China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) may have faced recent strong criticism from the EU, but that has not dented the growth in its exports to Europe. Chinese officials have claimed a 106% increase in the value of cargo travelling by rail from China to Europe, equating to some $33bn. Xiao Weiming, from the office of…
LNG is the most environmentally friendly, readily available fuel for shipping today – and in the foreseeable future, according to a new study. With the IMO’s 0.5% sulphur cap regulations coming into force next January, along with its target of halving C02 emissions from shipping by 2050, decisions need to be taken on alternative fuels.…
The port of Shanghai has maintained its position as the world largest container port. However, new data from Alphaliner today shows its lead over second-placed Singapore narrowed last year. Shanghai posted 2018 throughput of 42.01m teu, 4.4% growth on 2017, while Singapore handled 36.6m teu, representing growth of 8.7%. And the 5.41m teu differential between…
The chaos at Gatwick last month emphasised the UK air freight sector’s over-reliance on the south-east region. When Heathrow and Gatwick are working at full tilt – which is almost all the time – they can claim to be the most efficient airports in the world. Between 19 and 21 December, thousands of flights were…
The prospect of unmanned container vessels serving global container supply chains has taken another step forward. Sea Machines Robotics, a US developer of autonomous vessels, announced it had raised $10m from venture capital funds. The investors were led by Accomplice VC and Eniac Ventures, but also include Toyota AI Ventures, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, NextGen VP, Geekdom Fund,…
CMA CGM Group, which includes ocean carrier APL, has raised its emergency bunker surcharge (EBS) to $100 per teu for all deepsea cargo movements from 1 December. Introduced by the French carrier and a number of its peers on 1 June, in response to higher fuel prices, the controversial EBS was initially set by CMA CGM at…
Unusually tight capacity for the time of year is leading to rising rates, booking restrictions and backlogs for European exporters needing to ship from Europe to the Middle East and Asia. This is in part attributed to exceptionally high levels of post Chinese New Year shipping cancellations, which have meant price increases for Europe to…
The first rail freight service from the UK to China departed on its 17 day, 7500 mile journey on April 10th. British goods including soft drinks, vitamins and baby products are in the 30 containers carried by the train, which will be a regular service.The DP World locomotive left its terminal in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, for…
The worlds largest container ship, the MOL Triumph, set off on her maiden voyage from Xingang, China on the 10th April. With a gross tonnage of 210678, deadweight of 197500 tonnes and length and breadth of 400m x 59m it certainly does pack a punch - with the ability to carry 20,150 twenty foot containers.…
Since 2013 China have been advertising the One Belt One Road initiative, a scheme to join a network of roads, ports, railways and other links from East China through Southeast and South Central Asia to Europe. This belt of land based links is paired with the Maritime Silk Road, which stretches from Australia to Zanzibar.…
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