Category: Sea

Congestion levels at the major North America container gateways is expected to continue into the summer, as container imports from Asia grew a massive 31% year on year. With 1.57m teu arriving at US ports from Asia last month, the highest level on record, the container import boom shows no sig... Read more

If this was a typical year, we’d be approaching the start of the peak season for sea freight and the shipping lines would be preparing a round of general rate increases (GRI), but this year is anything but typical and even with demand soaring way beyond any typical peak period and freight rates... Read more

As Yantian announces further reductions in container gate-in times, to try and alleviate congestion, shipping lines are skipping calls at Chinese ports, with the mission to improve schedule reliability and equipment availability. The partial shutdown of Yantian International Containe... Read more

Restrictions have been announced after an ongoing coronavirus outbreak in the port area since last week, with areas suspended from operation for cleaning and disinfection, while high storage density has built up in the terminal. We have been informed by our colleagues in China today, 25th May,... Read more

Shippers from Asia to Europe continue to see increases in container spot rates, as cargo-rolling become ever more commonplace and carriers begin to cancel sailings in an effort to restore schedule reliability. Space on vessels from Asia is effectively ‘sold out’ for May and June, with a su... Read more

Container shipping rates from China to the US and Europe continue to rise, as reduced capacity, high consumer demand and equipment shortages across China and Southeast Asia escalate. While container freight rate increases on the transpacific trade from Asia h... Read more

Spot market shippers have seen continued rate spikes this week and the shipping lines are preparing for further rate elevation, as excess demand leads to cargo-rolling increases at many origin and transhipment ports. Shippers using the spot market for consignments from Asia to Euro... Read more

European container ports survive the post-blockage Suez surge, but container equipment is out of position and remains scarce. Europe’s container terminals have been struggling to handle increased import volumes since Q3 2020. Keeping recurring congestion at bay has been their biggest chal... Read more

Sixty five years ago saw the beginning of containerisation, with the inaugural voyage of the first container ship, the Sea Land Ideal X on the 26th April 1956. Today, despite its best efforts, the container shipping industry is swamped by the continuing deluge of pandemic and lockdown related ... Read more

Port operations at Montreal resumed on Sunday after legislation was passed by the Canadian Parliament to end the industrial action by longshoremen, however it will take several days, or probably weeks, to return operations to anything like a normal situation. About ten ships are currently en-r... Read more

Finding an empty container in Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian or any other major Chinese gateway port, is becoming a major problem, yet again, as Asian container availability is tightening, and purchase and rental costs are soaring, and equipment will become even scarcer as demand builds through May in... Read more

Our sea freight ops team continue to perform in a very challenging global ocean freight environment and with global supply chains likely to be under pressure for the rest of the year, they will continue to deliver the highest possible levels of service and performance available with all options b... Read more