Emirates Shipping Line (ESL) will return to the Transpacific trade from July 2025 in a partnership with UWL on the Sun Chief Express service. ESL first entered the Transpacific trade in 2006 when it partnered Zim, SCI and MacAndrews on the India-USEC Indus Express (IDX) and with Zim on the Asia-US Gulf Express (AGX). ESL shut down the IDX in December 2007 and withdrew from the AGX in May 2008 thus ending its participation on the US routes after less than 2 years in the trade. The new ESL trans
Russian operator E-Line Shipping has filed for bankruptcy in St Petersburg on 6 June 2025 with total debt of over $2m and customer claims of over 71m rubles. The company was established in February 2023 in Moscow to provide shipping services between China, South Korea and Russia. It launched a Korea Vladivostok Express (KVE) service in March 2023 using 3 ships of 700-1,700 teu and extended its network with a China-St Petersburg service in 2024. 2 of its chartered ships were detained by owners f
SeaLead will launch a new PNW transpacific service connecting Shekou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Seattle, Vancouver, Shekou in July 2025. The PNW service will turn in 6 weeks and will initially deploy 3 ships of 2,200 to 3,400 teu on irregular schedules. The service is scheduled to start from 4 July 2025 with the 2,274 teu CICCIO at Shekou, with the second sailing due on 27 July with the 3,398 teu ALE. The schedules are subject to changes as the rapid decline in transpacific freight rates could derail S
Sidra Lines have launched a new Havana Med Service (HMS) connecting Iskenderun, Mersin, Alexandria, Benghazi, Misurata, Valencia, Mariel, Veracruz, Iskenderun from 20 June 2025 using up to 3 ships of 500 to 1,100 teu on irregular port rotations. The first sailing departed from Alexandria on 20 June 2025 with the 523 teu SIDRA HALIMA, to be followed by the 1,130 teu SENATOR at Iskenderun on 27 June 2025.
Register Free Trial The SCFI rolled back all of the gains of the past 3 weeks as Transpacific rates collapsed under the weight of excess capacity. Freight rates to the US West Coast have recorded their largest weekly losses in the last 2 weeks as their failure to retain any of their 1 June rate hikes have also put the peak season surcharge for contract customers at risk. The early end to the transpacific peak season have not yet dragged down rates on the secondary routes that remain supported b
CMA CGM has upgraded the capacity of the ships deployed on its Asia-Med Phoenician Express (BEX2) service from the 8,500-11,500 teu scale to larger ships of 13,100-15,500 teu. The 13,136 teu CMA CGM COBALT was the first of the upsized ships to join the service on 26 March 2025, and has been followed by the larger 15,536 teu CMA CGM OSIRIS on 2 May 2025. The BEX2 service is the largest service on the Suez Canal, and the use of the larger ships will allow CMA CGM to enjoy the 15% discount on tran
Akkon's Turkey India (TIN) service has been extended to include calls at Karachi in a revised Turkey India Pakistan (TIP) service that calls at Ambarli, Aliaga, Iskenderun, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Karachi, Izmit, Gemlik, Ambarli. The TIP service turns in 35 days and deploys 2 to 3 ships of 1,700-2,000 teu on an irregular schedule.
RCL has launched a new RCL Calcutta Service 9 (RCH9) connecting Chu Lai, Port Klang (WP), Kolkata, Kattupalli, Chu Lai from 16 May 2025. The service turns in 25-28 days and deploys various ships of 800 teu to 1,000 teu on irregular schedules starting with the 1,018 teu CHANA BHUM at Chu Lai on 16 May 2025.
MSC has launched a new West Med to West Africa service connecting Genoa, Valencia, Las Palmas, Dakar, Tema, Lome, Abidjan, Dakar, Genoa from 17 June 2025. The service turns in 6 weeks using 6 ships of 1,700 to 2,800 teu starting with the 1,730 teu MSC PANAYA at Genoa on 17 June 2025.
Benchmark contract EC2508 dropped 7%, with the bulk of the decline coming in the afternoon session. Open interest rose by 4,279 lots, pointing to heightened conviction among short sellers. This sharp fall stands in stark contrast to recent moves by shipping lines, which have lifted near-term freight rates for the first time in weeks. MSC, for example, reversed course overnight, increasing its quotation from $2,640 to $3,240 per FEU. The only bearish signal overnight was a drop in vessel utilisa