Tag: <span>Container Liners</span>

THE Alliance on Wednesday said it was postponing the planned restart of a service between Asia and the US East Coast due to the ongoing threats against vessels transiting the Red Sea. The decision underscores that ship diversions around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope will likely last through at least the first half of 2024, if not longer.

Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE) said in a statement that THE Alliance’s East Coast 4 (EC4) service from Asia will not restart as previously announced. The service was suspended last year due to plummeting freight rates.

The first voyage on the restarted EC4 from Taiwan’s Kaohsiung port was scheduled for mid-April on the 14,080-TEU YM Warmth, which was expected to arrive at the Port of Norfolk on May 25. The EC4 service spans ports in Taiwan, southern China, Vietnam and Singapore, with US calls at Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston and New Jersey.

The carriers said the EC4, which transited the Suez Canal on its westbound voyage leg, will be postponed “until the situation in the Red Sea has stabilized.”

The 13 vessels in the EC4 service will be deployed to THE Alliance’s three other Asia-US East Coast services, which will each add other Asian and US port calls in the absence of the EC4 service.

Increased naval presence

Just since March 1, there have been 11 attacks against commercial ships transiting the Red Sea in the vicinity of Yemen, according to the Royal Navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Houthi militants operating in Yemen have been launching regular attacks on vessels since last November, forcing ships to divert around southern Africa.

The attacks come despite an increase in Western naval presence in the Red Sea aimed at thwarting the Houthis. The European Union announced a combined naval operation called “Aspides” that began in mid-February, joining the US Navy-led Operation Prosperity Garden.

Even with the increased naval presence, Houthi militants have successfully sunk two ships in that period, the general cargo ship Rubymar and the bulk carrier True Confidence, the latter resulting in the deaths of three seafarers on March 7. In response, international seafarers’ unions designated the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as “warlike” areas and called on all carriers to avoid transits there.

Along with THE Alliance, Maersk said in a March 22 customer advisory that it has no plans to resume Suez Canal transits because “the risk level in the region remains elevated.”

Source:

Angell, M. (2024a, April 3). Red Sea crisis prompts the alliance to delay restart of Asia-USEC service. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/red-sea-crisis-prompts-alliance-delay-restart-asia-usec-service_20240403.html

Two trans-Pacific container services operated by THE Alliance that were suspended last year due to plummeting ocean freight rates will restart in the second quarter. The new capacity arrives as US imports from Asia show strong growth at the start of 2024 and trans-Pacific rates recover from 2023 lows.

Hapag-Lloyd said THE Alliance’s East Coast 4 (EC4) service will resume with the voyage of the 14,080-TEU YM Warmth, which is scheduled to arrive at Port of Norfolk on May 25. The EC4 service spans ports in Taiwan, southern China, Vietnam and Singapore, with US calls at Norfolk, Savannah, Charleston and New Jersey.

The EC4 will use a rotation of 13 ships operated by THE Alliance members Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis’ latest weekly report. It’s unclear whether Hapag-Lloyd and HMM will also deploy ships or take slot charters, Sea-Intelligence added.

With some THE Alliance services from Asia to the US East Coast being rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope, the EC4 transit time from Singapore to Norfolk will now be 29 days, according to Hapag-Lloyd’s online vessel schedules. The EC4’s Suez transit would take 25 days, according to the service’s proforma schedule.

In addition, THE Alliance’s Pacific Northwest 3 (PN3) service will restart with the first voyage of the 13,600-TEU HMM Aquamarine, which is expected to arrive in Vancouver on May 14. The PN3 port rotation includes southern China, South Korea, Vancouver and Tacoma.

THE Alliance, which said in December that the two services would be restored as part of their 2024 network, suspended the EC4 and the PN3 in the fourth quarter of 2023 due to the rout in freight rates.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024b, March 19). The alliance restores two trans-Pacific Services as Asia imports jump. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/alliance-restores-two-trans-pacific-services-asia-imports-jump_20240319.html

Gemini Cooperation, the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd alliance due to launch next February, is set to downgrade some of the carriers’ current key cargo gateways in Asia to feeder ports under its proposed “hub-and-spoke” network linking Asia with Europe, the Mediterranean and North America.

The new partnership will consolidate calls at just five main hubs in Asia — Shanghai, Ningbo, Yantian, Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas in southern Malaysia.

