For the first half of 2019, the Port of Rotterdam handled a record 240 million tonnes of cargo. The increase in volumes is attributed to an rise in imports and trans-shipments within the European Union. Containers from Asian origins also rose, indicating there is still strong European demand.
Growth may be short lived as the Port expects a weakening in the second half of the year due to global uncertainties.
Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has announced additional blank sailings over the next two months on the Asia to Europe tradelanes due to soft demand.
Asia-North Europe Service “Loop 4” – Westbound: ETA Xingang on August 15 in Week 33 and Eastbound: ETA Southampton on September 22 in Week 38.
Asia-West Mediterranean Service “WM1” – Westbound: ETA Qingdao on August 12 in Week 33 and Eastbound: ETA La Spezia on September 13 in Week 37.
Asia-East Mediterranean and Black Sea Service “EM2” – Westbound: ETA Qingdao on August 29 in Week 35 and Eastbound: ETA Ashdod on September 24 in Week 39 / Westbound: ETA Qingdao on September 12 in Week 37 and Eastbound: ETA Ashdod on October 8 in Week 41.
The “OOCL Hong Kong”, Orient Overseas Container Line’s (OOCL) Hong Kong namesake container ship, berthed at Hong Kong’s Kwai Tsing Port on July 18 for the first time. The “OOCL Hong Kong” is the third-largest container ship in the world, able to carry 21,413 TEUs. The ship, operated by COSCO’s OOCL subsidiary, is plying the carrier’s Germany to Shanghai Loop 1 (LL1).
The “OOCL Hong Kong” measures almost 400m long and 60m wide and was built in 2017.
King Abdullah Port, located approximately 100 km north of Jeddah, recently took delivery of 28 state-of-the-art cranes to allow for the start of an expansion program aimed at boosting capacity to 5 million TEUs. The expansion is considered the largest commercial operation of its kind in Saudi Arabia’s history. In 2018, Alphaliner ranked the King Abdullah port the second fastest growing port in the world.
The cranes, supplied by Liebherr, include 20 gantry cranes and 8 ship-to-shore (STS) cranes. The cranes have an outreach of 70 meters and a working load of 65 tonnes.
Suffering from a prolonged dry summer, water levels on the historic and economically vital Rhine River have fallen affecting loading capacity. Water levels recorded at three (3) key gauge locations – Kaub, Duisburg-Ruhrort and Emmerich – are all expected to continue falling in the coming days. Predictions are that the Kaub gauge is expected to fall below the 130cm watermark, triggering additional low water surcharges that are already in place. Ruhrort is expected to fall under 270cm, the water level that triggers low water surcharges there. Emmerich is not expected to fall below the 70cm trigger level yet.
Hapag-Lloyd has announced that it will implement a US$150/20′ and US$300/40′ Rate Restoration Program from the Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan to the West Mediterranean and Turkey. The rate restoration applies to all shipments with a container gate-in date of August 01 and beyond.
Hapag-Lloyd has announced that it will implement a US$150/20′ and US$300/40′ Rate Restoration Program from the Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan to North Europe. The rate restoration applies to all shipments with a container gate-in date of August 01 and beyond.
CMA CGM has announced that it will implement a US$200 Rate Restoration Program from all Asian ports to the Middle East and Gulf. The rate restoration applies to all dry, out-of-gauge, breakbulk and reefer cargo with a B/L date of August 01 and beyond.
CMA CGM has announced that it will implement a US$100 Rate Restoration Program from all Asian ports to the Pakistan, India (East Coast & West Coast) and Sri Lanka. The rate restoration applies to all dry, out-of-gauge, breakbulk and reefer cargo with a B/L date of August 01 and beyond.
The Port of Long Beach is now feeling the effects of the ongoing China-USA trade war. Year-On-Year (YOY) container volumes are down 10%. June 2019 container output totaled 677,167 TEUs with imports suffering a 14% cut while exports were down 1%. Empties were also down 9%.
In 2018, importers rushed to get their goods on U.S. soil to beat the tariff increases. 2019 numbers show that the warehouses are full and all the cargo is already where it needs to be.