Hapag-Lloyd is launching a new service connecting ports in Peru and Chile.

The WCSA Feeder 4 (WS4) service is set to commence in June and vessels will calle the following port rotation: Callao (Peru) – Iquique (Chile) – Puerto Angamos (Chile) – Arica (Chile) – Callao (Peru).

Hapag-Lloyd said the first boxship deployed on the new rotation will be the 2023-built Cape Bruno, which is expected to arrive at Callao port on 5 June.

The German Ocean carrier said the new service will provide stronger schedule reliability, and extended port coverage, while the service is expected to replace transshipments from San Antonio in Chile to Callao.

More optimistic demand forecasts and the prospect of a better peak season this year are driving a containership charter market rally, with aggressive carriers still snapping-up tonnage as it becomes open.

According to a recent survey of supply chain professionals by logistics platform Container xChange, 48% of respondents believe this year’s peak season will be better than last year’s.

Container xChange co-founder and CEO Christian Roeloffs said industry sentiment was “gradually turning positive” and added: “We anticipate a subdued rebound in demand as retailers begin to deplete their excess stock in the coming months, leading up to the peak season.”

And carriers are hearing positive news from their major shippers that purchase orders, to replenish old stock and buy in new season lines, are starting to trickle through.

“I think we are over the worst,” a UK-based carrier contact told The Loadstar this week.

Awash with cash and eager to capture market share, the container lines have gone back to the charter market to boost their capacity and Alphaliner said this week activity in the market “remained high”, with “demand strong across the board”.

Indeed, daily hire rates are on the increase in all containership sizes, with owners demanding a minimum 12-month charter period as well as positioning compensation.

For example, Japanese ocean carrier ONE has just agreed a two-year charter for the 2008-built 6,350 teu Brighton at a rate of $32,500 a day, from 17 May. This is only slightly below the $35,000 previous charterer Wan Hai was paying for a two-year fixture during the demand boom.

The market seems to be dominated by enquiries from MSC and CMA CGM, which are continuing where they left off when the downturn hit, hoovering-up any open tonnage on the charter market, and prepared to wave their chequebooks at owners that might be interested in selling ships.

Alphaliner noted that MSC had “snapped-up another six vessels in the past days”, including two 1999-built 5,300 teu ships from rival carrier Evergreen that were expected to be sold for demolition.

The recent acquisitions takes MSC’s colossal buying spree of second-hand container tonnage to more than 300 ships since August 2020, resulting in an operating fleet capacity of 4.8m teu, close to 1m teu more than its 2M partner, Maersk.

Moreover, the Geneva-based carrier has a huge orderbook of 1.7m teu, compared with the 370,000 teu ordered by Maersk.

CMA CGM is the second-most active carrier in the S&P market, having bought 100 second-hand ships since 2020, taking its operating fleet capacity to 3.4m teu, which, with its orderbook of nearly 1m teu, will see the French carrier threaten Maersk’s second place in the global carrier rankings.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were back in operation Saturday after a worker shortage shut down the country’s largest port complex for parts of two days.

The shortage came amid protracted labor negotiations between the union that represents West Coast dockworkers and the industry group representing shippers. Both parties are negotiating a new contracts with priorities in wages and the role of automation.

The old contract with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union expired July 1.

The ports experienced shortage Thursday night and part of Friday, but workers began returning to the docks Friday afternoon.

A spokesperson for the Pacific Maritime Association, the industry group that represents shippers at the negotiating table, told City News Service on Saturday that “labor has been dispatched to the Ports of LA and Long Beach since second shift yesterday.”

A Los Angeles Port Police spokesman told CNS that the Los Angeles port appeared to be operating at full capacity Saturday, and dispatcher at the Port of Long Beach said that facility was also operating normally Saturday.

The PMA said Friday that “the largest ILWU local on the West Coast has taken a concerted action to withhold labor at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, resulting in widespread workers shortages.

“A majority of the jobs for last night’s shift went unfilled, including all jobs for cargo-handling equipment operators needed to load and unload cargo. The workers who did show up were released because there was not a full complement of ILWU members to operate the terminals,” the PMA continued.

ILWU Local 13 also withheld labor Friday morning, effectively shutting down the twin ports, officials said.

But according to statement from the ILWU, longshore workers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were still hard at work and remain committed to moving the nation’s cargo.

The union attributed the dockworker shortage to union members attending its monthly meeting and observing Good Friday.

“On the evening of Thursday, April 6, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13 held its monthly membership meeting as it its contractual right,” the statement read.

At the meeting, outgoing President Ramon Ponce de Leon swore in incoming President Gary Herrera, with several thousand union members in attendance.

“On Friday, union members who observe religious holidays took the opportunity to celebrate with their families,” the ILWU statement read. “Cargo operations are ongoing as longshore workers at the ports remain on the job.”

However, the PMA accused the union’s actions of threatening to further accelerate the diversion of discretionary cargo to ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

Port of Los Angeles officials issued a statement Friday regarding the temporary San Pedro Bay Terminal closures, saying they were in communication with the ILWU and PMA, along with federal, state, and local officials, to support a return to normal operations in the ports.