The move has already prompted Busan, one of the ports most affected by the downgrade, to urge Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to rethink their Gemini vessel schedules and restore some calls at the South Korean gateway. Sources hope that other carriers or alliances can fill some of the gaps in direct calls left by the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd alliance.

Under the preliminary Gemini network, Busan will lose all its main line calls by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd on Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean and trans-Pacific services. Direct calls on two Asia-US East Coast and one Asia-Middle East services will be retained, preliminary schedules show.

Hong Kong will also cease to be a gateway, with cargo trucked or feedered to Yantian, one of the four Shenzhen terminals.

Highlighting the shift, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust), the Singapore-listed subsidiary of the global operator, said as a major export hub for the US and European export markets, Yantian has been selected by the Gemini Cooperation as a main port of call in South China.

“For [Hong Kong’s] Kwai Tsing Terminals, it is anticipated that some of Maersk’s and Hapag-Lloyd’s throughput currently handled in Hong Kong may shift to Yantian when the operation starts,” Hutchison said in its annual results commentary on Feb. 7. “HPH Trust will work closely with Gemini Cooperation to identify any new opportunities which the new cooperation may bring.”

HPH Trust controls Hongkong International Terminals and Yantian International Container Terminals.

Xiamen, Kaohsiung also losing direct connectivity

Other ports that will lose direct connectivity include Xiamen in eastern China, which has calls by eight existing Maersk Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific services; Dalian in northeast China; Kaohsiung in Taiwan, which has calls by five Hapag-Lloyd trans-Pacific services; and Ho Chi Minh/Vung Tau in Vietnam. Vung Tau is a significant port for both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, with a total of 10 services, including eight on the trans-Pacific, calling there.

Several ports in Japan, notably Tokyo and Kobe, will also become feeder ports.

“We’re hoping shippers, forwarders and the ports themselves can persuade Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd to retain some direct calls on the main trades as the network plan is confirmed,” a senior executive at an Asia-based freight forwarder told the Journal of Commerce.

Lee Eung-hyuk, director of international logistics at the Busan Port Authority, said the port handles about 1 million TEUs of export and import cargo on the European trade lane alone with between 14 and 16 weekly services, depending on the time of year. Four are operated by the Maersk-Mediterranean Shipping Co. 2M Alliance and five by THE Alliance, of which Hapag-Lloyd is part.

“Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s announcement that they will not call at Busan Port on their Europe services will be a significant disadvantage for their existing customers, [such as] Korean import and export shippers,” Lee told the Journal of Commerce.

“For this reason, we think the decision may still be reversed in the future,” he added.

In Hong Kong, Hapag-Lloyd is currently the second-largest carrier behind Cosco Shipping in terms of scheduled capacity on Asia-Europe and North American services, deploying approximately 615,000 TEUs a quarter, according to figures from British maritime consultancy MDS Transmodal.

Maersk, meanwhile, deploys about 261,000 TEUs of capacity per quarter on North American-related services calling at Hong Kong, MDS Transmodal senior consultant Antonella Teodoro, told the Journal of Commerce.

All that volume would potentially shift to nearby Yantian in eastern Shenzhen under the Gemini service revamp.

Further deep-sea decline for Hong Kong

Maersk’s Asia-Europe and Mediterranean services are handled by the carrier’s hub at Nansha, about 60 miles northwest of Hong Kong and the main international gateway for Guangzhou.

Roberto Giannetta, chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association, said the move by the Gemini Cooperation to drop Hong Kong mainline calls continues the decline in deep-sea services that has been seen for some time. This is reflected in total container volumes, which fell to 14.3 million TEUs last year, the lowest since 1998.

Giannetta said the slide was exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions which largely prohibited truck traffic from moving between Hong Kong and adjacent Shenzhen, with carriers encouraging shippers to use Shenzhen port rather than Hong Kong.

“The lack of strategy on the part of Hong Kong port to intentionally promote and attract services compared to significant and meaningful planning on the part of all other regional ports has also contributed to the decline,” Giannetta told the Journal of Commerce.

Commenting on the sidelining of Hong Kong by the Gemini alliance, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Transport and Logistics Bureau said the government will actively work with the industry to explore new external markets.

