Hapag-Lloyd will launch a new Portugal Tangier Express (PTX) service connecting Tangier, Lisbon, Vigo, Leixoes, Tangier from 17 March 2025 with the 1,440 teu GFS SAPPHIRE on a weekly rotation that will provide connections between Iberian ports as well as transshipment options at Tangier to Hapag-Lloyd’s global network.
MSC will suspend one of the 5 Asia to North America West Coast services that it planned to launch in 2025, reducing its Transpacific coverage to only 4 sailings per week. The withdrawal of the Mustang service that was to connect Xiamen, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Busan, Xiamen would remove about 12,000 teu weekly from the FE-WCNA route and would release 7 ships that MSC said would be redeployed to other trades. The Mustang service had been operated in its pr
X-Press Feeders have relaunched its Intra Adriatic X-Press (IAX) service with a revised rotation calling at Trieste, Ancona, Ravenna, Trieste. The new IAX will turn in 7 days using the 698 teu SUNAID X at Ancona on 12 March 2025 (after the initial call at Trieste on 9 March 2025 was omitted).
SeaLead will launch a new Far East-India Express 3 (FIX3) service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Nhava Sheva, Shanghai. The FIX3 will turn in 6 weeks and will deploy up to 6 ships of 2,500-4,600 teu starting with the 4,628 teu ZHONG GU YIN CHUAN at Shanghai on 7 March 2025.
The EC contracts gapped down at the open but recovered throughout the day, with longer-dated contracts even closing in positive territory as traders believed MSC Lion's capacity reduction signaled discipline from the liners. However, Lion's capacity adjustment had already been reflected in the sailing schedule ten days prior, and our latest Deployment Watch (based on 22 Feb schedule data) suggests weekly capacity in March would still amount to 288k per week with smaller ships for the Lion servic
Wild swing for the main EC contract, EC2504, this morning going from being 3.8% up in first 30m minutes at market open to down 3.8% before recovering by lunch break. Overnight, CMA CGM dropped its online quotation to below $3,000 per FEU for all March shipments. Maersk released $2300 per FEU after lunch break that put the EC2504 decidedly in the negative territory for the day.
Congestion edged up slightly in the past week, with European port congestion remaining very severe. All North Europe main ports have reported very high yard utilization, which has been exacerbated by labour disputes in Rotterdam and Le Havre. Vessel waiting times remained elevated at up to 5 days with congestion most serious in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Southampton and Hamburg which are affecting mother vessel and feeder schedules. Some terminals have applied emergency measures to cease cargo acceptan
The USTR has proposed punitive levies for ships calling at US ports on Chinese shipping companies as well as other companies operating Chinese built ships of up to $1.5m per vessel call at US ports, with an additional charge of up to $1m per call for companies with ships on order at Chinese shipyards. The proposed trade action would hit COSCO especially hard, while Taiwanese and Korean carriers would benefit from the move as only a small proportion of their fleet are Chinese built, allowing for
EC freight futures fell sharply on early week trading due to carriers’ aggressive price cuts and the SCFIS’ 11.2% drop published after market close will fuel further price weakness in the coming week. Capacity cuts in early February has translated to a sharp drop in the number of ships departing the Strait of Singapore last week to just 97,950 teu, against the 13-week average of 286,000 teu but will rebound over the coming weeks with March capacity at 288,000 teu. EC prices declined by 3-9% wee
The planned Asia-Europe general rate increase in March is falling flat with rampant rate cutting jeopardizing plans to raise rates to $4,000/feu. Maersk was again singled out for its aggressive price cuts, with rate offers below $3,000/feu being offered through the end of March. Despite its much touted 90% reliability target for the new Gemini Cooperation network, Maersk has evidently failed to convince its customers to pay a premium and had to resort to price cuts to fill its ships. Forward c