Cuba on Monday inaugurated a $957m port billed as the most modern in Latin America and crucial to the economic future of the communist-ruled island in a project financed by Brazil and equipped for ships passing through an expanded Panama Canal.
A bitter dispute between the Panama Canal and a Spanish-led consortium of construction companies over the spiraling cost of expanding one of the world's busiest waterways was years in the making.
The Stifel Logistics Confidence Index entered 2014 on a positive note. Despite a month-to-month 0.9 point decline in the overall Index reading to 56.6, the Logistics Confidence Index has remained above the 50-level for 12 months, meaning the market continues to exhibit a healthy confidence in air and sea freight forwarding. To get a better view of global air and ocean trade, Stifel has partnered with Transport Intelligence to create the Stifel Logistics Confidence Index (LCI), a monthly survey of international shippers and forwarders that measures freight activity across several European-based trade lanes.
Ocean container import and export activity for the U.S. ended on a strong note in 2013, with imports soaring 17.7 percent and exports rising 5.7 percent from November. Both upticks are seasonally expected, but the import volume was especially stronger than normal.
Import volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to grow 4.8 percent in January over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. Estimates show 2013 up 2.8 percent over 2012.
Egypt has invited 14 consortia to bid for a chance to say how they would develop the Suez Canal area, aiming to attract more ships and revenue to shore up the country's finances.
Gas supplies at the southern French hub of Marseille are running dangerously short on a dearth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries, cold weather and low stocks at the onset of winter, pushing prices there to among the highest in the world.
Canadian police have arrested a Toronto man suspected of seeking to give China classified information about Canadian shipbuilding procurement policies, security officials said on Sunday.
Tomini Shipping has revealed plans for further expansion following an order for nine new bulkers. Chairman Imtiaz Shaikh has said that the Dubai-based company has set itself a target of at least 20 new vessels over the next few years.
After four years in the doldrums, the specialized chemical tankers that ply the seas between the United States and Asia are set to generate bumper profits for the handful of companies that own and operate them.