“Specifically, we need to expand the international connections of the port and increase the volume of origin and destination cargo handled by the port, so as to solidify our status as the transshipment hub in Asia,” the spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

Customers ‘skeptical’ at this point

Maersk said Gemini’s 26 mainline services across seven trades including Asia-Europe, the US East and West coasts, Asia-Middle East and trans-Atlantic will be complemented by 32 feeder shuttle services, including 13 in Asia.

Hapag-Lloyd said 95% of the Asia-Europe volume would get faster or stay the same using the hub and shuttle network, although that would drop to 85% on the trans-Pacific based on forecast transit times. Schedule reliability would be 90% across four of the main trades, Hapag-Lloyd said in a Gemini presentation.

“The potential saving in time and cost made on their core loops will be translated into more third-party feedering,” a senior executive at an Asia carrier told the Journal of Commerce. “From what we hear at this stage, customers, overall, are rather skeptical it will work.”

The Gemini combination will comprise a pool of about 290 vessels with a combined capacity of 3.4 million TEUs, of which Maersk will deploy 60% and Hapag-Lloyd 40%.

Both Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk said the service details provided when the Gemini alliance was announced last month were “preliminary.” The carriers said they were also studying the possibility of operating their own services outside the alliance on Gemini’s seven main trades.

“The Gemini Cooperation will cover most of our services on these trades, however, we may choose to continue to operate or participate in a few parallel services outside Gemini, just like we do today,” a Maersk spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

Added a Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson: “We are currently reviewing our network outside Gemini Cooperation but have not finalized our plans yet.”

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, February 23). Asia Gateways Scramble as Gemini Alliance plans big shift to Feeder Port Network. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/asia-gateways-scramble-gemini-alliance-plans-big-shift-feeder-port-network_20240223.html

Zim Integrated Shipping has launched its first standalone express container service between Asia and the Port of Vancouver, augmenting the carrier’s slot-sharing agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Co. for service to the west coast of Canada.

Zim’s Pacific Northwest Xpress (ZPX) service kicked off with the Jan. 21 departure of the GSL Valerie from Vietnam’s Port of Cai Mep. It’s scheduled to arrive in Vancouver on Feb. 12.

The ship will be one of seven with an average capacity of 3,500 TEUs that will be in the ZPX service string, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis. The ZPX’s eastbound rotation includes Cai Mep, Yantian, Kaohsiung, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai and Vancouver, with an additional call on the westbound voyage at Busan.

The ZPX joins the Zim North Pacific (ZNP) service between China and Vancouver. MSC operates that service, where Zim charters space through its cooperative working agreement with the carrier.

While Zim saw its most recent operating results dragged down by weak freight demand, the carrier nonetheless has been looking to add capacity in certain trades. It restarted an Asia-US West Coast express service in late 2023 due to increased demand from e-commerce shippers and added a north-south express service to tap increased demand for refrigerated produce cargo into US Southeast ports.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024b, January 24). Zim launches its own Asia-Western Canada Express service. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/zim-launches-its-own-asia-western-canada-express-service_20240124.html

Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co. have reset schedules for container services between Asia and the US East Coast through the end of March due to the ongoing diversion of ships away from the Suez Canal. The 2M Alliance partners are telling shippers that vessels will return to regular weekly departures as they adjust to longer voyages around southern Africa.

Maersk said in a Wednesday advisory that four US East Coast services jointly operated with MSC will continue to forgo Suez Canal transits and reroute around the Cape of Good Hope as the security risk in the Red Sea “remains at a significant level.” Houthi militants based in Yemen have been launching drone and missile attacks against commercial shipping since mid-December.

The latest attacks came Wednesday when the Iranian-backed Houthis fired three missiles at the US-flagged Maersk Detroit during a transit through the Gulf of Aden, according to US Central Command. A US Navy guided missile destroyer intercepted two of the missiles, while a third landed in the sea. Maersk confirmed the attack in a statement to the Associated Press, adding that another US-flagged vessel, the Maersk Chesapeake, also came under attack.

Maersk said it adjusted schedules on the four other services “to preserve weekly departures for our services with the goal of offering more predictability, reliability, and consistency, despite the associated delays that come with the current reroutings.”

