The global shipping industry is constantly evolving, and the COVID-19 pandemic began a marked shift in how container shipping operates. Disruption caused by the pandemic has forced the industry to expand its capacity and reduce costs to remain profitable.
At the peak of the pandemic, containers essentially stopped moving. As manufacturers went into lockdown and closed factories, many of the containers used to ship those manufactured goods were left stranded at ports or storage depots, where they weren’t needed. Simultaneously, freight shippers were reducing the number of vessels in use due to the manufacturing slowdown. This limited global shipping capacity and disrupted the worldwide flow of containers and goods. As a result, some regions were left with an excess of stored containers, while other places were left with no containers at all.
As the pandemic slowed and the global economy began to rebound, labor shortages and congestion at ports have left many of these stored containers stuck where they aren’t needed. Now, instead of a shortage of shipping containers, the industry is dealing with too many. Many container storage depots are turning away new clients due to lack of space, and some shippers are even giving containers away to make room. Blank and cancelled sailings are increasing as well, as shippers decide to skip a port or cancel a trip altogether in order to manage changes in demand and capacity.
Check back here for the latest news and insights on the state of the container shipping industry. You can also visit our maritime news archive to learn more about cargo shipping, or our American Shipper archive for air cargo shipping industry news.
“The container shipping industry is currently seeing unprecedented demand, which has led to a shortage of containers all over the world,” says CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.
“We have invested in the right infrastructure at the right time to handle growing cargo volumes and bigger ships,” says South Carolina Ports’ Jim Newsome.
The container ship now is expected to anchor in San Pedro Bay on May 1.
Savannah’s record March underscores why it’s investing hundreds of millions on new capacity upgrades.
The Teamsters call it a strike, but it is more of a protest. Still, it did garner support from another union on Wednesday.
U.S. ports just booked their largest import hikes in memory, according to The McCown Report.
Retail sales surged in March along with freight volumes. An increase in vaccinations and stimulus payments provided a “perfect alignment” for the blowout report.
As longshoremen begin partial strike, here are seven key questions about the Port of Montreal, the labor dispute and what might happen.
Imports into Los Angeles at not slowing down. Can the backlog be cleared before the peak-season swell begins?
More than a third of the crew on the MSC Gayane smuggled cocaine in June 2019. The first prison term has just been handed down.
Port of Montreal longshoremen will begin a partial strike after employers moved to stop providing guaranteed minimum pay as labor dispute hits the skids, again.
As cargo shippers struggle, container-vessel companies rake in massive profits. Early signals point to record Q1 results.
Container shipping spot rates haven’t budged from COVID-fueled peaks. Cargo shippers’ hopes for a rate pullback are fading.
If you ordered a fire pit or a rowing machine online, there’s a good chance it’s coming through the Port of Long Beach. The port is moving record amounts of containers and shipments are experiencing delays.
Days after Ever Given backlog was declared cleared, the number of ships waiting to transit the Suez Canal remains high (with video).
Pearl service customers’ imports likely will be delayed arriving from Asia.
“Our all-time container record reinforces that we are adding more capacity to the Port of Charleston at the right time,” says South Carolina Ports CEO Jim Newsome.
Twenty tons of coke was found aboard an MSC ship in 2019. MSC just revealed that it’s spending $100 million more on security in response.
“Imagine a port where a ship slows down on approach to reduce emissions, plugs into the electrical grid at berth instead of burning fuel to run vital systems and is worked by zero-emissions cranes, yard vehicles and trucks. That’s our reality in Long Beach.”
Bad timing: Still-rising cargo demand is coinciding with container-shipping constraints in the wake of the Suez Canal crisis.
Maersk and ZIM ships are being deployed in response to “customers’ increased cargo demands.”
A ransomware gang is threatening to leak 2 terabytes of files stolen from shipping firm ECU Worldwide in the aftermath of a cyberattack as the owner vows to “take any steps necessary, legal and otherwise,” to protect customer data.
Third-party logistics provider GSC Logistics plans to add 100 more drivers and 400 chassis to meet the container volume surge on the West Coast.
You think you can just book your cargo on a plane to avoid the ocean shipping congestion at the Suez Canal? Guess again. Freighters were flying full even before the Ever Given got stuck, so finding space will be very difficult.
The South Korean container carrier expects the Suez Canal backlog to be cleared by the time the HMM Nuri arrives in mid-April.
Canadian police and border officers seized nearly $8 million in opium found in two shipping containers at the Port of Vancouver and then swapped the drugs with a dummy shipment to let the dragnet continue.
