Maritime

NASDAQ-listed Eagle Bulk believes its ‘owner-operator’ model allows it earn more than ‘pure owner’ competitors.

Public ship owners like Navios Partners saw rates fall due to cuts in Brazilian iron-ore exports.

Tokyo, Japan-based ocean carrier, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha http://kline.com/ (TYO:9107) has recorded a fall in revenues of Japanese Yen of 325,293 million down to JPY 836,731 million (US$7.5 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. Several board members have been removed.

The expanded Neopanamax locks of the Panama Canal, which debuted in June 2016, have been a boon for many shipping sectors, but they were specifically designed with container shipping in mind. Lock capacity is measured in twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU).

FreightWaves adds air temperature information as well as new fleet count data.

An overview of blank sailing and how it can affect your shipments.

Keelung, Taiwan-headquartered ocean container carrier Yang Ming has announced that it signed charter agreements on April 10 for four box ships of 11,000 TEU with ship-owning specialist Shoei Kisen Kaisa of Imabari City, Japan.

First ocean-faring vessel to port following-record breaking year brings 18,920 metric tons of unrefined sugar.

Cosco Shipping Logistics, JD Logistics and Orient Overseas International Ltd. (OOIL) indirect subsidiary “Gold Talent” have inked a complex joint venture deal to fund online international supply chain platform Eshipping with, ultimately, US$44.7 million of capital.

Washington insiders say maritime cyber attacks in the U.S. and around the world lack attention and funding.

Panelists discussed current market data and how the TCA educates its members to operationalize data in their businesses.

Bumble Bee Foods is now using the SAP cloud platform blockchain service to trace the journey of yellowfin tuna from the Indonesian ocean to the consumers’ dinner table.

Down, down, down – freight rates are down, nearly across the board, on export and import routes to and from China, according to indices published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) has released solid results for 2018. The port and terminal operator, which is headquartered in Manila, Philippines, had an up-up-up 2018 compared to 2017. ICTSI’s box volumes were higher, revenues increased and the group generated higher profit.

MatchBack Systems provides an innovative approach to manage shipping container costs and improve efficiency optimization through the use of matchbacks.

CargoX and dexFreight, the two blockchain logistics companies will collaborate in offering digital bill of lading solutions and cost-effective logistics operations.

Tesla’s V3 Supercharging station discharges 250 kW; Italy’s olive-oil industry is facing an agrarian crisis; Americans are abandoning public transit; French port of Marseille-Fos has joined a blockchain pilot program.

Marseille, France-based maritime container shipping giant CMA CGM generated record revenues of over USD$23 billion but suffered a huge 91 percent slump in profitability after the group experienced several massive cost increases.

CHRW fills out geographical white space and adds density to its Transatlantic forwarding business after turning the corner on the Milgram & Co. integration.

Australian miner Rio Tinto generated over US$12 billion (all figures in U.S. dollars) from its bauxite, alumina and aluminum production in 2018. It predicts about 67 million tonnes production of bauxite, alumina and aluminum this year. These minor bulk commodities are significant seaborne cargoes.

Market volumes have increased significantly over the past several days, bringing national levels to those similar to early March of 2018 when the market was thought to be more active. The data tells us one aggregate value cannot tell the whole story.

Online freight booking systems can streamline the process for booking air and ocean freight, solving several significant challenges along the way.

Widespread jitters in the Australian political and business communities that China may have banned imports of Australian coal now appear to be unfounded. Customs clearance delays at Dalian are happening owing to entirely “normal” reasons and coal cargo can be re-routed around a given port anyway, coal mining and coal transport executives have explained to FreightWaves.

The overall market remains relatively stable as volume dip below 2018 levels in two major markets. Spring is around the corner. Will freight volumes return with it?

Flinders Ports, South Australia, had a mixed bag of containerised cargo throughput results in 2018 compared to 2017, new data analysis shows. Overall containerised throughput – which includes imports, exports, empties and boxes in various configurations – was essentially flat.

DP World (NASDAQ Dubai: DPW) announced that it will repurchase P&O Ferries from Dubai World according to a DP World press release. The acquisition will be worth BGP (British pound sterling) 322 million or $421 million. (All values will be converted to U.S. dollars.)

Containerized import volumes increased 9 percent last month over January 2018 totals.

The Houston-based startup is run by executives with decades of experience in global logistics, and plans to tackle the oil and gas vertical first.

The Schulte Group has acquired a majority stake in TecHullClean Ltd. (THC). Schulte said in a  press release that the acquisition will expand the range of its underwater ship inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) solutions.

Container shipping line Maersk will move 16 containers on river Ganges (National Waterway-1) from Varanasi to Kolkata in India on February 12, marking the entry of commercial shipping players in India’s nascent inland water transport network.

Shippabo has created its own version of a fixed-rate contract, which helps small and mid-sized shippers gain access to direct-to-carrier contracts, allowing them to cut their shipping costs and secure reliable capacity.