The TP17/America service between South China and the US East Coast will divert around the Cape of Good Hope for 15 east and westbound voyages departing between Jan. 24 and March 26. Maersk said it will add another vessel to the TP17 service, starting with the Maersk Sana departing Hong Kong on Feb. 18, to compensate for the “longer transport times.”

The Red Sea vessel updates show that a transit from Singapore to Newark will now take between 27 and 28 days, while the pro forma schedule for the TP17 shows an estimated transit time of 25 days.

Similarly, a transit from Vietnam’s Vung Tau to Newark will now take 33 days compared with TP17’s pro forma transit time of 25 days.

The TP11/Elephant service from Southeast Asia will also divert 16 westbound and eastbound voyages around the African Cape between Jan. 25 and March 30, according to Maersk, with westbound weekly departures resetting with the Maersk Saigon’s Feb. 22 departure from Singapore. The update shows that a voyage from Oman’s Port of Salalah to Newark will take between 24 and 25 days via the African Cape compared with an 18-day pro forma voyage time through the Suez Canal.

The TP12/Empire and TP16/Emerald services will use the African Cape for eastbound voyages to North Asia from the US for departures through Feb. 29 and March 18, respectively. The Red Sea update shows the Cape reroutings will affect 11 scheduled US departures through March 18.

The TP12 will omit eastbound calls at Salalah starting with the Jan. 25 US departure of the Georg Maersk.

The two services, though, will continue to use the Panama Canal for their voyages from Asia to the US East Coast.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, January 24). 2M adjusts Asia-US East Coast ship schedules to account for cape reroutings. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/2m-adjusts-asia-us-east-coast-ship-schedules-account-cape-reroutings_20240124.html

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd on Wednesday unveiled a new operational partnership called “Gemini Cooperation” that will begin early next year and revolve around a global “hub-and-spoke” network of owned or controlled terminals in key locations.

Hapag-Lloyd will exit THE Alliance and link up with Maersk in February 2025 after the dissolution of the Maersk-Mediterranean Shipping Co. 2M Alliance. The Gemini Cooperation will operate a fleet of 290 vessels with an overall capacity of 3.4 million TEUs serving the major global trade lanes.

The cornerstone of the new partnership will be the hub-and-spoke network the carriers believe will enable them to achieve schedule reliability above 90%, a level that has not been achieved in years and would differentiate Gemini from other alliances.

“It is a realistic target,” Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen told reporters during a press briefing. “When you have an efficient network at scale you can have a hub and spoke model, and to have control over the hubs and terminals is absolutely critical.”

The Gemini network will be structured around 12 terminal hubs owned or controlled by Maersk or Hapag-Lloyd in Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, North Europe, and North and South America. It will cover seven global trades and offer 26 mainline services, with 32 dedicated regional shuttle services to and from the key hubs to ensure connections to many major ports.

The carriers will be part of the Gemini partnership for three years, after which a 12-month notice period will be required should either wish to withdraw. Maersk will provide 60% of the capacity and Hapag-Lloyd 40%, but Habben Jansen noted that both carriers would continue to operate other services outside the Gemini network using capacity not allocated to the new partnership.

Maersk is the world’s second-largest container shipping line by capacity with just over 4 million TEUs; Hapag-Lloyd is sixth at 1.8 million TEUs.

Streamlined port calls

Habben Jansen said he was confident the 90% on-time reliability would be achievable as the network would be more reliable and interconnected than traditional alliance setups, something the partners expect would improve the ability of services to cope with external disruptions.

“We will reach this [reliability] through a combination of streamlined port calls, controlled hubs and dedicated shuttle services,” he said. “All loops will have two to three main port calls per region so the risks of delays will be significantly less, and by controlling the hub terminals we can also control priority and waiting times. The shuttles will operate with a high frequency from hub terminals to final destinations.”

Gemini will release its preliminary ocean schedules in the third quarter, with the full operating schedules to be available in the fourth quarter.

Maersk said in a statement it would continue to work with its 2M partner MSC between now and the end of the 2M agreement in January 2025, “followed by a smooth transition to the new Gemini network.”

“We are pleased to enter this cooperation with Hapag-Lloyd, which is the ideal ocean partner on our strategic journey,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said in a statement Wednesday.

“By entering this cooperation, we will be offering our customers a flexible ocean network that will be raising the bar for reliability in the industry,” Clerc added. “This will strengthen our integrated logistics offering and meet our customers’ needs.”