Suez Canal accident aftermath: Extensive disruptions are ahead for key Asia-East Coast container shipping services.
‘We pulled it off!’ says salvage company Boskalis after freeing the container ship.
Digging and pulling haven’t freed the giant Ever Given vessel that has stopped traffic in the Suez Canal. The next step might be to lighten the vessel by removing cargo.
The longer the Suez saga continues, the greater the container, tanker and dry bulk shipping impacts. There could be big losers — and winners.
Welcome aboard, freight customers. You’re now flying CMA CGM to the U.S. East Coast instead of taking a container ship.
Additional dredgers have been brought in to help dig out the 20,000-TEU Evergreen Marine container ship.
The Maersk Eureka is 650 miles off the coast of Alaska awaiting repairs
“Strong winds” are blamed for causing the 20,000-TEU Ever Given to get stuck and block Suez Canal traffic in both directions.
Vessels are backed up on both ends of the Suez Canal as tugs work to free the ultra large container ship Ever Given.
California’s container-ship traffic jam is slightly less jammed but import pressure remains high. One analyst warns the worst may be yet to come.
Ocean carrier ZIM just released record results and confirmed huge gains for contract rates. So why did its stock sink?
The world’s largest shipping line says it has changed its ways and is no longer playing the spot market, instead going steady with long-term partners.
Newbuild-to-fleet ratio now 15.3%, up from 9.4% in mid-2020. But orders are not high enough yet to wave red flags.
Two bullish equity research reports this week on transportation stocks both highlight expectations around consumer spending and what that means for freight demand.
More and more beneficial cargo owners (BCOs) are moving manufacturing and warehousing to Alabama.
“2020 has been exceptional, with stellar performance in the industry,” says Hapag-Lloyd CFO Mark Frese.
Fireworks could be stuck at sea by the time the Fourth of July rolls around. Blame massive port congestion and overloaded freight networks. The fireworks industry is asking the Biden administration to provide a fix, but what can it do?
Deutsche Bank’s Amit Mehrotra on how long import surge could last and upside potential for container, dry bulk and tanker stocks.
“Today we are in the seventh month of a historic import surge driven by unprecedented demand by American consumers,” says Gene Seroka.
Container, dry bulk and tanker stocks push forward. Biggest winner since mid-2020: Danaos, up (this is not a typo) 1,202%.
“As retail imports continue to boom during the pandemic, the ability to quickly move goods from ships to the hinterland via rail is paramount,” says CEO Jim Newsome.
Anchorages are filling up with ships off multiple ports — not just California’s. Yet the reasons behind the traffic jams are not always the same.
The lack of Lunar New Year shutdowns contributes to the busiest February on record.
Booming sales, thin inventories and more stimulus on the way provide the backdrop for potentially setting a new record for retail container imports in 2021. The National Retail Federation raised its outlook again for loaded containers landing at U.S. ports in the first half of the year.
The Port of Virginia has recaptured some U.S. military business it lost over the years.
How does California congestion rank versus 2015 logjam caused by tensions with dockworkers union? It’s not even close: 2021 wins by a long shot.
“As we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to accelerate our throughput and growth,” says Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.
Wells Fargo transportation research analyst Allison Poliniak-Cusic raises expectations for intermodal providers in a new report. Favorable catalysts for the mode are expected to carry into 2022.
“Ocean Insights has dominated the container-tracking space, and we look forward to providing the industry not only the best ocean capabilities but also the most comprehensive end-to-end visibility platform,” says project44 CEO Jett McCandless.
Drayage trucking and logistics company ContainerPort sold its container yard and depot division to ITS ConGlobal, a company with intermodal, finished vehicle and depot service terminals.
If ocean freight rates have legs, analysts see much more room for the secondhand ship values to run — which should, in turn, boost stocks.
Northwest Seaport Alliance reports January exports dropped 13.4% year-over-year.
Jefferies senior analyst Randy Giveans outlines why it is now a particularly good time to buy container-shipping stocks.
Today’s container market chaos underscores the need for enforceable ocean contracts as opposed to loose agreements, argues consultant Tom Craig.
Ocean Audit’s Steve Ferreira and AutoZone’s Jack Conaghan discuss how beneficial cargo owners should strategize contracts and containers during 2021.
Evan Efstathiou discusses why VCs are looking to invest more in maritime just as shipowners are looking to partner more with startups.
Ocean Audit CEO Steve Ferreira chats with Vanguard Logistics Services Vice President Stephanie Loomis about what importers and beneficial cargo owners can expect as they undergo contract negotiations with the ocean carriers this year.
