Freight Prices

Finnlines Shares Plunge On Profit Warning

Shares in Finnish shipping company Finnlines plunged on Wednesday after it said 2000 profit would be worse than expected due to tough competition, higher oil prices and strikes hindering business. On Wednesday shares were trading down 12.5 percent at 23.99 euros, under-performing already soft Helsinki shares. In February Finnlines posted a 1999 profit before extraordinary items of 67.3 million euros ($64.46 million) and said the outlook for 2000 was uncertain due to factors such as tighter competition and a drop in import volumes. Finnline’s released statement, reads in part as follows: A strong imbalance exists between exports and imports of unitized cargo in Finland. Since the company has wished to maintain its export service at the level requested by its customers, no measures have so far been taken to reduce cargo capacity. Competition for imported freight has led to unhealthy price levels. The volume of Russian transit traffic has remained low. The continuing high price of oil has raised operating costs significantly and it has been possible to transfer only a small proportion of these costs to freight prices owing to the intense competition. Ongoing industrial actions in Finland have caused substantial harm to the maritime industry and port operations. Sympathy strikes have been held at Finnish ports since March 14, 2000 to expedite negotiations in a dispute involving bus drivers in Tampere

Marks & Spencer Signs Contract with Drewry

Marks & Spencer joined other multinationals from North America, Asia and Europe which have found in Drewry’s 150 sets of port region-to-port region container freight rates a valuable source of pricing benchmarks to help their transport procurement decisions. Due to the launch of the global container freight rate benchmarks and associated regional and global freight rate indices, Drewry is making the unique, industry-first freight rate data available on-line to subscribers at www

Index-Linked Container Contracts Take-Off

Half of all index-linked contracts filed with the US Federal Maritime Commission reference Drewry’s Container Freight Rate Insight pricing benchmarks.   Drewry Maritime Research’s container freight rate benchmarks are the index of choice in index-linked container contracts, according to the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). The agency also indicated that uptake of index-linked container contracts on US trades was fast growing

Canada Clarke Expanes Freight Management Ops

Canada's Clarke Inc. doubled the size of its freight-management division with the purchase of four U.S.-based companies. Clarke, which has freight transportation and logistics services throughout North America, said it had bought Focus Carriers of Memphis, Tennessee; Kenley Trucking Inc of Atlanta, Georgia; and Creative Logistics of Ripon, California. Purchase prices were not disclosed. - (Reuters)

Improving Rates May Help Shippers Cope With Fuel Costs

Shipowners are now better placed to cope with soaring fuel prices because of growth in trade as Asia recovers from economic crisis, industry sources and analysts said. The price of bunker fuel, which typically makes up about five percent of a shipper's total operating costs, has - over the past six months - doubled to $140 per ton. The spoils from improved conditions have not been evenly shared within the industry, with tanker owners hit the worst.

Hapag-Lloyd Reports 2Q Numbers

Operating in an ever more competitive environment, Hapag-Lloyd achieved sales of €1.5 billion (over $2.1 billion) and a positive adjusted EBIT of €26 million (almost $36.7 million) in the 2nd quarter of 2011. This was slightly up on the previous quarter (€16.1 million/$22.8 million), while in the record year 2010 the comparable figure was €211.3 million (almost $298.9 million). EBIT came to €42.1 million (over $59

Shipping Execs Agree to Plead Guilty

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that four individuals have agreed to plead guilty for their involvement in a conspiracy to eliminate competition and raise prices for moving freight between the Continental U.S. and . A fifth shipping executive has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence of the shipping conspiracy. The five executives charged  work for large companies that provide freight shipping services to customers transporting goods between the continental and

Varun Shipping to Invest $300m

Varun Shipping reportedly will invest $300m to buy at least four new vessels in the offshore segment this year, according to a Reuters report. Varun is positioning itself to expand its presence in the offshore segment, the news organization said, quoting a leading Varun executive. Freight rates in the offshore segment has risen around 15 percent due to higher crude oil prices, which hit new life highs in 2008, crossing $120 a barrel on demand growth

Maersk Line Interim Management Statement

Revenue for the period increased by 10% to USD 14.5bn (USD 13.2bn), primarily due to higher container freight rates, container volumes and oil prices. The profit for the period increased by 82% to USD 1.2bn (USD 0.6bn) and was driven by better operational performance in most business units. The Group’s ROIC increased to 11.7% (7.6%). "We have had a good start to the year and are very satisfied with the results

Depressed Rates Take Toll On Older Vessels

Low tanker rates are pushing increasing numbers of old VLCCs to the scrapyard, but not enough to counter deliveries of new vessels, shipping brokers said. "Depressed VLCC rates seem finally to be taking a toll on the mid 70s built fleet of large tankers," Norwegian broker Bssoe said in a report for November. Nine VLCCs were sold for demolition during November, taking the total this year to 29 units, compared with 14 by the same time last year, the broker said.