Shippers' NewsWire : Transport-Ocean

Nearly half of all global containership capacity is engaged on services that are currently slow steaming, the maritime consultant Dynamar said Friday in its weekly Dynaliners newsletter. The newsletter said slow steaming has helped carriers integrate more than 2.2 million TEUs of new capacity this year, with 450,000 TEUs of that added capacity -- brought online through new vessel deliveri...

The International Maritime Bureau has urged Indonesia to increase patrols in the South China Sea after nine attacks on vessels in less than three weeks, an Associated Press report said. Twenty-six attacks have been reported in 2010. “Pirates armed with guns and machetes had robbed tankers and bulk carriers of cash and other valuables in the attacks off the Indonesian islands of Mangkai, A...

A fuel tanker carrying nearly 60,000 barrels of diesel fuel has run aground in the Northwest Passage. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed the ship Nanny ran aground Wednesday in Simpson Strait, about 50 kilometers southwest of Gjoa Haven, a hamlet on King William Island in western Nunavut. Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada, s...

An NYK car carrier recently rescued 18 sailors adrift in a lifeboat in the South China Sea off Malaysia, the Japanese carrier said Friday. NYK’s Goliath Leader was sailing from Laem Chabang, Thailand, to Singapore at around 8 a.m. (local time) on Aug. 27, when the vessel came across sailors in a lifeboat in the northeast sea off the Malay Peninsula. Rescue operations were immediately set ...

CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping group, said it had net profit of $864 million in the first six months of 2010 compared to a loss of $518 million in the first half of 2009. The French carrier, reporting results in U.S. dollars, said revenue for the first half of the year was $6.8 billion, up 41 percent from the $4.8 billion over the first half of 2009. Freight volumes...

Mediterranean Shipping Co. said it will implement general rate increases in the transatlantic on Oct. 1. MSC said the rate for cargo moving from the United States, Mexico or Canada to Northwest Europe, including the United Kingdom, will increase $200 for 20-foot containers and $300 for 40-foot containers. For cargo moving to Scandinavia or the Baltic, the increase will be $300 for 20-foot...

Member lines of the Canada Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said Wednesday they are lowering the bunker surcharge they assess on shipments from Asia by 5 percent beginning Oct. 1. The lines last increased the surcharge in April. For East Coast ports, the fuel recovery charge will be $551 per 20-foot container, $689 per 40-foot container, $775 per 40-foot high-cube, and $872 per 45...

Maersk is introducing an intra-Europe service it calls Eurolev that will connect North Europe ports with ports in the Mediterranean. Via hubs at Algeciras and Port Said, the new service will combine containers moving within Europe with feeder volumes from around the world. The service will use five 2,500-TEU ships with high reefer capacity operated by Maersk. The rotation is Breme...

Several Mediterranean Shipping Co. services will switch terminals in Port Elizabeth and Port Newark, N.J., this week. On Tuesday, MSC's Golden Gate service to Asia returned to the Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT) from Maher Terminal in Port Elizabeth. Meanwhile, MSC's USA 1 and 2 services are shifting from PNCT to Maher, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. ...

Maersk said its MCC Intra-Asia 6 (IA-6) Service will extend port coverage to include the port of Hakata, Japan. The extended IA-6 service retains its 28-day round trip with a rotation of Singapore, Danang, Haiphong, Hong Kong, Yantian, Xiamen, Osaka, Kobe, Hakata, Busan, Keelung, Hong Kong, Haiphong, Tanjung Pelepas and Singapore. The first vessel on the revised IA-6 service will be t...

Maersk said its weekly Scanmed service, which connects North European and Mediterranean ports, will begin calling the port of Gemlik in Turkey. The first call is scheduled for October 7 with the vessel EM Athens. Additional information is available here. ...

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky has forwarded a wide-ranging set of recommendations for revising the Shipping Act of 1984 to the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. Lidinsky Included in the recommendations to committee Chairman Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, R-Md., are six proposals: • Bring container and chassis lessors within the ambit of...

Two separate analyst reports issued in the last week suggest the financial sector is conflicted on what it expects from the top Asian container shipping lines in the coming months. On Friday Citi’s Asia Pacific shipping analyst group advised investors to sell shares of every line it analyzes, including Evergreen Line, OOIL (parent of OOCL), Yang Ming, Wan Hai, NOL (parent of APL), China C...

Member lines of the Canada Transpacific Stabilization Agreement said last week they will raise their currency adjustment surcharge to 6 percent beginning Oct. 1. The surcharge will drop to 5 percent in September, after being at 6 percent since May. CTSA member lines are APL, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, “K” Line, NYK Line, OOCL, Yang Ming and...

Ocean carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. said last week it will raise rates from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong to all Australian ports beginning Sept. 15. The rate increase is $250 per TEU. ...