CMA CGM will add a new Lekki Feeder service that connects Lekki and Cotonou with the 1,736 teu EM HYDRA that will be phased in at Lekki on 15 October 2023.
KMTC will add a new Korea-North China CNS2 service calling at Busan, Ulsan, Kwangyang, Lianyungang, Qingdao, Busan on 7-days round trip with the 1,009 teu SUNNY LILLY starting fom 18 October 2023 at Lianyungang. Namsung is taking slots on the service which it brands as the Busan Lianyungang Qingdao (BLQ). Namsung will add a Busan Shanghai Ningbo (BSN) service calling at Shanghai, Ningbo, Busan, Ulsan, Kwangyang, Shanghai on 7-days round trip with the 907 teu SHECAN from 18 October at Shanghai.
KMTC and Namsung will introduce a new service that connects Busan with the west coast of Japan and Hokkaido in October. The new service is called Japan Shuttle 1 (JPS1) by KMTC and Busan Japan Shuttle (BJS) by Namsung starting on 8 October 2023 at Busan with the 1,000 teu SUNNY VIOLET and 1,003 teu STAR VOYAGER to follow a week later. The service will run on 14-day rotation calling Busan, Hakata, Kanazawa, Kushiro, Tomakomai, Ishikari, Akita, Busan.
Tailwind Shipping Lines, the shipping subsidiary of German retailer Lidl, will revise its Panda Express (PAX) service between China and Europe with new calls at Colombo from October 2023 to cater for transhipment cargo from Bangladesh. The revamped service will deploy 5 ships of 4,900-5,700 teu on a fortnightly frequency connecting Qingdao, Ningbo, Da Chan Bay, Colombo, Koper, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Qingdao on a 70 day rotation. Tailwind will withdraw the direct connection between Chittagong and
One month in, the Container Freight Futures Index (CoFIF) were up 13-26% while the spot freight rates were down by 30%. For the trading interests in CoFIF, trading volumes has been down by 58% but open interests have been tripled, meaning less day-trading while more positions taken on longer term views. Last week, the prices of CoFIF continued to drip while suffered another big drop. However, the price for CoFIF is still surprisingly resilient, in our view, given uncertain economic outlook for
United Africa Feeder Line (UAFL) has launched a new Zanzibar Feeder service that connects Zanzibar with Mutsamudu in the Comoros. The 618 teu UAFL ATHENS has been deployed on the new service from 19 September 2023, which will connect at Mutsamudu to UAFL's MEX (Middle East Express) service for relay connections to Nhava Sheva, Karachi and Jebel Ali.
Liners have as much cash as the value of the vessels on their balance sheet, after the last 3 years of excess super normal earnings. As at the end of 2Q 2023, the 8 major liners that published their balance sheet data have $93bn cash against $106bn PP&E and RoU (Right-of-Use) assets owned and leased, which consists mainly of ships and containers. Cosco, Evergreen, HMM and Yang Ming has higher cash holdings than their PP&E and RoU asset values.
Maldives State Shipping (MSS) will introduce a new MSS Transshipment Service that will connect the main port of Male in the Maldives with ports in the southern part of the Maldives archipelago at Hithadoo and Kooddoo. The service will start from 27 October 2023 from Male with the MSS OPAL, a newly acquired geared 105 teu ship (ex CHOWGULE 7) that was acquired from Indian owners on 10 August 2023. The service will provide sailings every 10 days and connects at Male to MSS services that calls at
THE Alliance carriers (Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, ONE and Yang Ming) have announced the suspension of the PN3 transpacific service that connects Hong Kong, Yantian, Shanghai, Busan, Vancouver, Tacoma, Busan, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong from October 2023. The PN3 service deploys 7 ships of 8,500 to 11,700 teu with an average weekly capacity of 10,600 teu. The withdrawal will remove 3% of the current Far East-US West Coast capacity, with the last PN3 sailing departing from Hong Kong on 24 September 2023. THE Al
The Panama Canal transit restrictions have not stopped carriers from adding 20% of incremental capacity on the FE-USEC route since the end of August, with the average capacity deployed over the last 5 weeks reaching 246,000 teu, compared to 204,000 teu in the preceding 5 weeks. Capacity utilisation has slipped to 85% in the meantime, while the SCFI freight rates tumbled from over $3,100/feu to 2,550/feu with rates as low as $2,100 currently on offer. Although carriers have cancelled 40% of the