New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland has been conditionally granted funds to buy hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of a wider project to build a hydrogen fuel production plant. That second project, in turn, is part of a bigger project to transform New Zealand into an electricity-powered economy.

The sun is setting on the Australian shipping register as ship operators abandon the local coastal trading regime. Ship operators are fleeing the flag following the 2012 reforms.

$2 billion in capex over the next ten years will nearly double Savannah’s container traffic to 8 million TEUs annually.

Infestations of the brown marmorated stink bug found on ships en-route to Australia are causing havoc with local supply chains. Bugs are breeding, ships are re-routing, trucks are idling and supply chains are collapsing.

Storing real-time data from aircraft and sea vessels on the cloud has been subject to a lot of debate, as the data that gets transmitted could be hacked in by people with nefarious motives. Blockchain could be a respite.

Freight lobbyists are banking on leadership changes in the 116th Congress to pave the way for infrastructure financing that stalled during the first half of Trump’s administration.

Maritime startup Neoline is working along with the Renault Group to develop transatlantic vessels that use sails as the primary propulsion system and travel at the speed of 11 knots – a move that could reduce fuel consumption by atleast 80%.

An Eaton clutch defect leads to a recall of International truck models and other OEMs may have to follow suit, plus Amazon Air takes off and intermodal growth being driven by inland ports.

After unveiling its full-scale passenger hyperloop capsule in October, HyperloopTT is at the thick of things again, now partnering with Hamburg port terminal operator HHLA for a possible cargo hyperloop route.

Dry bulk carriers outperformed the S&P 500 by a significant margin today, with Star Bulk Carriers, the largest publicly traded fleet in the segment, gaining 5.1% on the day.

DHL’s advent into warehouse automation; India struggles with air pollution as coal consumption increases; WTI rates in danger of falling further.

The conference attracted over 2,000 industry players and largely revolved around the topics of Asian connectivity, the impact of trade tariffs, and technologies that are revolutionizing the logistics industry.

“We went through a period when growth of shipping was 2-3 times the growth in international economy. I don’t think those times are coming back.”

The FreightWaves Research Institute is excited to announce the release of its second white paper, Global Freight Tickers, a worldwide study of publicly traded transportation and logistics companies

Capacity constraints, strong demand, and chaotic tariff-related traffic pushed transpacific containers rates to new heights, but the current inbound container surge, unrelated to consumer demand, will create a steeper drop off in Q1 2019.

Supply chain software company E2open is in the process of acquiring the world’s largest neutral maritime network INTTRA, in its bid to expand its services to the ocean container industry.

West Coast ports post strongest volumes ever; Norfolk Southern is moving to Atlanta; flatbed tender rejections stay down; expect electric trucks in 2020; pregnant XPO Logistics warehouse workers suffer miscarriages; E2open buys Inttra; Iraq produces more oil but can’t rebuild.

SONAR’s signature index has a birthday; Ocean Network Express to lose $600M; oilfield service companies guide for tight margins in Q3; President Trump bails on coal industry incentives; pros and cons of blockchain in container shipping; spending 60,000 hours reverse-engineering a Tesla Model 3.

Four new inbound truck lanes recently opened at Virginia International Gateway, increasing the capacity at the terminal’s gate complex by 30 percent.

Hurricane Michael is forecast to make landfall as a strengthening Category 4; Sears may go bankrupt; retailers struggle to fill the hole left by Toys R Us; Cowen is bullish on Canadian Pacific; Seoul continues ploughing money into HMM to cover operations.

Loadsmart, a logistics technology company that uses data analytics to provide instant quotes and capacity, has raised its Series A financing led by Maersk Growth.

FreightWaves spoke to IMSA CEO Corey Ranslem about the first install, the ARMS platform’s official launch at the end of October, and entering the cargo ship markets in 2019.

Stifel’s John Larkin captivated the audience with a wide-ranging presentation on transportation and logistics across modes during Tuesday’s lunch at the McLeod User Conference 2018.

We take a look at the U.S. maritime industry in our latest infographic.

A quick round-up of what you need to know about maritime today, but didn’t have time to learn about, yet.

$200B of tariffs imposed on Chinese imports today; the 4PL era is here; China cancels further trade talks; Germany’s maritime fleet shrinks by 1/3; air cargo not yet feeling tariff pain; oil rallies.

We conducted a survey in partnership with CarrierLists to find out information on three particular U.S. ports: Long Beach, Savannah, and Miami. This infographic highlights the data we found.

The ports of LA and Long Beach witness a fall in imports due to upcoming tariffs; Hurricane Florence is now a Cat 2 storm; California passes bill that would make its electricity carbon-free by 2045.

xChange is helping container lines reduce their dead miles, by providing them with one-way container moves or SOCs from 2500 locations across the world.

There’s mounting pushback among developing nations that China’s ambitious infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative, is a debt trap. Countries using Chinese financing have seen public debt soar to unsustainable levels, and they’re increasingly worried about asset seizures.