“Resuming cargo operations at America’s busiest port complex is critical to maintain the confidence of our customers and supply chain stakeholders,” officials said in a statement.

Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Vietnam are already eating into China’s share of consumer goods exports, eroding China’s position further as nearby countries increase their shares of supply chains

According to the 2023 Container Shipping Outlook by Alix Partners published in March 2023, “Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Vietnam are already eating into China’s share of consumer goods exports and foresee China’s position eroding further as nearby countries increase their shares of supply chains and as government policies and business strategies outbound momentum. Mexico and Eastern Europe stand to gain over the medium term as more and more volumes shift out of China and to neighbouring countries.”

According to the Vietnam Customs data, Vietnam’s two-way trade in February was up almost US$3 billion over January despite February being a slightly shorter month. On the other hand, China’s exports to the EU totalled RMB 552.837 billion from January to February 2023, a year-on-year decline of 5.0%.

Southeast Asia has emerged as a strong economic “partnership region” as the world looks to a more diverse sourcing and manufacturing trade strategy.

“The diversification of trade will prove to be beneficial for ocean trade because this will cause a boom to the regional trade within Asia. It will also lead to more locations adding to the direct trade from the region to North America or to Europe. So, diversification will play a role and in general, this will soak up more capacity than what we would have had on transpacific China to the USA or China to Europe alone.” shared Christian Roeloffs.

Hapag-Lloyd Implements New Rate Increase From East Asia To North America

Hapag-Lloyd announced a general rate increase (GRI) from East Asia to North America for cargo transported in dry, reefer and special containers, including high cube equipment.

Hapag-Lloyd announced a general rate increase (GRI) from East Asia to North America for cargo transported in dry, reefer and special containers, including high cube equipment.

More specifically, there will be a rate increase of US$800 per all 20′ container types and a US$1,000 increase per all 40′ container types.

The German ocean carrier said the general rate increase will be applicable to all containers gated in full from 1 May 2023 and will be valid until further notice. The GRI will be applied from Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan (PRC), Hong Kong (PRC), China (PRC), Macau (PRC), Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines to the United States and Canada.

The Chennai Port Trust and its subsidiary Kamarajar Port Ltd have set a target of crossing 100 million metric tonne of cargo in the current financial year.

The Chennai Port Trust and its subsidiary Kamarajar Port Ltd have set a target of crossing 100 million metric tonne of cargo in the current financial year, a top official said here on Monday. Both the ports handled 92.46 million metric tonne of cargo in the last financial year, Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Paliwal said.

On the performance of the Ports, he said Chennai Port Trust handled 48.95 million metric tonne of cargo, which was up by 0.8 per cent from 48.56 million metric tonne handled last year.

Kamarajar Port handled 43.51 million metric tonne of cargo in 2022-23 up by 12.31 per cent from 38.74 million metric tonne recorded the previous year.

“Container is the major cargo handled by Chennai Port Trust. It is about 58 per cent. While liquid bulk and dry bulk cargo also witnessed a good growth this year,” he told reporters.

To a query, the Chairman said exports of automobiles grew last year at Chennai Port Trust following the signing of agreements with several automajors including Toyota.

The exports by these companies from Chennai Port had offset the loss incurred due to the exit of US car maker Ford from Chennai last year, he said.

“Export of cars at Chennai Port Trust rose by 36 per cent to 2,31,412 units in FY2022-23 while it was 1,70,482 units in FY 2021-22.”

Kamarajar Port exported 1,48,307 units in 2022-23 as compared to 1,35,702 in 2021-22.

“Together both the Ports handled about 3,79,719 units of cars last year,” he added.

In a boost to cruise tourism, Paliwal said Switzerland based MSC Cruises, part of the MSC Group, was in discussion with the Chennai Port Trust for offering cruise tourism from the coastal town.

“They are planning to have Mumbai as a hub for cruise tourism in the western coast and Chennai as a hub in the eastern coast. From 2024 onwards, they (MSC Cruises) may commence operations from Chennai Port,” he said.

Chennai Port Trust in 2022-23 handled 37 Cruise ship calls carrying 85,000 passengers.

Regarding the financial performance, the official said Chennai Port reported its highest net surplus (profit before tax) in the last 13 years at Rs 150.26 crore in FY2022-23.

“This is a 33 per cent year-on-year increase in net surplus over last financial year 2021-22,” he said.

The highest net surplus achieved at Chennai Port would enable them to invest in developing the existing infrastructure projects.

As regards the financial performance of Kamarajar Port, Paliwal said the port surpassed Rs 1,000 crore mark as income to reach Rs 1,002.45 crore.

“This is an increase of 17.82 per cent from Rs 850.84 crore registered in 2021-22.”

Kamarajar Port registered a net surplus of Rs 669.93 crore in FY2022-23 which was an increase of 24.39 per cent from the earlier Rs 538.59 crore registered last year, he said.

Responding to a question on ongoing projects by Kamarajar Port, he said the cargo handling capacity at the port is being expanded with construction of RoRo cum GCB-II (3 metric tonne per annum) at an investment of Rs 161.09 crore.

Kamarajar Port is undertaking a capital dredging Phase-VI project to provide 18 metre draft to handle bigger container vessels at an estimated cost of Rs 549 crore, he added.