Did You Know That…

…Liner operators acting as if they expect strong 2026, not slump.

·According to SCFI, spot rates from Shanghai to US east and west coasts rose 15% w/w, with rates to Northern Europe up 10% and rates to Mediterranean surging 19%

·Offered capacity in Asia-US east coast lane is up 10% w/w, according to Xeneta, with capacity to North Europe rising 11% and capacity to Med jumping 18%

·Carriers continue to add capacity via newbuilds, secondhand acquisitions and charters, with virtually no scrapping or idling.

Market watchers have been expecting the container lines to fall prey to cyclical overcapacity since 2023. It hasn’t happened yet, and carriers are managing their fleets as if they don’t expect it to happen next year.

…Global trade set to hit record $35trn this year before slowing

·Higher volumes seen as inflation pressure reduces

·Automotive and fossil fuel trade declines

·Emerging trade lanes see largest benefit

Unctad said growth had slowed in the second half and that the trend could continue into 2026.

…One Continuity loses 45 containers off the Canary Islands. Container ship One Continuity has lost at least 45 containers in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Canary Islands, prompting the vessel to abort its voyage and divert to the port of Las Palmas.

…DP launches Dubai-Iraq RoRo route. DP World has launched a new 36-hour maritime RoRo service linking Dubai’s Mina Rashid with Umm Qasr Port in Iraq, aiming to offer an alternative to overland trucking for non-containerised cargo. The service can carry up to 145 accompanies trailers per sailing, with drivers traveling on board.

…HD Hyundai to build new shipyard in India as it expands global reach. Since establishing Hyundai Vietnam Shipbuilding in 1996, the company has accelerated its expansion into the global shipbuilding market. It has broadened its collaborative footprint to include India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Peru, among other regions. The South Korean conglomerate has partnered with the government of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to support the development of a new shipyard. This aligns with the Indian government’s long-term strategy of positioning the nation as a global maritime hub by 2047.

…Cosco-CSSC unveil record Yuan50bn mega order of up to 87 ships. The deal involves bulkers, tankers, containerships and ro-pax vessels. Orders will be executed by six CSSC shipyards and are expected to boost CSSC’s revenue, while further enlarging Cosco’s already substantial fleet.

…Mexican airfreight volumes fall as pressure mounts from US and China. Tariffs and supply chain shifts have taken a toll of Mexican airport cargo volumes. With a few exceptions, tonnage dropped at most large airports in the first nine months of the year, resulting in an overall decline of 4.5% from the same period last year.

… AD Ports launches takeover bid for Egyptian terminal operator ALCN. Abu Dhabi’s rapidly expanding AD Ports Group announced this morning it is preparing a takeover bid for Egyptian terminal operator Alexandria Container & Cargo Handling Company (ALCN), which is listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

…The boom in all things related to AI is powering Taiwan’s economy, which grew by 8,2% in the third quarter, year on year, its best performance since the aftermath of the pandemic.

…Mexico bids to boost home industries by steep tariff hikes on Asian imports. Mexico’s Congress last week approved sweeping tariff increases on imports from several Asian countries, paving the way for duties of up to 50% on selected goods from China, India, and others from 1 January.

…What is the world’s biggest city? To an alien gazing down from space, ignoring political boundaries and just mapping contiguous areas of high population density, the answer would be clear: the Pearl River Delta, a chain of southern Chinese cities that have fused into one vast sprawl. Its population is projected to reach 73m people in 2026, just as a regional high-speed railway network, to bind it together, is due to be completed.

 

…MSC launches new transatlantic services from Bilbao. Starting 20 December, the Port of Bilbao will welcome two new weekly direct container services by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, connecting northern Europe to the west coast of south America.

…AD Ports Group sets Guinness record for AI agents. AD Ports Group has made history by earning a Guinness World Records title for deploying the most AI agents in a logistics facility, with a total of 205 agents across its operations. This recognition highlights the group's commitment to leveraging AI to enhance logistics efficiency and operational resilience. Key innovations resulting from this deployment include the vessel speed optimiser, which reduced fuel consumption by 3%, and the intelligent workforce scheduler, which cut HR processing times by over 90%.

…Don’t fear China’s trillion-dollar trade surplus. It is a problem not for the rest of the world, but for China. Last year the gdp of only 19 countries exceeded $1trn. That puts the latest news from China’s customs administration into stark context. On December 8th it reported that the country’s net exports of goods in the first 11 months of the year had already exceeded $1trn, more than any previous surplus. Even as America whacked tariffs on China, its enterprising manufacturers have expanded into alternative markets and discovered roundabout routes past America’s trade barriers.

…Our partner TRANSOLVE, representing the network in Australia (based in Sydney) and New Zealand, advised that It’s with great sadness that they will not be renewing their membership with the EAA once this membership expires.

Transolve said that it has enjoyed being part of a great network, however under our new ownership (Transolve was taken over by TOLL Global Logistics earlier this year) its not possible to continue. On behalf of the network members, we thank Rachael Budd and her team for the excellent co-operation and wishing them succes sin their future business development under the TOLL flag. The board will take required steps for replacement in said countries.

