Container shipping companies earned USD 190bn in 2021, expects Drewry, and 2022 is set to become even better with an estimated sector profit of USD 200bn despite limited growth in freight volumes.
The world’s largest container line, MSC, and German aviation company Lufthansa have offered to take over Italian state airline ITA, the former Alitalia. MSC and Lufthansa have requested a 90-day exclusivity period to closely examine ITA.
Container line OOCL, owned by China’s Cosco, doubled its revenue in 2021, with the top line for Q4 alone surging by 101.4 percent, the carrier says. This major increase happens despite a dive in container liftings during the quarter.
So-called back-haul shippers are strained by high container rates, however, the difference from head-haul routes, which sail cargo the opposite way from Asia to the US, is increasing. Back-haul is thereby less interesting to carrier, writes Sea-Intelligence.
A member has chosen to step down from MPC Container Ships’ board with immediate effect, states the shipowner.
Important US west coast harbors under Port of Los Angeles handled record-large cargo amounts in 2021, a year otherwise plagued by significant delays and accumulating containers at terminals.
On an annual basis, container freight rates have increased by 76.1 percent, according to SCFI.
Shipowner MPC Container Ships announces at the start of 2022 that it has entered seven new multi-year charter arrangements at ”strong rates.”
Container lines are in full sail on getting a share of the current sky-high freight rates, which meant a historically low number of scrapping in the second half of last year. Just four container vessels were sold as scrap, according to Alphaliner.
Major container shipowner Danaos has made charter arrangements and sold two vessels, with the combined transactions infusing the company with around 1 billion US dollars.
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) hands out fines to 23 carriers, including HMM and a Maersk company, for illegal collaboration on price fixing up until 2018. Maersk confirms the matter to ShippingWatch. Updated.
German company MPC Capital, which owns shipowner MPC Container Ships, orders four newbuilds able to sail on methanol. The first ship in the series is slated for delivery next year.
Energy company Ørsted has just bought 45 percent of Swedish Flagship One, which is set to produce green methanol for the shipping industry as of 2024. Ørsted's head of hydrogen wants Maersk as customer in the large scale project, he tells ShippingWatch.
Despite the blockage in the Suez Canal during spring of last year, the crucial waterway set a record for the number of ships passing through in 2021, reports Bloomberg. The canal is expected to complete an expansion by the middle of next year.
Maersk charters more than 400 ships and targets climate neutrality by 2040, although it is currently not possible to charter a green ship. The carrier aims for the market to solve the problem, says Maersk's head of decarbonization to ShippingWatch.
Vessel Madrid Bridge, chartered by Japanese carrier ONE, dropped around 60 containers in the ocean earlier in January, agent to the ship's owner confirms to ShippingWatch.
Maersk is raising expectations of its underlying operating result for the full year following a Q4 in which volumes declined slightly and rates surged by 80 percent.
2021 was the most profitable year for the shipping industry since 2008, writes Clarksons. Two segments in particular pull the industry up.
Maersk is garnering praise for ramping up its climate targets. However, climate researcher Tristan Smith hopes to see even more steps taken by the industry leader. NGO Transport & Environment wants Maersk to declare support for EU's targets.
MSC, which took over the position as the world's leading container carrier last week, has bought ships for more than USD 4bn since 2020, according to Alphaliner.
The Maersk group moves its climate goal ten years forward, now planning on being climate neutral by 2040. "The science is clear, we must act now," says CEO Søren Skou.
In an update to customers, the Danish shipping giant expresses concern that Covid-19 infection could cause problems at the world's third-busiest port, Ningbo in China. Several major ports around the world are now running in a state of "critical" operation.
MSC Chief Executive Søren Toft says that higher costs of green fuels will trickle down through the supply chain and that the green transition will lead to price increases for customers. He remains firm on LNG's position as a transitional fuel.
Long contracts to lead the way to increased supply security for shippers in 2022, recommends DHL, which expects freight rates to stay at a high level this year.
Monday, 71 container ships were waiting to dock in Long Beach and Los Angeles on the US west coast. All in all, 92 ships were waiting outside the strained ports recently hit by new coronavirus outbreaks.
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