Independent specialist advisors Drewry and global forwarder network The WACO System have expanded their cooperation agreement to include exchanging and sharing market intelligence in the air cargo market.
Container shipping companies were urged to raise Asia-U.S. freight rates by at least $600 per 40-foot container (FEU) with effect from Aug. 1, their organization TSA said on Wednesday.
Maersk and MSC have reacted to China's objections to the proposed P3 alliance by coming up with a new vessel sharing arrangement called 2M that they hope will be agreed by all regulatory authorities before the beginning of next year. Out has gone CMA CGM, in order to bring the agreement's market share down to more acceptable levels, and in has come a much simpler joint coordination committee to monitor the carriers' network on a daily basis.
Drewry's 2Q14 Container Forecaster highlights that there is a widening gap between the positive financials of the few carriers really focused on cutting costs and the rest of the top 20 lines, as they battle with the pressure of falling freight rates.
A lack of certainty appears to be the case within the freight forwarding market as momentum fails to take hold. In the latest findings, the Stifel Logistics Confidence Index slipped 2.7 points to 55.2. While still above the important 50-level, too many questions remain unanswered – will a strike be averted at the U.S. West Coast ports, what will happen within the sea freight market now that P3 alliance has collapsed? Is economic growth really slowing?
Bamboo is now being utilized in container floors as the rail and intermodal industry continues its drive to improve the environmental and economic efficiency of its operations. A report by the Container Owner's Association has found that the production volume of containers fitted with floors using materials other than the traditional tropical hardwood plywood has gradually risen over the past two years.
Import volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 3.5 percent in May as negotiators prepare to begin talks on a new contract for West Coast dockworkers, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.
For the first time since 2001, Moody's has assigned a rating of "stable" to the global ocean cargo industry, but notes that the condition of world shipping remains delicate and a "negative" rating could return.
Moving perishable commodities like fruits, flowers and fresh seafood to the far corners of the world once was feasible only by air, making the price of these products prohibitive for most consumers. Thanks to a new generation of refrigerated ocean containers, however, perishable goods increasingly are being shipped by more efficient water transport. This shift is opening up new markets to producers and providing a growing, global middle class with affordable access to the fresh foods they want to buy.