Habben Jansen emphasised that the cooperation with Maersk would not result in any change to the individual strategies deployed by the two carriers.

“Although we don’t have the same strategy — we are more a pure ocean player and they have an end-to-end focus — we have a shared goal around quality and sustainability that are two important parts of the cooperation we are setting up,” he told reporters, comparing the Gemini partnership to cooperation seen in the airline industry.

“Not all cooperations need to stop in five or 10 years,” Habben Jansen noted. “Look at the cooperation between Lufthansa and United, airlines that have been working together for decades. I do not see why something like that could not happen in shipping.”

Alliance reorientation

Hapag-Lloyd has been part of THE Alliance since 2017 along with Ocean Network Express (ONE), Yang Ming and HMM; its exit will withdraw 25% of the alliance’s capacity. While Hapag-Lloyd had planned to remain a member of THE Alliance until 2030, Habben Jansen said the partnership with Maersk better served its goals.

“This is not a decision against THE Alliance, which has been a long-standing, trusted and successful partnership for us,” he said. “It is a next step to build something new that we believe will enable us to generate even more value for our customers by pairing our Hapag-Lloyd customer service with much higher operational quality in a robust and resilient network.”

But Habben Jansen noted that without Hapag-Lloyd, one of THE Alliance’s largest members, the three remaining carriers would need to “reorient themselves.”

That’s a view shared by Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst.

“This leaves ONE, Yang Ming and HMM in a very vulnerable position, unable to field a network matching those of Ocean Alliance, MSC and Gemini,” Jensen wrote in a LinkedIn post. “The pressure is then on these three carriers to either lure a new partner out from Ocean Alliance or re-invent a new service concept.”

Source:

Knowler, G. (2024, January 17). Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd Launch New “gemini cooperation” partnership. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-hapag-lloyd-launch-new-gemini-cooperation-partnership_20240117.html

Maersk plans to eliminate Panama Canal vessel transits on a north-south service between Oceania and the US East Coast, citing the ongoing drought that has reduced ship transits and container carrying capacity through the waterway.

The Copenhagen-based carrier said Wednesday that its OC1 service linking Australia and New Zealand with the ports of Philadelphia and Charleston will instead use a 50-mile rail service across the Isthmus of Panama to handle cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific.

As a result, the OC1 service will be broken into two loops, Maersk said. The Pacific loop will drop off northbound cargo at Balboa for the land bridge service via rail to Manzanillo, where the Atlantic loop will retrieve the cargo and resume waterborne service.

The carrier did not say whether the nearly 26-day transit time from New Zealand to Philadelphia would change due to the land bridge. It said that while northbound cargo will not be delayed, southbound cargo may see some delays.

Other Maersk services from Asia to the US East Coast will continue to use the Panama Canal.

Along with the Panama Canal, Maersk said the OC1 would omit Cartagena, Colombia, as a call. It also directed shippers to the option of its PANZ service between Oceania and the US West Coast.

Maersk said the decision to omit the Panama Canal crossing on OC1 was “based on current and projected water levels in Gatun Lake,” which provides the water to raise and lower vessels in the canal’s locks. As of Wednesday, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said Gatun Lake was at 81.6 feet, compared with a five-year average water level for January of 86.9 feet.

Low water levels have forced the ACP to only allow 24 ships of any size to transit the canal daily, down from the 35 to 40 ships it could handle before the ongoing drought that has reduced Gatun’s water levels. Ships must also carry less cargo as the canal is limiting the maximum depth of neo-Panamax vessels to 44 feet from 50 feet. Smaller Panamax vessels, such as the ones in the OC1 service, are restricted to a 39.5-foot depth versus the typical 45 feet.

In early December, ocean carriers in THE Alliance said they were preparing to divert east-west vessel services from the Panama Canal due to the potential for transits being reduced to as few as 18 by February. But with better-than-projected water levels on Gatun Lake, the ACP did not implement that further reduction.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024a, January 10). Maersk opts for rail crossing on a north-south service to bypass Panama Canal. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-opts-rail-crossing-north-south-service-bypass-panama-canal_20240110.html

Maersk on Sunday said it would pause any further transits through the Red Sea for at least 48 hours after one of its container ships was attacked twice within 24 hours by Houthi rebels who do not appear deterred by the presence of a multinational naval force meant to restore security in the region.

