The gap between Asia-North Europe and Asia-Med rates have narrowed to the lowest levels since October last year, with Med rates under persistent pressure after dropping by 19% over the last 4 weeks. The SCFI assessment to the Med dropped by a further 4.4% last week while rates to North Europe were largely flat. Capacity utilization remains firm to North Europe but cracks are starting to show with spot rates creeping below $3,000 per feu, with further rate cuts expected in August as the summer p
271 new containerships for 2.6m TEU were ordered in the first 7 months of this year, not including undeclared options that would raise the final tally to over 300 ships as carriers’ appetite for new tonnage remains unabated. The wave of new orders is not about to end soon, with attention shifting to feeder sizes. The orderbook for ships of below 4,000 teu currently stands at just 6.8% of the current fleet, compared to 16.2% for ships of 4,000 to 10,000 teu, and 51.7% for ships of over 10,000 teu
Vuxx Shipping will launch a new China-Baltic service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Nanasha, Damietta, Kaliningrad, St Petersburg, Damietta, Shanghai from 2 August 2025. The service will turn in 12 weeks and will deploy up to 6 ships of 1,500 to 2,500 teu. Vuxx Shipping took over the Russia related shipping business of Reel Shipping in August 2024 and currently serves the China-Baltic route by transhipment at Damietta and Casablanca.
Register Free Trial Global container throughput growth has remained resilient in the first half of this year, with total volumes growing by 5.3% with all regions apart from Oceania recording positive growth in the first 6 months of the year. However the outlook for the second half is more gloomy, as cascading impact of US tariffs start to affect container volumes negatively. The US-EU trade deal is expected to hit Transatlantic westbound freight rates, with US imports expected to drop by more t
Inland World Logistics has launched its first self-operated container shipping service with the chartered 602 teu ALBERO on 18 July 2025. After an initial trip from Singapore with a load of 364 teu arriving at Kolkata on 31 July 2025, the ship will be phased into a Kolkata, Port Klang, Kolkata rotation that is operated by a new entity called Inland Voyage.
Hede Shipping has launched a new Huanghua Incheon Service (HIS) connecting Jingtang, Huanghua, Incheon, Jingtang from 19 July 2025 using the 610 teu SHAO YUN (ex BEI HAI). The HIS service will turn in 5 days on a rolling schedule.
MSC will launch a new standalone Eagle Service connecting Philadelphia, Savannah, Freeport, Balboa, Papeete, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tauranga, Balboa, Cristobal, Philadelphia from February 2026. The Eagle Service will turn in 77 days and will deploy 11 ships from MSC on a weekly frequency. The launch of the Eagle Service will challenge the longstanding Maersk Oceania Americas (OC1) service on which MSC currently takes slots as the Oceania Loop 2. MSC currently has a slot allocati
The freight futures market in China continued its volatile trajectory, driven by a broadly bearish consensus that has kept the forward curve in backwardation. However, intermittent speculative bets—fueled by hopes of further freight rate increases in August and expectations of a relatively mild slack season—have pushed futures prices higher at times. Following a couple of days of declines on Tuesday (22 July) and Wednesday (23 July), which were triggered by Maersk’s significantly low spot rate
Sea Legend Line, a wholly owned subsidiary of Worldwide Logistics Holding, has announced a China-Europe sailing using the Arctic / Northern Sea Route (NSR). The 4,890 teu ISTANBUL BRIDGE will make the maiden voyage from 20 Septmber 2025 calling at Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Gdansk. The ship is currently operated by Safetrans on the China-St Petersburg route via the Suez. The same ship, then named as FLYING FISH 1, had also performed a single eastbound Arctic/NSR
The 11,388 teu CMA CGM COLUMBA will make an eastbound Suez transit on 26 July 2025 on the Europe Pakistan India Consortium (EPIC) service that CMA CGM operates in cooperation with COSCO and OOCL. It is the second EPIC transit on the Suez and follows the 11,388 teu CMA CGM AQUILA that made an eastbound transit on 17 June 2025.