News & Insights

The shortage of container ships and record-breaking freight rates has prompted some carriers to come up with new and creative alternatives. The continued demand for sea freight space, that started last May, and the ensuing volume crisis, caused by a shortage of vessel availability and empty co... Read more

The economic turmoil triggered by the continuing pandemic, has disrupted global container shipping through 2020, with port congestion battering the shipping lines’ schedules and wiping out reliability. Port congestion began in Asia, as the first Coronavirus waves passed last May and factorie... Read more

Expectation of congestion at the UK’s primary Channel ports and the reluctance of foreign drivers to come to the UK, if their return journey was uncertain, prompted our preparation of alternative new RoRo and short-sea solutions. Before the UK joined the European Union less than half our con... Read more

The UK's rapid Covid-19 vaccination roll-out will undoubtedly help the economy bounce back and we are anticipating an upsurge in demand for air, sea and overland transport as confidence returns from the second quarter as lockdowns loosen and consumers are able to consume in the old fashioned way ... Read more

Shanghai and Yantian port disruption, refusal of heavy weight containers onto quay and the serious issue of drivers returning home ahead of CNY, due to Government enforced covid related travel restrictions are bad enough, and now the signs are the shipping lines will do everything possible to mai... Read more

The UK is the first new country to apply to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which counts Malaysia, Australia and Canada among its 11 members. The government believe that membership will “complement” existing free trade agree... Read more

National Apprenticeship Week 2021 starts next Monday, with Metro (and our apprentices) joining the week-long celebration to shine a light on the amazing work being done by employers and apprentices across the country. Over 900 events are taking place across the country, together with 1700 arti... Read more

While our technical solutions team get ready to launch our CO2 monitoring and off-setting tool, we have note-worthy initiatives going live in Argentina and Switzerland. Our project-shipping arm, Fracht organised the shipment of 15k tons of sand (that’s 15 million kilos) in industrial poly-ba... Read more

Problems finding import trailers from the EU is being blamed on the slowdown in exports from the UK, which are currently 30% below normal levels, but with continuing delays at the border, the more likely issue is it is less financially or operationally attractive for European hauliers to send the... Read more

2M’s Maersk and MSC will cancel four sailings from Asia during Chinese New Year, while THE Alliance will skip three Asia–Mediterranean services in late March and early April, in an effort to restore schedule integrity. The lines are insistent that the measures are necessary, with Maersk sa... Read more

Mounting container losses at sea are raising concerns about the effectiveness of current lashing practices and the likelihood of vessel loads being restricted on larger container vessels, reducing market capacity even further. More than 2,650 containers have been lost overboard in two incident... Read more

Even if ‘one swallow does not a summer make’ we fervently hope that one container index’s ‘positive trend’ really does signify a turning point in container shortages. The container selling and leasing platform Container xChange, track and compare the global availability of containers... Read more