The second attack against the Maersk Hangzhou this weekend represented an escalation in hostilities as Houthis used small boats to get within 65 feet of the 14,000-TEU vessel in an attempt to board the ship, which Maersk said was not damaged by missiles fired by the attackers. Until Sunday, the Iran-backed Houthis have attacked ships by firing missiles and launching drones from southern Yemen.

“Maersk can … confirm that after the initial attack on the vessel, four boats approached the vessel and engaged fire in an expected attempt to board the vessel,” the carrier said in a statement Sunday. “A helicopter was deployed from a nearby navy vessel, and in collaboration with the vessel’s security team, the boarding attempt was successfully repelled.

“In light of the incident — and to allow time to investigate the details of the incident and assess the security situation further — it has been decided to delay all transits through the area until 2nd January,” Maersk added.

Maersk said the vessel, bound for Port Suez after initially departing Singapore, was continuing its sailing northbound.

Responding to the 23rd attack on a commercial ship since Nov. 19, US Navy helicopters sank three of the four small vessels involved, killing the crews, the US Central Command said Sunday.

The attacks against the Maersk Hangzhou came one week after the carrier, responding to the creation of the naval task force, said it would resume some sailings through the Red Sea and Suez Canal once operationally possible. But Maersk warned in its Dec. 24 announcement that its resumption of Suez transits could change if the security situation deteriorated further.

Naval escorts not a sufficient deterrent yet

It was not immediately known what effect the Maersk attacks would have on other carriers, namely Cosco and CMA CGM, that had also been sending some of their ships through the Suez. At first blush, it is likely to send even more capacity diverting around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa.

At the very least for ocean carriers, it means that a protection regime has not materialized that guarantees freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab strait and eliminates or significantly reduces the risk of attack in the area. No organized system of naval escorts or convoys has come into existence, nor have land-based threats been eliminated or seriously confronted. Rather, senior ocean carrier executives tell the Journal of Commerce, the Operational Prosperity Guardian coalition is relying on deterrence created by its physical presence and its ability — for the most part successfully thus far — to intercept air-based weapons to keep the Suez route open to at least some shipping traffic.

But it’s clearly not enough, illustrating the difficulties the US is facing in balancing its desires to protect freedom of navigation while seeking to avoid escalating the Israeli-Hamas war into a full-blown regional conflict. As long as broader US goals conflict with those of protecting shipping and an effective protective regime fails to materialize, ships will continue to be diverted around the much longer Cape of Good Hope route, disrupting supply chains.

Geopolitical analysts warn that the patrols can help shield vessels, but the Houthi rebels are well-placed to keep up attacks via relatively cheap drones and missile attacks from the shore of southern Yemen. S&P analysts and container lines carriers tell the Journal of Commerce that earlier suspicions that rebels were targeting vessels tied to Israel were incorrect, putting any ships — regardless of shipowner — in danger.

“If the Houthis keep up the pace of attacks and have a steady supply of drones and missiles [which seems likely], the cost of maintaining a naval escort operation — including the costs of operating the ships at distance — will rapidly rise into the tens of billions of dollars,” Bruce Jones, a geopolitical analyst and TPM23 speaker, wrote in Foreign Policy.

Detail please refer to JOC News.

Source:

Szakonyi, M. (2023, December 31). Maersk Pauses Red Sea routings after new attacks. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-pauses-red-sea-routings-after-new-attacks_20231231.html

 

Shippers in Asia and Brazil are suffering from cargo delays of up to a month as ocean carriers omit calls at key transshipment ports in Central and South America to offset delays caused by limits on the number of ship transits through the drought-hit Panama Canal.

Port and freight forwarding executives say the omissions mainly affect carriers in THE Alliance.

Highlighting the delays, Fabrizio De Paulis, managing director of Brazilian forwarder De Paulis Logistics & SCM Eireli, said two consignments of reefer containers were delayed at Cartagena, Colombia, for almost two weeks because of port omissions and congestion.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Hapag-Lloyd confirmed they are skipping calls, especially at Cartagena and Manzanillo in Panama, although omissions are being made at other ports.