SONAR’s new index shows the cost difference for Asian exporters moving goods into East Coast or West Coast ports. When combined with trucking spot prices, the Panama spread helps explain recent shifts in trade flows.

Transpacific container rates continue to gain momentum; UPS files blockchain patent applications; Uber is uncertain about self-driving cars; Elon Musk doubles-down on ‘no sleep’; cautious optimism for US-China trade talks lifts equities markets; container lines expect profits in the back half of 2018.

In Bangladesh, the shipbreaking industry is booming business – but at the cost of the lives of workers, who work in dangerous environments with minimal safety precautions. Local NGOs are championing the workers’ cause and are hoping to enforce existing UN regulations to the maximum extent possible.

State-backed Asian container lines have plans to rapidly expand their capacity; meanwhile Maersk cuts its guidance for 2018 by nearly a billion dollars in EBITDA.

Hapag-Lloyd believes that data standardization would help various stakeholders to collaborate together and improve the supply chain efficiency in the maritime industry.

According to CB Insights, “the maritime shipping industry accounts for 90% of global trade and is only now beginning to leverage technology. This shift could have far-reaching impact on retailers, consumer goods companies, manufacturers, and more.” With this important industry in mind, CB Insights hosted a July 24 webinar to “explore how shipping companies and global ports are utilizing automation and blockchain technology to revolutionize the shipping industry,” taking a look at various aspects of the supply chain along the way.

Container line alliances are cutting capacity on their transpacific services in anticipation of a major slowdown in the US-China trade relationship due to tariffs. We see downside risk for Union Pacific and BNSF intermodal volumes, as well as JB Hunt.

The agreement will cover around 25% of the global economy, and, according to Bloomberg, by some measures the largest free trade area in the world.

New icebreaking LNG carriers are sailing directly from Russia to China through the Northern Sea Route, creating a faster, cheaper connection between some of the world’s largest gas fields and the world’s largest gas consumers.

The Jones Act has proved itself costly and irrelevant to the U.S. for long enough. Unfortunately, it will take more than an “act of God” to change the law. It will take an act of Congress.

China wants to consolidate the Asia-North America container trade and drive supply chain efficiencies by operating a container terminal in Long Beach, but national security concerns may scuttle the COSCO-OOCL merger.

For the first half of the year thus far, coal exports are up nearly 24% over the same period last year.

Dale Huang, the CTO of COSCO Network e-Logistics spoke about the importance of blockchain in the logistics and shipping world and how he expects the technology to gain centerstage in the near future.

Hyundai Merchant Marine wants to grow its fleet to 1M TEU capacity and vault itself into the ranks of the very largest maritime carriers. The South Korean government is financing HMM’s expansion after letting Hanjin collapse in 2016/7.

Canadian Pacific conductors and engineers walk off; Brazilian truckers continue their highway shutdown; CMA CGM and Zim blame losses on fuel prices; Savannah hits record TEU volumes in April; Goldman Sachs says the oil rally isn’t over yet.

Maersk grew its revenues by acquiring Hamburg Süd and selling off Maersk Oil, but reported negative earnings on increased fuel prices and low spot rates.

This is a wake-up call. Make a plan and manage your security now.

LNG carrier charter rates have posted the strongest recovery since the 2015-6 crash in maritime shipping, and 9.7% YOY growth in capacity hasn’t been enough to keep up with demand.

The CEO of Maersk says that in 3-5 years, Maersk will be competing with UPS and FedEx, and recognized as one of their peers. But what’s the strategy?

Xeneta is a freight rate benchmarking platform focusing on ocean freight. It aggregates rate data from various companies into a platform and provides market average rates, lows and highs to its customers.

The Baltic Exchange is changing one of their signature indices, the Baltic Dry Index, which averages shipping rates for raw materials like coal, ores, and grains. Baltic is hoping to make the BDI a more attractive benchmark for futures investors.

ZIM, MTI, and Maersk have all announced trials of blockchain-based solutions for shipping, from bills-of-lading to cybersecurity protections. 

CMA CMG and MSC have entered orders for a total of 20 record-breaking 22,000 TEU ships, reflecting a long-term trend toward consolidation in larger vessels and growing confidence in maritime shipping rates.

Blockchain is digital ledger that can improve global trade security, stop illegal smuggling, and more importantly, reduce transit times currently bogged down by bureaucracy.

Rolls-Royce envisions a future of autonomous cargo and naval vessels controlled from futuristic shore facilities. Click through to watch their sci-fi style film about how a Finnish shore control center responds to losing contact with one of its ships.

Heightened tensions in the South China Sea over territorial disputes threaten $5T in shipping and $1.2T in US-only imports and exports.

Cargo and passenger vessels on the high seas face a multitude of threats and risks that affect decision-making, from delays at canals to illegal migrant traffic, major weather events, and even disease outbreaks. A new emergency notification system is hoping to reduce those dangers.

Few people get to experience what the journey of a global container goes through and what its like being on a ship as it makes the trip. With over 90% of global cargo moving via ship, its an important part of our world economy. See what you are missing.