With reports of dramatic increases in the backlog waiting to transit the Panama Canal, the authorities informed shipping companies of a change in the reservation system for at least the next two weeks. The Panama Canal Authority continues to encourage shipping companies to enter into the lottery system to gain reservations, advice it issued after it announced it would reduce…
Shipping lines have been in the red in the trans-Pacific trades for months. They may have just inched back into the black again, courtesy of the rise in spot rates over the past five weeks. Annual trans-Pacific contract rates reset to sharply lower levels in May. Even so, multiple ocean carrier execs insisted on conference calls that they did not…
Maersk, the world’s second-largest container shipping company, raised its full-year earnings outlook Friday while simultaneously lowering its forecast for the second half. The hike in full-year guidance was due to better-than-expected performance in the past — the second quarter — not greater optimism toward the future. Second-quarter upside was driven by lower-than-expected costs (in part due to slow steaming), not…
The days of picking and choosing from a range of bunker fuels at ports are disappearing as geopolitics cause oil flows to shift, meaning shippers must plan more carefully ahead to ensure they can buy the fuel they need, an official at TFG Marine said. Russia has been a key provider of 3.5% (high) sulfur fuel oil but following sanctions…
PUBLISHED AUG 4, 2023 3:15 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE Concordia Maritime has entered into a sale agreement for two more of its product tankers, essentially completing the sale of its entire fleet in the past 18 months as it sought to work down debt. The company has one remaining product tanker which is on long-term charter after having sold…
PUBLISHED AUG 3, 2023 5:21 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE Mitsui O.S.K. Lines working with its partners at Kyushu University and Taiyo Sangyo Co. is moving forward with the next phase of their Wind Hunter Project, a concept to create a zero-emission ship using wind power and producing hydrogen from seawater. The project will move forward on the development of…
China completed the float out of its first 700 TEU pure power containership. The vessel, which is being built for COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, is part of an effort to use electric-powered vessels throughout the Yangtze region. It is the first of two river containerships being built for the operation. The ship was floated at the shipyard in Yangzhou on…
Maersk continues to forge ahead with efforts to develop methanol as an alternative fuel to support the maritime industry’s transition. The shipping company is supporting the development of a large green methanol production facility in Central Louisiana while in Singapore they completed the port’s first-ever ship-to-ship methanol bunkering operation. With its maiden voyage underway, the first containership fueled by methanol…
AMSTERDAM, July 28 (Reuters) – The car carrier burning off the Dutch coast since Tuesday night is carrying nearly 500 electric vehicles, ship charter company “K” Line said on Friday, significantly more than the 25 initially reported by the coastguard. The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway, which was carrying new cars, resulted in the death of an Indian crew…
The world’s largest containership was named the “MSC MICHEL CAPPELLINI” in a ceremony held on July 17th. The event took place at the Stromkaje Terminal in BREMERHAVEN, where an additional Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed to enhance cooperation on the use of shore power for MSC ships at the port. China’s Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu constructed this impressive vessel for…