Maersk has relaunched the IA11 service with a new rotation calling at Shanghai, Ningbo, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai from 1 July 2024 The IA11 will turn in 14 days and will deploy 2 ships - the 1,740 teu MAERSK VERACRUZ and 1,891 teu ERASMUS LEO. Maersk had operated the IA11 service previously with a southbound call at Kaohsiung which is dropped in the new rotation.
MSC will combine the Canada Express 1 and Canada Express 2 services into a new Med Canadian Service calling at Gioia Tauro, Naples, Livorno, Genoa, Valencia, Sines, Halifax, Montreal, Gioia Tauro from 4 July 2024. The Med Canadian Service will turn in 42 days and will deploy 6 ships of 2,500 to 4,500 teu starting with the 2,478 teu MSC PORTO III at Gioia Tauro on 4 July 2024. The new service will replace the Canada Express 1 and Canada Express 2 services that call respectively at Gioia Tauro
Zim has announced the launch of a new Zim Central China Xpress (ZX2) service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Los Angeles, Shanghai from 3 July 2024. The ZX2 will turn in 35 days and will deploy 5 ships of 4,200 teu starting with the 4,239 teu STAMATIS B at Shanghai on 3 July 2024. The service will offer a 13 day transit time between Ningbo and Los Angeles which is comparable to the fastest transpacific services operated by Matson and APL/CMA CGM. Zim has already operated 2 extra loaders on the ZX
MSC will upgrade its existing Bengal service that connects Singapore, Chittagong, Singapore to an extended China-Bangladesh-Southeast Asia service that will call at Qingdao, Ningbo, Shanghai, Chittagong, Singapore, Tanjung Pelepas, Qingdao. The upgraded Bengal service will turn in 35 days using 5 ships of 1,500-2,000 teu starting with the newly delivered 1,800 teu MSC CHAEWON at Qingdao on 8 July 2024. MSC Bengal service with extended rotation to China
Panstar will launch a new Korea Japan Hanshin Kehin (KJHK) service calling at Busan, Kobe, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Busan from 30 June 2024. The Panstar Container Liner Service will turn in 7 days with the chartered 634 teu HONOR VOYAGER.
The container market remains red hot with short term charter rates breaching the $150,000 per day benchmark and spot freight rates rising above the $8,000/feu level, setting new highs not seen since the end of 2022. New services out of Asia continue at a rapid pace, led by the Mexico route with 6 new services launched since May, followed closely by 5 new services to the US West Coast and 3 new services to North Europe. There is clearly insufficient tonnage available to keep up with the rampant
SCFI spot freight rates to North Europe rose a further 3.8% last week, while rates to the Med were largely flat with a gain of just 0.1%. The tighter capacity and bottlenecks around Southeast Asia and North Europe ports have helped to narrow the rate gap between North Europe and Med which has shrunk to $500/teu compared to a peak of over $1,000/teu just 2 months earlier. Rates look set to continue to rise in July but the pace of the rate gains could slow as the recent capacity additions to Nort
EC freight futures traded to new highs across all contracts through April 2025, with the main August 2024 contract rising by 12% WoW to 5,399 points. The latest SCFIS as at 24 June increased by 1.6% to 4,766 with current futures prices implying a 13% upside for spot freight rates from Shanghai to North Europe between now until to the end of August. The bullish outlook looks set to persist in the coming week as rates remain firm with a further round of FAK rate increases due to be applied on 1 Ju
Global port congestion remains elevated with the situation at Southeast Asian hubs remaining chronic. Total vessel capacity waiting at anchorages globally reached 2.5m teu last week accounting for 8.4% of the global fleet. Southeast Asia hub ports continue to record the most serious congestion with the bottlenecks that first built up in Singapore in May spreading to Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas. The situation at Port Klang has escalated in the last 2 weeks, with berthing delays of up to 6 day
New containership deliveries has reached 1.62m TEU this year but there remains a shortage of ships globally with freight and charter rates continuing to surge ahead as the market enters the traditional summer peak season. The vessel diversions from the Red Sea to the Cape route has effectively removed more than 1.6m TEU from the market since the beginning of December while the recent increase in port congestion has taken out a further 0.5m TEU of vessel capacity from circulation as the active f