Category: China

Container shipping lines have announced significant rate hikes on all ex-Asia trade lanes, due to increased demand and increasing equipment challenges in more origins and it would be prudent to expect more of the same. Effective capacity to North Europe has decreased by 5% compared to a year a... Read more

The mass diversion of container ships away from the Red Sea since December has raised fears of congestion across west Mediterranean container ports, as carriers from Asia drop boxes destined for the eastern Mediterranean. Instead of entering the Mediterranean Sea dead end, created by the effec... Read more

The ongoing impact of vessel diversions as a result of the Red Sea conflict continues to absorb available capacity at a time when demand is rapidly increasing. Container volumes are already higher than many predicted and there is a possibility that we have already entered a peak season market env... Read more

The West says China makes too much, but many manufacturers have moved production to other countries to cut costs, leaving once prosperous manufacturing hubs like Dongguan struggling to adjust. In recent years workers began to demand higher wages, while companies began cutting prices in order t... Read more

After the longest period of attack-free shipping in the Red Sea since December, the situation in the region is escalating, with an increase in Houthi attacks, fears that the ‘danger area’ may be expanding into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean and an Iranian vessel hijack off the Gulf of Oman.... Read more

The last three months of 2023 were some of the worst for liner shipping’s finances in recent years, while early volume indications for this year suggest the coming months could bring stronger trading conditions for shipping lines, especially with the Red Sea diversions and capacity management t... Read more

Organised by the Journal of Commerce, TPM (Transpacific Maritime Conference) is the premier global shipping and supply chain conference, attracting senior executives from all areas of the industry. Held annually in the port city of Long Beach, California, TPM brings together shippers, carriers... Read more

New research by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has found that over half of importing manufacturers and retailers (53%) have been impacted by the disruption to shipping caused by the Red Sea crisis, with over half of exporters (55%) also experiencing increased costs and delays. The issu... Read more

If we were to try and define a single factor that defined transpacific container shipping (along with most other routes) in 2023, it would probably be shipper complacency brought about by the rebalancing and normalisation of supply chains, following the unprecedented disruption of the COVID years... Read more

The United States is voicing increasing concerns that Chinese manufacturing overcapacity will hit world markets, while the EU launched an anti-dumping investigation into China’s EV industry last year. Senior US Treasury officials told the Financial Times this week that a visiting US delega... Read more

Transpacific container shipping lines are imposing surcharges and higher freight rates due to the ongoing Suez and Panama Canal disruptions, with the cost burden felt most by small volume shippers, but the biggest cargo owners are also feeling the heat.  Since the major container shipping lin... Read more

On the 17th January 2024, the 33rd day of the Red Sea crisis, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announced that they were forming a new shipping alliance - The Gemini Cooperation - in a major shake-up to the container shipping market on the East-West trade lanes. Industry analysts have been predicting tha... Read more