Red Sea crisis deals blow to Piraeus’ standing as East Med’s transhipment king. Shifts of boxship calls highlights service reconfigurations at Greek transhipment port. Data shows calls of larger tonnage, 10,000 teu and above, at Piraeus have more than halved since mid-December, when carriers began Red Sea rerouting. The port’s container throughput also sustained a double-digit drop in January.

Economic waves hit Hamburg port. The port of Hamburg faced geopolitical and economic challenges in 2023, resulting in a 4.7% decline in seaborne cargo volumes compared to 2022. Container throughput decreased by 6.9%, but showed a slight recovery in the second half of the year.

To see India’s future, go South. Most people know that India is a rising economic power. It is already the world’s fifth-largest economy and is growing faster than any big rival, with a turbocharged stockmarket that is the fourth-largest of any country’s. The wealthy south is where you will find the slick new India, with its startups, it campuses and gleaming iPhone-assembly plants.

Panama Canal auction costs more than double in February. Average price for a neopanamax transit slot rose to $654,444 at the end of the month, Argus data shows. The average price to secure a neopanamax transit slot has more than doubled since the beginning of February to more than $650,000. Very large gas carriers are returning to Panama Canal due to the Houthi threat in the Red Sea.

CMA CGM completes Bolloré Logistics deal. Deal valued at $5.3bn will place CMA CGM’s logistics operations on a global footing. CMA CGM’s growing presence in the logistics sector is cemented through its acquisition of Bolloré Logistics. But it has lost out in efforts to acquire UK specialist Wincanton. Thierry Ehrenbogen, previously CEO of Bolloré Logistics, has been promoted to senior vice president, development & strategic account, at CMA CGM.

US to invest $3bn in clean port infrastructure. Environmental Protection Agency announces Clean Ports Program with funding created under Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. US EPA will make $3bn in funding opportunities available, $2.8bn of which will be directed to fund zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure.

Yildirim: I told Jacques Saadé box lines must work together. Turkish ‘lord of ports’ and 24% owner of CMA CGM claims early role in the birth of container alliances. Metals, ports and shipping tycoon Robert Yildirim’s 2011 rescue of CMA CGM paid off handsomely in the past two years.

Samskip has increased capacities on its Baltic Sea service and added the port of Klaipeda to its network. This expansion follows the successful launch of Samskip’s dedicated Baltic Sea shortsea service in November 2023.

Container rates slide as parties head into negotiations. The Red Sea disruption’s impact of freight rates has peaked. Carriers and shippers will meet in Long Beach next week to begin negotiating this year’s transpacific contracts. Discussions are expected to be protracted as both sides push hard.

Boxship overcapacity threat may not be as bad as feared.Soaking up 7m teu will be difficult, but not impossible. The ordering spree of the past three years has left container shipping facing the spectre of overcapacity again. But there are some signs it could be saved from the usual crash that ensues when supply exceeds demand.

Lidl expands its Tailwind brand into overland logistics. German retailer Lidl has expanded its Tailwind brand into overland logistics, setting up a new unit – Tailwind Intermodal.“As a sister company of Tailwind Shipping Lines, it will organise and coordinate the inland transport of goods arriving at the seaport of Koper, in Slovenia,” said the company.“Koper is the strategically most important port for Tailwind. Its ships bring goods in on the Panda Express liner service from China. Tailwind Intermodal is responsible for the onward carriage to the back country, as well as the return of empty containers to the port.”

THE Alliance should seek cooperation with MSC, post-Hapag. US consultancy AlixPartners has suggested that, as THE Alliance would be the weakest box shipping grouping after Hapag-Lloyd’s departure next year, it should investigate a tie-up with MSC to stay competitive.MSC will operate alone after Maersk breaks up the 2M Alliance to join with Hapag to form the Gemini Cooperation next February.The remaining THEA members, ONE, HMM and Yang Ming, will have a combined capacity of just 2.5m teu without Hapag and may need a new member to stay competitive.

Nike is to offset more than one-third of its maritime transport carbon emissions with biofuel, through a deal with CMA CGM.

Box carriers still in strong position as market weakens. Results from 2023 show box lines have adapted to the post-pandemic reality. Even as losses emerged in the final quarter of 2023, container line results remained strong. But overcapacity and increasingly urgent demands from decarbonisation will test their mettle.

Updated: MSC ship hit in latest missile attack. Crew extinguishes blaze on board after second of two missiles strikes boxship in Gulf of Aden. Liberia-flagged, 2,169 teu containership MSC Sky II is the latest victim of Houthi attacks. Militants continue to target commercial ships in the region following the first vessel sinking over the weekend.

The Port of Switzerland recorded an 8% increase in cargo handling in 2023, totalling 4.97 million t, slightly below the 5 million mark. The rise was attributed to a 46.5% increase in the storage of mineral oil products after a significant reduction in 2022. Container traffic however did not reach the previous year’s high levels, due to unfavourable water levels in the last quarter and challenging global economic conditions.

We are very pleased that we can welcome three new members to the network this week: Dynalog and Cargo Networking from South Africa and Jordex Shipping & Forwarding from Belgium. Welcome on board and all three companies will be present at the EAA Network annual conference next month in Portugal for personal introductions.

Crunch time for Xi Jinping at China’s annual political meeting. New growth targets will be set as thousands of delegates gather in Beijing. How do you reset the world’s conversation about a country that is in trouble? That is the task facing China’s embattled leadership this week, during what will be the most important public-facing political event of the year. China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (npc), is a rubber-stamp affair, but its annual session provides a rare window onto what the Communist Party is thinking. This year’s gathering will begin on March 5th with a state-of-the-nation speech from Li Qiang, the prime minister, and will end one week later.

Japan promised to provide funding for a second factory in the country to be built by TSMC, the world’s biggest chipmaker. TSMC, based in Taiwan, has just opened its first plant in Japan. The Japanese want to bolster their supply chains against possible disruption from China.

He ocean carrier MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has combined two existing container services to create a new direct route between the Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) and the West Coast of South America.

Why chocolate is becoming much more expensive. Sales are down as chocolatiers raise prices. Now the industry is facing a reckoning. If you’re a chocoholic you may have noticed that your habit has lately become dearer. The price of cocoa began creeping up in the second half of 2022. Since then it has doubled, reaching an all-time high in January 2024.

The fastest growing nail is the one on the middle finger, while the slowest growing nail is on the little finger.