ONE said at least 12 December and January sailings on the Asia-US East Coast EC1 and EC2 services, operated as part of THE Alliance network, would skip calls at either Manzanillo or Cartagena as vessels were diverted.

Vessels operating those services, including the 13,000-TEU Ulsan Express and 13,296-TEU Al Riffa were originally to be diverted through the Suez Canal, ONE said. But due to the threat of missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea, ships are now sailing via the Cape of Good Hope.

The extra transit time has lengthened the original delay of about 10 days for arrival on the US East Coast to about one month, vessel schedules showed Tuesday.

By comparison, the latest data from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) shows 47 vessels with transit bookings and 23 vessels without were waiting in the queue Tuesday. The average waiting time for non-booked neo-Panamax vessels was under five days for north and southbound vessels, ACP data showed.

ONE said it was also transshipping cargo in South Korea’s Busan after it changed vessel routings from eastbound to westbound to avoid the Panama Canal.

Hapag-Lloyd said it is omitting calls at ports including Kaohsiung, Taiwan and Buenaventura in Colombia on its Asia-Latin America (JCS) and North Europe-South America Westcoast (SWX) services.

“The omissions were made because we didn’t get slots to go through the canal,” a Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce. “The slot situation is challenging at the moment, but we see some light at the end of the tunnel. The EC2 service will pass via the canal in January again.”

Maersk said it has not made any port omissions despite the restrictions through the Panama Canal.

“We have been closely monitoring the situation and, thus far, we have been able to continue making and securing timely Panama Canal transits to support our customers,” Maersk Latin America spokesperson Monica Martinez told the Journal of Commerce. “We continue to adapt our internal processes to match the updated booking requirements of the canal, securing access to the transit slots needed to ensure minimum impact on our customers.”

Panama is continuing to suffer from a prolonged drought in what is supposed to be the height of the country’s rainy season, which generally lasts between May and November. While transit restrictions have been implemented during periods of low rainfall since at least 2016, the drought has been especially severe this year due to the simultaneous warming of both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which has reduced rainfall.

The number of ship transits through the canal, reduced to 32 during the northern hemisphere summer, was cut again to 31 from Nov. 1. Under normal circumstances, about 40 transits per day would take place.

Fewer vessel calls for Panama’s MIT

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2023b, December 27). Shippers face delays as carriers skip South America calls due to Panama Canal woes. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/shippers-face-delays-carriers-skip-south-america-calls-due-panama-canal-woes_20231227.html

A Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) container ship on Tuesday became the latest commercial vessel attacked in the Red Sea, just days after its 2M Alliance partner Maersk said it would consider resuming transits through the Red Sea and Suez Canal due to the creation of an international naval task force meant to protect shipping in the region.

MSC said in a statement that the MSC United VIII was attacked in the early afternoon local time while it was en route from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Port to Karachi, Pakistan. The ship is not on a regular service but listed as an “extra vessel” on MSC’s online schedule.

“The vessel informed a nearby coalition task force warship of the attack and as instructed engaged in evasive maneuvers,” MSC said in the statement. “Currently, all crew are safe with no reported injuries and a thorough assessment of the vessel is being conducted.

“Our first priority remains protecting the lives and safety of our seafarers, and until their safety can be ensured MSC will continue to reroute vessels booked for Suez transit via the Cape of Good Hope,” the carrier added. It did not disclose the exact nature of the attack.

The diversions are being driven by accelerating attacks against commercial shipping in the form of missiles and drones launched by Houthi rebels from southern Yemen, an extension of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The US last week announced the creation of a multinational naval force to thwart the attacks and restore security to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Tuesday’s attack was the third against a container ship. On Dec. 14, the Maersk Gibraltar had a “near-miss” incident, according to Maersk, while Hapag-Lloyd’s Al Jasrah was attacked the following day. Neither incident resulted in any casualties, and the ships were able to resume their transit.

Separately, the US Central Command reported that a US Navy destroyer and fighter jets on Tuesday shot down 12 attack drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles the Houthis launched from Yemen.

Maersk said Friday while the presence of the naval force is “most welcome news” for commercial shipping, “the overall risk in the area is not eliminated at this stage.”

Source:

Angell, M. (2023, December 26). MSC ship becomes latest targeted in Red Sea Attack. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/msc-ship-becomes-latest-targeted-red-sea-attack_20231226.html