A wave of ULCV deliveries this year has pushed the total containership fleet capacity over the 23m teu mark, with the last million slots added in a breath–taking 14 months, according to an Alphaliner report.  However, the newbuilds, mostly consisting of ULCVs, have arrived at a time of softening demand growth across the major tradelanes of the world, which is already forcing carriers to blank a significant amount…

Scrubbers will be vital to ensure compliance to the International Maritime Organization’s low sulfur mandate despite facing skepticism from some quarters about their limitations, delegates said at an industry event this week. By January, 1, 2020, when the IMO 2020 rule is implemented, S&P Global Platts Analytics predicts around 2,400 scrubbers to be operational worldwide.…

Alliance partners Maersk and MSC are to “temporarily suspend” their AE2/Swan Asia-North Europe loop from the end of the month until mid-November, removing up to 20,000 teu a week from the trade. Weakening demand and plummeting freight rates have so far obliged Asia-North Europe carriers to blank two-thirds more sailings than during the same period…

MSC has revised the official capacity of its new ULCV, MSC Gulsun, by an additional 805 teu, to 23,765 teu, making it more than 2,000 teu larger than the biggest ships operated by its competitors. The liner said the new class of vessel had “been designed with a wide range of environmental, efficiency, stability and safety…

RZD have begun a new container service, with a new connection between China and Germany. Connecting Yantai and Duisburg, the service initially will operate on a limited schedule, but RZD chief executive Vyacheslav Valentik expects it to become regular by the start of Q4. “Our cooperation with Yantai station is developing rapidly – just a…

Carriers are cracking down on rogue shippers by threatening significant financial penalties for misdeclared shipments, following a series of vessel fires. Evergreen was first out of the gates announcing fines, ranging from $4,000 to $35,000, for misdeclarations (see below), with Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL following suit. Hapag-Lloyd, which suffered as misdeclared goods caused a high-profile fire…

Japanese carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE) has posted its first quarterly profit since the merger of the container businesses of K Line, MOL and NYK on 1 April last year. ONE recorded a net profit of $5m in the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ends 31 March 2020, and has upgraded its outlook…

Seventeen months after a devastating fire which resulted in the loss of 5 lives, Maersk is set to send the 15,282 teu boxship Maersk Honam back on active duty. The owner decided to reuse the stern section in a new ship, to be constructed at a South Korean shipyard. The damaged bow section and the…

Niche transatlantic carrier Independent Container Line (ICL) is to move its UK call from Liverpool to Southampton to improve schedule reliability. The US-headquartered, privately-owned shipping line has been serving Liverpool for the past 20 years, calling at the Mersey port along with Antwerp in a two-port North European hub strategy. However, ICL claims deteriorating weather…

Hapag-Lloyd and merged Japanese container carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE) are the latest box shipping lines to join the IBM/Maersk Line-led blockchain initiative TradeLens. The news means more than half the world’s container shipping capacity is part of the TradeLens project, following the addition of MSC and CMA CGM at the beginning of June. Of…