Demand for vessels remain strong ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays with charter rates continuing to firm up across all size sectors. COSCO has been particularly active in recent weeks, with renewals on existing charters while taking on additional fixtures including a few deals for delivery taking place only in the 2nd half of 2024. COSCO renewed 2 sets of 8,000 teu and 9,000 teu units from Seamax and Costamare respectively on firm rates for 2 years and have been linked to 2 more deals for 6
Total containership capacity deployed on Asia to Europe routes have surged to a record high of 6.44m teu, up 23.3% compared to the same time last year. The surge is due entirely to diversion from the Suez to the Cape route since December 2023, with over 700,000 teu of additional capacity added to the trade in the last 2 months alone. 55% of the additional capacity has been absorbed in the FE-Med trades where transit times have increased by 10 days to the West Med and 18 days to the East Med whil
Maersk will launch a new ME8 service calling at Doha, Dammam, Jubail, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Duqm, Tanger, Port Said, Barcelona, Tanger, Algeciras, Salalah, Jebel Ali, Doha using the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope. The first sailing will be made on 14 February 2024 with the 9,034 teu SAN CLEMENTE on the westbound voyage at Doha while the 4,253 teu CONSTATINOS P II will make the first eastbound voyage at Port Said on 17 February. The service will turn in 13 weeks on an extended rotation
The new Norcoast cabotage service in Brazil was launched on 6 February 2024 at Santos. The Norcoast service will connect Santos, Paranagua, Suape, Pecem, Manaus, Pecem, Suape, Santos using a total of 4 ships starting with the NC BRISA on 6 February, NC BRUMA on 13 February, NC BREDA from 20 February and the NC BRAVO from 27 February. The 4 ships were all former NileDutch ships of 3,508 teu built in 2014/2015 that were taken over by Hapag-Lloyd in 2021. These ships have been reflagged to the Braz
King Ocean Services have completed the acquisition of Seacor Island Lines on 1 February 2024. Seacor Island Lines was established as G&G Shipping in 1990 by the partners Mike Grandonico and Steve Ganoe. G&G launched a regular shipping service from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas in 1992 and grew it to provide freight services from South Florida to all ports in the Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos using landing crafts that could handle roro and container cargo. The company was acquired by SEACOR
Register Free Trial [https://www.linerlytica.com/register/?utm_source=W202406] Freight rates remain firm as the market entered the last week before the Lunar New Year holidays, led by transpacific rate hikes on 1 February that pushed rates to the US West Coast 267% higher than the same period last year. The Red Sea diversions have absorbed all of the excess capacity in the market, with the supply of vessel space and box equipment expected to remain tight in the next 2 months. Although the marke
Unifeeder has launched a second Latin America feeder service connecting Panama and Colombia with the 1,118 teu NOAH assigned to the new service from 3 February 2024. The Panama-Colombia feeder will call at Manzanillo, Turbo, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cartagena, Manzanillo on a weekly basis. The new service will complement the Hispaniola-Puerto Rico service that was launched in March 2023. The service connects Caucedo, Port au Prince, San Juan, Caucedo with the 1,100 teu CONTSHIP DON
Milaha has launched a new Upper Gulf Express (UGX) service connecting Sohar, Jebel Ali, Hamad, Dammam, Shuwaikh, Umm Qasr, Sohar from 20 January 2024. The service turns in 2 weeks and deploys the 1,015 OSHAIRIJ and AL RUMEILA.
Tailwind Shipping has launched 2 new feeder services dubbed as the Dolphin Express (DEX) and Dolphin Express 2 (DEX2) from the end of January 2024. DEX will call at Barcelona, Antwerp, Barcelona with the 804 teu SOLONG from 27 December 2024 and DEX2 will call at Barcelona, Moerdijk, Barcelona with the 1,118 teu WILHELMINE from 26 January 2024 together with the 917 teu FAITH (to be replaced by the 1,267 teu CONTSHIP JET on 11 February 2024). The 2 feeders will provide connections at Barcelona
Evergreen Marine Corp. (EMC), the Taiwan listed arm of the Evergreen Group, has acquired 100% of the shres of Italia Marittima on 31 January 2024 for €405 million. Italia Marittima's assets include 5 containerships with a total capacity of 22,728 teu comprising of 3 Evergreen U-class ships of 5,652 teu built in 2000-2001 (ITAL USODIMARE, ITAL UNICA, ITAL UNIVERSO) and 2 Evergreen B-type ships of 2,886 teu built in 2018 (ITAL BONNY and ITAL BONUS). The move marks the final move in the consolida