 

…The death toll from flooding and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra passed 800. Cyclonic rains also caused havoc in Thailand, where over 180 people have died, and Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

 

…Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, said a committee led by a judge would investigate the city’s most fatal fire in 77 years, as the number of dead rose to 159. Bodies are still being recovered from the tower blocks.

…Stockholm is Europe’s new capital of capital. And with Sweden embarking on a borrowing spree, it is a bond trader’s paradise. Ask a European banker how to reinvigorate their continent’s capital markets, and there is a good chance they will start enthusing about Sweden. That might seem surprising, since during the post-Brexit scramble to replace London as Europe’s premier financial centre, Stockholm barely got a look-in. Frankfurt, home to the euro zone’s central bank, seemed the obvious choice; its competition came from Paris’s mighty commercial banks. Honourable mention went to Amsterdam, reprising its 17th-century role as a share-trading hub.

…Prada completed a deal to buy Versace for $1.4bn, well below the $2bn that its former owners, Capri Holdings, paid in 2018. The acquisition closed on the birthday of Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1997.

 

…At home and at school, AI is transforming childhood. It brings many benefits, but also hidden dangers. Listen to this story.  TEACHERS WERE baffled. Some of the children using Khan Academy, an online learning platform, seemed to be cheating at their maths assignments with the help of an unknown accomplice. An investigation eventually unmasked the culprit: Pythagoras, an ancient Greek mathematician with a penchant for right-angled triangles. As a study aid, Khan Academy allows pupils to chat with AI simulations of towering intellects of the past. Children had discovered that with some gentle prompting, the digital Pythagoras was happy to complete their homework. Children are the pioneers—and guinea pigs—of artificial intelligence. American teenagers are more likely than their parents to use AI at home and more likely to use it at school than their parents are at work, according to a survey by the Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a non-profit group. At school, AI promises to change how children are taught, how they are assessed and, ultimately, how they think. At home it is changing how they play, how they are supervised and with whom—or what—they share confidences and form friendships. Generation AI is growing up with opportunities that previous generations could not have imagined. It is encountering novel risks, too.Start in the classroom, where much of childhood is whiled away. Two years ago more schools in America banned AI than permitted it. Today its use has become the norm. 

…America is now the biggest market for international football. Europeans may scoff, but it’s all about the soccer. The last time America hosted a men’s World Cup, in 1994, purists sniffed that it was not a proper footballing country. They had a point. Team USA had only recently ended a four-decade stretch of failing to qualify for the tournament. In an unfortunately symbolic moment broadcast around the world, Diana Ross, singing at the ritzy opening ceremony, took a staged penalty kick and somehow missed.As America prepares to co-host the competition again in 2026, along with Canada and Mexico, things look different. Its men’s team has improved (though they are still 80-1 outsiders to lift the golden trophy in the summer). Its women’s squad has become the most successful in the world, notching up four World Cup wins in the past 35 years. The big change, however, has taken place among the fans. Football—all right, soccer—still trails behind American football, basketball and baseball as the country’s fourth-most followed sport, according to surveys by Ampere Analysis, a research firm. But when asked which sport is their absolute favourite, 10% of Americans now say soccer, making it narrowly more popular than the sport sometimes referred to as the national pastime, baseball.

…Netflix and Paramount are battling for more than Warner Bros. They present rival visions for the future of entertainment. THE CREDITS were ready to roll. Netflix, the world’s biggest streaming company, had announced on December 5th that it was to acquire most of Warner Bros Discovery, one of the biggest names in old-fashioned moviemaking, in a deal valued at $83bn. But on December 8th Paramount, a much smaller rival, pressed pause on the transaction. It appealed directly to Warner’s shareholders to accept an alternative offer of $108bn for the whole company, promising a deal that is “superior to Netflix in every dimension”. The Looney-Tunes sums could yet grow even higher: Paramount’s owners, the Ellison family, have made clear they are willing to shell out more; Netflix, valued at over $400bn, can also afford to up its bid if it wants to. But the main difference between the bidders is not the offer price. Netflix and Paramount see different things in their target. The result of the bidding war will shape the future of Hollywood, and of entertainment more widely.

…Why hangovers get worse as you get older. But there are things you can do to help. Readers of a certain age may have begun to suspect that downing a few drinks for Christmas cheer no longer gives the same experience it once did. The studies show your feelings are right: those glasses of wine do seem to leave their mark for longer (and a bit more heavily) as you age. Ageing bodies tend to gain fat at the expense of muscle mass, for a start. Lean muscles hold lots of water, and alcohol is water soluble. As a result, the less muscle a body has, the fewer drinks it can agreeably absorb. Uncomfortably quick jumps in levels of blood alcohol are one result. Harsher after-effects are another.

 

…This DYKT news bulletin will be published on the website as well, go to www.eaanetwork.com.

Have a good  week ahead, for those who are on holidays next week, wishing you already Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings !