Did You Know That..

…Container shipping forecast adrift for 2025 with multiple variables in play. High uncertainties over the Red Sea and tariffs make forecasting container shipping demand a tall order. Most analysts believe this year’s container shipping market will be oversupplied. Teu-mile demand is projected to range from positive 3% growth to an 11% contraction, depending on different Red Sea scenarios. Boxship market balance will get a bit worse in 2025 and a lot worse in 2026, says BIMCO. Ship supply expected to be 46% higher in 2026 than it was in 2019. BIMCO’s latest container shipping outlook has warned of a worse balance of containership supply and demand in 2026 than in 2019, when rates were far lower.

…Our esteemed board member FS International teams across China and its affiliated companies embraced the festive spirit with sumultaneous year-end celebrations to mark another successful year.

Each office brought its own local flavor to the celebrations, underlining the good spirit across the board of companies and and their decentralized yet unified approach in commitment to delivering outstanding logistics solutions.

…Could Trump support for dockworkers spur longer US port strike? ‘Tentative’ 61.5% ILA pay raise agreement expires at midnight on January 15 if no automation deal is reached. It’s still possible that USMX, representing ocean carriers, could buckle on port automation prior to the next strike deadline. But if the carriers hold firm, and Donald Trump continues to side with the ILA dockworkers union, there could be an extended strike causing significant supply chain disruptions.

…ONE partners with Ocean Alliance members on transatlantic services. ONE was forced to look for new partners on this trade, with the dissolution of The Alliance. Three new jointly operated services, namely AT1, AT2 and AT3, will connect 14 direct ports in the UK, continental Europe, North America east coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

…To see the cars of the future, look at China’s electric vehicles. With their surprising and innovative features, they are streets ahead. The main appeal of a Chinese electric vehicle (ev) to foreign buyers is obvious: high quality at prices Western carmakers cannot match (even allowing for import tariffs on Chinese vehicles). But Chinese EVs do not just offer lower prices. They also have more impressive features. The styling and technology in their 2025 models show where cars, as a whole, may be heading.

…Honda and Nissan  are in talks to merge by 2026, a historic pivot for Japan's auto industry that underlines the threat Chinese EV makers now pose to the world's long-dominant legacy car makers.

The tie-up would create the world's third-largest auto group by vehicle sales after Toyota and Volkswagen.

…China’s firms are taking flight, worrying its rulers. Policymakers at home and abroad are anxious about offshoring. For decades China has put foreign capital to work. Officials encouraged Western firms to trade technology for access to its vast market, helping to build up Chinese competitors that were often better and always cheaper. They began shipping goods westwards. The resulting “China shock” is often blamed for causing economic dislocation and despair in America’s industrial heartlands. Now, however, it is China’s turn to worry about offshoring. Its manufacturers are taking flight. In the year to June Chinese firms invested a record $177bn in non-financial assets abroad. More than four-fifths is likely to have been ploughed into “greenfield” projects, in which assets are built rather than bought, mostly in emerging markets.

…Following the success of its first fully electric sedan car, Xiaomi, a Chinese tech company better known for its smartphones, announced that it would launch its first sport-utility vehicle next summer.

…Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most virtuous of all America’s presidents. The humble peanut farmer who went to the White House died on December 29th, aged 100.

…Taylor Swift’s 18-month Eras tour came to an end. Selling 10m tickets for 149 shows the tour’s revenues of $ 2.1bn are by far the most for a concert series.

..We’ve added a touch of winter magic to the EAA website with a gentle snowfall effect to celebrate the festive season. The DYKT bulletin is published every week on our website https://eaanetwork.com/