The Global Secure Shipping project began after 9/11 when the government sought increased security at ports. This fireside chat explores the customs, weight, six-sided security and visibility benefits of smart containers.
Gordon Downes, CEO of New York Shipping Exchange, joins Ocean Audit’s head Steve Ferreira to chat about structural changes in container shipping and the place two-way committed contracts have in the industry.
BIMCO’s Peter Sand discusses whether container shipping’s ‘new normal’ has legs and what’s next for the sector.
Amazon may get the headlines for promising fast deliveries, but if it can’t get the product from overseas, the efficiency of trucks and delivery vans won’t make a difference.
The ocean carrier has not said when customers can expect to receive damaged or intact cargo.
“Importers are exhausted” and foundation change is necessary, says Flexport’s Sanne Manders.
Globalization isn’t just driven by comparative advantage. It is skewed by subsidies and mispricing of risk, according to author Marc Levinson.
Airfreight markets are topsy-turvy in the COVID era, but importers and exporters can count on one thing: paying two to three times normal rates. CFOs will have to increase their transport budgets if they want goods to move quickly.
AgTC’s Peter Friedmann said Hapag-Lloyd’s Rolf Habben Jansen failed to mention in a press conference that the container shipping lines are enjoying record profits “while pushing their customers into real financial trouble, some towards bankruptcy.”
It’s not just small and midsized importers that face massive contract rate hikes. Even the biggest shippers will feel the pain.
AgTC’s Peter Freidmann highlights the hurdles U.S. food exporters confront as they vie for containers to transport their goods.
“There’s tremendous opportunity for Florida-bound cargo,” says JAXPORT CEO Eric Green during his State of the Port address Tuesday.
Container shipping line CMA CGM wants to be an airline too. Its new air cargo unit has identified Chicago as its first destination and is giving preferential space on its aircraft to subsidiary CEVA Logistics.
Jon Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customer policy with the National Retail Federation, sits down for a fireside chat withWeston LaBarof the Harbor Trucking Association to discuss the backup in the port of Long Beach/Los Angeles.
The Maersk Eindhoven, which lost 260 containers overboard, is slated to berth for repairs in Japan on Thursday.
Kuehne + Nagel is the second-largest logistics services provider in the world. It just got bigger, swallowing up Hong Kong’s Apex International.
More than 2,900 containers have gone overboard just since the end of November.
“We have really a perfect storm of demand that’s surging like there’s no tomorrow, everybody needing to get the boxes back, COVID-related restrictions,” says Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.
Six cases of at-sea container losses have been reported in less than three months.
“If we do nothing, we will still have vessels at anchor come midsummer,” says Port of LA Executive Director Gene Seroka.
Cargo shippers hamstrung by the global container shortage should not expect a box building spree in China to come to their rescue.
It’s not just container stocks rising. Shipping stocks are up for everything from bulkers to tankers to gas carriers.
Preeti Pande, the hydrogen solution provider’s chief marketing officer, comes with extensive fuel cell industry experience and a Ph.D.
More venture capital flowing to maritime tech startups – and more shipping companies giving those startups a trial run.
Ocean carriers as airlines? No one thought an online retailer would own a private airline until Amazon did it. The ocean carrier also owns a logistics company. You connect the dots.
Kritikos launched Ceres Terminals in 1958 and sold the company to NYK in 2002.
Lending a hand includes everything from improving the environment to funding community initiatives to rescuing a skier mauled by a bear.
S.F. Express is growing its domestic Chinese parcel business at a dizzying rate. The acquisition of a large Hong Kong logistics company helps it expand overseas.
Leaf Logistics CEO Anshu Prasad believes manufacturers of food and consumer packaged goods could be in jeopardy of missing earnings expectations as transportation rates remained elevated throughout the quarter.
Here’s a helicopter view courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard of container-ship armada off Los Angeles and Long Beach (WITH VIDEO).
ZIM, newest Wall Street shipping entrant, is riding wave of record-high freight rates. Shares fully recovered from rocky start.
JAXPORT says strong demand for vehicles and consumer goods contributed to a solid first fiscal quarter.
Due to shipping snarl and container congestions, delays in retail inventories will be felt from Christmas through Easter.
Maersk, the world’s largest container carrier, just reported record quarterly results. And its next quarter looks even better.
Inland Port Greer records its best January and ocean-carried container moves increase year-over-year.
Third-party logistics provider Radiant Logistics beat expectations for its second fiscal quarter. The company’s improved results and low-debt profile are allowing it to pursue acquisitions.
Korean container carrier HMM expects equipment and capacity shortages to continue at least through the end of the first quarter.
