Carriers are cracking down on rogue shippers by threatening significant financial penalties for misdeclared shipments, following a series of vessel fires. Evergreen was first out of the gates announcing fines, ranging from $4,000 to $35,000, for misdeclarations (see below), with Hapag-Lloyd and OOCL following suit. Hapag-Lloyd, which suffered as misdeclared goods caused a high-profile fire…
August 7, 2019 /
Questions continue to be raised over the announcement that the UK government intends to establish a series of freeports across the country after Brexit. Trade secretary Liz Truss called on airports and ports to bid for the scheme, saying: “Freedoms transformed London’s Docklands in the 1980s, and Freeports will do the same for towns and cities…
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July 31, 2019 /
Japanese carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE) has posted its first quarterly profit since the merger of the container businesses of K Line, MOL and NYK on 1 April last year. ONE recorded a net profit of $5m in the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ends 31 March 2020, and has upgraded its outlook…
Seventeen months after a devastating fire which resulted in the loss of 5 lives, Maersk is set to send the 15,282 teu boxship Maersk Honam back on active duty. The owner decided to reuse the stern section in a new ship, to be constructed at a South Korean shipyard. The damaged bow section and the…
Niche transatlantic carrier Independent Container Line (ICL) is to move its UK call from Liverpool to Southampton to improve schedule reliability. The US-headquartered, privately-owned shipping line has been serving Liverpool for the past 20 years, calling at the Mersey port along with Antwerp in a two-port North European hub strategy. However, ICL claims deteriorating weather…
July 3, 2019 /
Hapag-Lloyd and merged Japanese container carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE) are the latest box shipping lines to join the IBM/Maersk Line-led blockchain initiative TradeLens. The news means more than half the world’s container shipping capacity is part of the TradeLens project, following the addition of MSC and CMA CGM at the beginning of June. Of…
June 26, 2019 /
The trade dispute between the US and China could have fewer ramifications across global container supply chains than initially thought. According to new research from Drewry, although the transpacific trade, particularly headhaul eastbound, is expected to be hit hard by the introduction of billions of dollars’ worth of new tariffs, the way China has established…
The bunker market is far from ready for the substantial switch in demand to low-sulphur fuel, when the IMO’s 0.5% cap comes into force on 1 January next year, according to the Marine Bunker Exchange (MABUX). In an article published by international shipping association BIMCO, the bunker exchange cautions that “shipowners are ready, but the bunker market…
June 12, 2019 /
The United States began collecting higher, 25% tariffs on many Chinese goods arriving in U.S. seaports on Saturday morning in an intensification of the trade war between the world’s two largest economies and drawing retaliation from Beijing. U.S. President Donald Trump imposed the tariff increase on a$200 billion list of Chinese goods on May 10,…