THE Alliance carriers (Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, ONE and Yang Ming) has announced the postponement of the Asia-US East Coast 4 (EC4/Suez1) service relaunch that was originally scheduled from 15 April 2024 after a 6 month suspension. The EC4/Suez1 was to deploy up to 13 ships of 13,000-14,000 teu with a new rotation calling at Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Yantian, Cai Mep, Singapore, Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston, New York, Singapore, Kaohsiung with the former call at Hong Kong omitted and divert from the Suez to
The Taiwanese liners and OOIL have reported their top line results for 1Q 2024 between 10 April and 12 April (last week), being the first batch of operating updates from container liners for the period. The revenue for 1Q 2024 rebounded between 11% and 34% QoQ as expected but the rebound tracked below the CCFI’s 51% jump QoQ. Nevertheless, the top line rebound should move the liners’ EBIT margin to mid teen in 1Q. YMM being the liners with higher long haul spot exposure has delivered the higher
ONE has replaced its Florida Latin Express (FLX) service with a new FLX service through slots on CMA CGM/COSCO's Americas XL/North America East Coast-West Coast South America (NEWS) service. The 4 ships of 1,100 to 1,700 teu that ONE had formerly operated on the FLX has all been redeployed and have been replaced by the revised FLX service from 1 February 2024, with ONE purchasing 600 teu per week from CMA CGM on the Americas XL. The Americas XL/NEWS is currently operated by CMA CGM and COSCO u
HMM will take slots on the new ONE/Wan Hai AP1/AA3 transpacific service that will start on 8 May 2024. HMM will have a weekly slot allocation of 250 teu from ONE on the service that it will be marketed by both carriers as the AP1. The AP1/AA3 service will turn in 7 weeks with 7 ships of 7,000 to 13,400 teu, of which 5 ships will be operated by Wan Hai and 2 ships from ONE, and will call at Haiphong, Cai Mep, Shekou, Xiamen, Taipei, Ningbo, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Oakland, Shekou, Haiphong. The
Newly formed Saudi based Folk Maritime has launched the Port Sudan Service (PSS) connecting Jeddah, Port Sudan, Jeddah with the 698 teu SUNSET X from 5 April 2024. The service turns in 4-5 days with Maersk and CMA CGM taking slots to provide regular connections between Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The new PSS as well the North Red Sea (NRS) service operated in cooperation with CMA CGM are the first 2 services launched by Folk Maritime. Folk Maritime was established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 26 Fe
Global port congestion has dropped to 1.4m teu with the situation across Asia’s main port normalising after the previous week’s spike. The port of Baltimore remains shut while vessel traffic with US Army Corp of Engineers expected to reopen passage for smaller ships by the end of April with access to larger ships still yet to be determined. US East Coast ports are mostly free of congestion, with only minor delays observed in Savannah and Houston. There were no significant congestion at Norfolk
The easter holidays and Ching Ming holidays has not dampened charterer interest, with charter rates are still rising over the past week. Open interest for prompt deliveries remain high especially for the larger sizes where availability is limited. Hede Shipping completed the charter of the 4 ships it needed for the newly launched Hede Direct Service connecting Shanghai and Los Angeles – the 3,426 BFAD ATLANTIC ($22,000 for 12 months), 1,809 teu ANDROKLIS ($15,750 for 6 months), 4,298 teu REN JI
Capacity competition between carriers remain very keen, as shown by Zim’s growth since 2020. New vessel deliveries at more than 1 ship delivered daily since March will continue with over 300,000 teu scheduled to be delivered each month in April through June. Zim has received the ZIM MOUNT VINSON on 3 April, the last unit in the series of 10 ships of 15,248 teu built by Samsung H.I. for Seaspan. These 10 ships have been chartered by Zim for 12 years and brings its total capacity operated to 714,
The Containerized Freight Index Futures (CoFIF) traded on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) is the second attempt by China to build its container freight futures market. Unlike its predecessor, called the Container Freight Derivatives (CFD) that was launched in June 2011 by the Shanghai Shipping Freight Exchange Co., Ltd. (SSEFC) and only available to domestic on-shore traders, CoFIF is accessible to off-shore traders outside of China. Initial CFD trading saw high daily turnover
The longer dated CoFIF contracts rallied last week with traders building long positions after several carriers pushed for another Asia-Europe FAK rate hike in mid-April. Despite continued liquidation, prices for EC2404 contracts that will expire in 2 weeks were unchanged at 2,120 and remains slightly lower than the SCFIS rate at 2,174 last week (before settling slightly lower at 2,172 based on the latest assessment on 8 April). The latest CoFIF rates implies April-August rates that are equivale