Shipping

HMM, the world's 8th largest container shipping line got one step closer to the IMO's objective of a reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions from...

This is the Annual Review of the shipping and freight industry in 2021 by Shipping and Freight Resource.. This is an in depth look into what transpired in our industry in 2021 in terms of the maritime and global trade, shipping and freight practices, Global Shipping Alliances, Carriers and their profits and mostly about the disruptions surrounding supply chain.. Welcome to The View from the Top..

"Months of Coordination Bring Signs of Good Cheer" - this is the word from the White House about the supply chain disruptions that we have...

Is it political..?? Is it practical..?? This seems to be the question surrounding the passing of "The Ocean Shipping Reform Act" in the House of...

Export containers are building up not just in the ports of LA/LB but at many major ports globally Dozens of ships are slow steaming way off the coast of...

As per stats released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the American trade deficit on goods and services...

China, home to 7 of the top 10 container ports in the world and of course the 2nd largest economy in the world, has...

Latest release of DCSA's Just-in-Time Port Call Programme provides interface standards and API definitions for all 50 port call event timestamps. This might also be...

“We’re encouraged by the progress our supply chain partners have made in helping our terminals shed long-dwelling import containers”

This is the message from Mario Cordero, Executive Director of Port of Long Beach announcing the postponement of Container Dwell Fee till the 22nd of November both at Long Beach and Los Angeles today.

The American shipping crisis has been making news all over the world and has been the subject of discussions across many media platforms and the industry..

Even US President Joe Biden commented on the supply chain disruptions and set up task teams to find solutions for the problems.. Biden announced a number of steps to achieve this objective including moves by the nation’s two largest ports Los Angeles and Long Beach to expand to 24-hour operation, and also to ramp up efforts by big conglomerates like Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Samsung, Target and The Home Depot for quicker cargo clearance..

There have been several commentaries across the whole spectrum of supply chain from various experts from shipping, freight forwarding, trucking and trade backgrounds..

However, none of the discussions and explanations seem as lucid as the message conveyed by a 20 year veteran US truck driver..

I am sharing this article written by Ryan Johnson that explains his perspective on the situation and why he feels that America's "Shipping Crisis" will not end unless.....................

No more containers have been found. That is the news from the Canadian Coast Guard about the maritime disaster surrounding the ZIM Kingston that lost an estimated 109 containers in rough seas off the coast of British Columbia in Canada and is still anchored while fire fighting efforts continue. Refrigerators, toys and other debris from ZIM Kingston containers have washed up ashore near Cape Scott.

Calm seas allowed firefighters to finally board the ZIM Kingston a 4253 TEU capacity container ship which has been on fire off the coast of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. As per the Canadian Coast Guard six firefighters and seven crew members boarded the ship on Monday night as fires in containers still on board the ship continued to smoulder.

In the meantime, it has now been established that 109 containers have gone overboard the ship in rough weather, more than double of the 40 containers that was estimated to have been initially lost.

Further to the incident of ZIM Kingston losing containers overboard and container fire on board, today’s update is that the fire is reported to have been controlled but the vessel is still smoldering as of Sunday afternoon.

The ZIM Kingston has been anchored at Constance Bank since the night of 22nd October after it lost 40 containers about 12 nautical miles off the west coast of Vancouver Island, near Bamfield, while navigating rough seas.

It is understood that the ship will remain at Constance Bank alongside emergency tow vessels and the Canadian Coast Guard who will be monitoring the vessel due to the storm expected to move through the region.

With the Biden Administration now stepping in to tackle the port congestion crisis at Long Beach and Los Angeles, China-US West Coast transit data and insights provided by digital freight forwarding company Shifl underscores how bad the situation has become, and how much work it will take to get cargo moving on time again.

Between the 2nd half of May 2021 and the 1st half of October 2021, the average transit time from Chinese base ports to the US West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach increased from 19 to 36 days.

Shippers might finally be catching a break, as China-US spot freight rates plunge in the first week of October.

With Chinese manufacturers throttling production due to the power crisis and the off-season coming into view, competition for freight capacity in terms of containers and vessel space has fallen off, moving prices down by up to 51.4% on some routes.

IMO has signed three partnership agreements with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to support the preparation of a new global project that targets ship-based emissions. Further funding goes to existing projects focused on biofouling and marine plastic litter.

The agreements, signed by IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim and His Excellency Mr. Saleh bin Nasser al-Jasser, Minister of Transport and Logistic Services, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (28 September), will see US$509,000 going to the three environmental initiatives.

After consultation with multiple supply chain stakeholders and the U.S. Department of Transportation, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles announced bold new measures to improve freight movement and reduce delays through the ports as they continue to experience record volumes. These measures will enhance the ports’ landside operations to help meet the unprecedented growth in cargo volume moving through the San Pedro Bay.

The peak shipping season started with a roar and lifted the Port of Long Beach to its strongest August on record.

Dockworkers and terminal operators moved 807,704 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container cargo last month, an 11.3% increase compared to August 2020. Imports were up 11.7% to 407,426 TEUs and exports decreased 5.3% to 119,485 TEUs. Empty containers moved through the Port rose 19.7% to 280,794 TEUs.

Mass container shortage has disrupted international supply chains and seen the cost of freight and shipping increase exponentially across all sectors.

While it may be easy to blame this single factor for an increase in freight cost, many more factors have contributed to the inflated prices we are currently seeing across the sector.

So what are some of the other reasons that prices can't seem to slow down? 

Berthing delay skyrockets as Ningbo, the 3rd largest ports in the world suspends container terminal operations due to a positive case of COVID-19.

Data provided by project44 confirms that a large volume of container ships are at anchor outside Ningbo-Zhoushan waiting for berth space.