Trans-Pacific trade lane

Container shipping under pressure as peak season hopes dim

googletag.cmd.push(function() { var gptSlot = googletag.defineSlot(‘/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1’, [[728, 90], [468, 60], [300, 100], [320, 50]], ‘div-gpt-ad-b1-i-fw-ad-1’).defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).setCollapseEmptyDiv(true).addService(googletag.pubads());
gptAdSlots.push(gptSlot);
});

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-b1-i-fw-ad-1’); });

One of the earlier scenarios for container shipping’s 2023 peak season went like this: Importers...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/container-shipping-under-pressure-as-peak-season-hopes-dim

Crunch time for trans-Pacific container shipping contract talks

a chart showing trans-Pacific spot rates; current spot rates are negatively affecting contract rates

The annual contract season is down to the final stretch in the trans-Pacific shipping market. U.S. import costs, liner profitability and service reliability all hinge on where contract prices settle in the next few weeks.

The plot twist this year is that the prior round of annual contracts were signed at historically high levels and the timing of the current contract RFP season coincides with a period of still-sinking spot rates.

Import demand remains weak due to bloated inventories, with inbound...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/crunch-time-for-trans-pacific-container-shipping-contract-talks

China’s outbound container volumes take another step down

Daily ocean container departures from China to all ports globally have taken another step down, according to data in FreightWaves SONAR Container Atlas, falling to minus-22% year over year on Nov. 23.

Ocean container departures from China mounted a recovery following Golden Week — the first week of October this year — but then slipped again as weak demand abroad and renewed COVID-19 lockdowns in Guangzhou took a toll on economic activity.

(Ocean container bookings by day of departure from all...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/chinas-outbound-container-volumes-take-another-step-down

Shipping giant Maersk: ‘Significantly less demand’ but ‘no hard landing’

photo of a container ship operated by Maersk

It’s getting increasingly ugly for shipping lines in the trans-Pacific market. Spot rates are sliding relentlessly with each passing week. Liners are starting to suspend entire service strings: Maersk just dropped two trans-Pacific services, MSC and Matson canceled one each.

Is Maersk CEO Soren Skou — whose company operates the world’s second largest liner company — getting worried yet?

He doesn’t sound worried, at least, not about Maersk itself.

Skou addressed questions on current market...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/shipping-giant-maersk-significantly-less-demand-but-no-hard-landing

Biden to ocean carriers: ‘The rip-off is over’

Biden speaking at the Port of Los Angeles on June 10.

Making the case for legislation to hold carriers more responsible for shipping costs and service standards, President Joe Biden on Friday laid much of the blame for record-setting inflation data released earlier in the day on the decks of the world’s largest ocean carriers.

“Every once in a while something you learn makes you viscerally angry,” Biden said, speaking at the Port of Los Angeles. “That’s why I’ve called on Congress to crack down on foreign-owned shipping companies that have raised...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/biden-to-ocean-carriers-the-rip-off-is-over

Biden slams ocean carriers ahead of Port of LA speech

Biden speaking at White House and flanked by photos of container ships

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s planned speech at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, the White House released a video of the president on a phone call with retailers who were complaining about the high cost of ocean shipping.

“One of the big reasons why prices are going up is the cost of shipping things across the Pacific, in particular,” Biden says during the call. “There’s only nine major ocean line shipping companies who ship from Asia to the United States. These companies have raised their...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/biden-slams-ocean-carriers-ahead-of-port-of-la-speech

How COVID transformed trans-Pacific container shipping

Maersk container ship

COVID-driven cargo demand has dramatically altered the trans-Pacific shipping landscape. New data from Alphaliner highlights just how much the Asia-U.S. trade lane has changed over the past two years.

There’s now far more container shipping capacity in the trade than pre-pandemic. Capacity keeps rising, with more new shipping services focusing on the Asia-East Coast lane than Asia-West Coast.

Carrier competition is up, with more players overall and a lower share controlled by the three giant...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-the-pandemic-transformed-trans-pacific-container-shipping

New wave of contracts will lock in much higher shipping rates

container shipping

“We’ve never seen this before. We’re going into a tender season that doesn’t look like anything else historically,” said Patrik Berglund, CEO of Xeneta, a company that tracks both long- and short-term ocean shipping rates.

Berglund was referring to the exceptionally lopsided advantage shipping lines wield in 2022 negotiations for long-term contracts with cargo shippers — the contracts that determine what American importers will pay over the coming year, and increasingly, multiple years.

“If you...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/new-wave-of-contracts-could-lock-in-shipping-cost-inflation-for-years

Los Angeles imports slump further as congestion throttles volume

container shipping port congestion Los Angeles

Import volumes to Southern California ports continue to deteriorate, underscoring just how severe the supply chain crisis remains, despite public relations spin to the contrary.

Los Angeles disclosed on Thursday that it handled just 385,251 twenty-foot equivalent units of import cargo in December. That’s down 16% year-on-year and down 18% from December 2018, pre-pandemic.

December marked the fourth month in a row that Los Angeles’ imports fell versus the preceding month; imports were down 4.5%...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/los-angeles-imports-slump-even-further-as-congestion-throttles-volume

Shadow inflation: Shipping costs are up way more than you think

container shipping

Name something that costs far more than it did before the pandemic that simultaneously gives you far less value for your money than it used to.

Of all the goods and services in the world, it’s hard to find a better pick than ocean container shipping. As rates have skyrocketed, delivery reliability has collapsed amid historic port congestion. Ocean cargo shippers are paying more than they ever have before for the worst service they’ve ever experienced.

The true COVID-era inflation rate for ocean...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/shadow-inflation-shipping-costs-are-up-way-more-than-you-think

+ More