In a placid lagoon about a mile inland from the Atlantic coast in southeast Nicaragua, the mast of Cornelius Vanderbilt's dredge boat rises out of the water. The railroad tycoon abandoned it along with his dream of building an inter-oceanic canal in the 1850s. More than 160 years and several failed plans later, Wang Jing, a 40-year-old Chinese telecommunications billionaire, has emerged as the next mogul to give it a go.

Three of the biggest ocean carriers in the container trades have established an operational space-sharing alliance, known as the P3 Network, on major East-West routes.

Drewry Maritime Research's latest Container Census reports that the world's container fleet grew by 5.3 percent during 2012, adding 1.6 million TEU to reach 32.9 million TEU. This increase was smaller than for either of the preceding two years, but less erratic than 2011 or 2010.

Drewry's latest Dry Bulk Forecaster reports that coal has been the recent saviour of the dry bulk market. Global GDP grew by 3.2 percent in 2012, following growth of 5.2 percent and 4.0 percent in the post-recession years of 2010 and 2011. This slowdown blighted dry bulk cargo volumes and in turn tonnage demand. Global steel production, reflecting industrial and growth activity around the world, grew by only 1.3 percent in 2012, with a subsequent impact on iron ore and coking coal trade.