Day 3 ; Blocked Suez Canal could unleash even more congestion on the main Europe/ Asia/ Europe trade
As of noon today the ultra large container vessel Evergreen Ever Given remains lodged sideways in the main channel, blocking vessels in both directions along the Suez Canal, creating one of the worst shipping jams seen in years and threatening even more chaos, when the grounded vessel arrives in ...
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Lines set to impose new round of increased fuel surcharges for Q2
The sea freight bunker industry has been undergoing significant change since the introduction of the IMO2020 rule and the impact of measures taken in response to the Coronavirus pandemic have contributed to major shifts in oil market dynamics, with rising prices encouraging shipping lines to incr...
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Air Freight Update ; Potential Heathrow April strikes
Industrial action at London’ Heathrow Airport by workers in the engineering, fire service, security, terminal operations, airside and landside sectors, will run from from the 2nd to 25th April, with the union Unite predicting “a massive effect” on cargo handling operations.
The Heathrow ...
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Ocean Container Carriers supply & demand gamble
Global lockdowns continue to drive consumer demand for goods, keeping ships full, sea freight rates high and leading shipping lines to take ever more desperate measures to increase their capability to take revenue opportunities. But, have they got their calculations right, or will their drive to ...
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Suez Canal blocked by container ship
At 7:40 am on 23 March 2021, the 20k TEU container ship Evergreen Ever Given was navigating the Suez Canal when it ran aground, turning the ship sideways and blocking the canal, with the potential to impact oil and sea freight prices if she cannot be freed quickly by the tugs currently trying to...
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The true environmental impact of empty containers
Environmentalists have long voiced concerns about the CO2 emission damage of the global shipping fleet. They believe that shipping laden containers are doing untold damage to the climate and are extremely concerned about the volume of empty containers that have been travelling the globe recently....
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BBC report underlines importers woes
The impact that the pandemic-driven global supply chain challenges, disruption and increased costs experienced since last year will have for consumers in 2021 has been bought into sharp focus by BBC News this week.
Continuing supply chain issues and the massive increases in the cost of ship...
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Shipping lines imposing new round of surcharges and rate rises into quarter 2
The container shipping industry continues to face heavy port congestion and vessel delays worldwide. The situation adds to the severe lack of vessels and empty equipment availability, forcing carriers to blank sailings on some trades when these sailings could generate record revenues, encouragi...
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The freeport effect – what does it mean and what are the benefits
There’s much more to the UK’s freeports than the ability to move goods tariff-free, with businesses potentially enjoying domestic tax breaks and cheaper employee costs, to encourage manufacturing, jobs and investment, in areas that would otherwise struggle to attract them.
In his Budget la...
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Pricing discipline replaces shipping line competition
The profound supply chain challenges unleashed by the Coronavirus pandemic are transforming the cost and characteristics of global container shipping and the shipping lines are unlikely to surrender a ‘winning-hand’.
Rising container volume demand and a controlled balance of supply and dem...
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Making your supply chain carbon neutral
In an interview with the BBC, Maersk chief executive Soren Skou says greener shipping would cost the world’s biggest shipping lines billions of dollars and while he wants the consumer to pick up the bill, we think that low-cost action can be taken now to offset the carbon emission that shipping...
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Global sea freight latest weekly update
The leading container shipping lines believe that global port and inland infrastructure congestion could last until after the summer peak season and the blanked sailings keep on coming.
The lines’ view is that supply chain disruptions are “temporary issues”, which would be resolved in th...
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