space available. The CMA ... Read more

Asia-Europe congestions adding to transit delays and schedule confusion

Congestion at both ends of the critical Asia-North Europe (this still includes the UK) shipping trade is wrecking vessel schedules, with the average delay of container ships completing a round-trip loop rising by over two weeks, as carriers skip congested ports at both ends, and quite often in be... Read more

Ports invest for future

DP World has opened an 11.5 acre container park near Southampton, to increase storage capacity during the peak pre-Christmas season and work has begun on a fourth berth at London Gateway container port, to increase supply chain resilience and create more capacity for the world’s largest vessels... Read more

Contract negotiations signal carrier intent

Taking advantage of current market dynamics shipping lines are trying to move the biggest shippers - retailers and manufacturers - onto two-year terms for 2022, with some container carriers trying to negotiate even longer periods, of three or even four years. Contract rate spreads from base po... Read more

Skipped port calls add even more frustration and delays

With global supply chains continuing to struggle against pandemic-related congestion and disruption and traditional peak seasons being extended, or seemingly never ending, we are anticipating a pre-Chinese New Year rush in December/ January and would recommend planning supply chain... Read more