Container Shipping Carrier News

Activity at Israel's ports is slowing after Saturday's attacks by Islamist group Hamas on towns close to Gaza, with the cost of insurance premiums for Israeli shipments soaring amid tightening supplies of food stocks, according to sources and data.Israel's southern coastal city of Ashkelon, which has a small port well in range of Hamas rockets, is not allowing ships to enter, shipping sources said.While the main Israeli ports of Ashdod further up the coast and Haifa in the north…

South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has secured an order for five new container ships set for delivery next year. The contract is worth KRW 903.9 billion (about USD 762 million), DSME said in a stock exchange filing.DSME announced the order without naming the buyer. But according to a WSJ report, Mediterranean Shipping Co.(MSC) is the company that placed order for  five giant container ships in a new sign that ocean cargo carriers are building up their capacity despite falling freight rates and weak trade growth.The report said that the Geneva-based MSC, the world’s second-largest container shipping carrier by capacity…

Swiss-headquartered MSC expects to pay over $2 billion a year in fuel costs due to tougher global marine fuel rules and will introduce a bunker charge next year to recoup expenses, the world's number two container line said.UN agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will prohibit ships from using fuels with sulphur content above 0.5 percent from Jan. 1, 2020, compared with 3.5 percent today, unless they are equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems, known as scrubbers…

As part of the CMA CGM Group, APL will join the league of the world’s largest container shipping lines in the OCEAN Alliance from April 2017. Navigating forward as a member of the world’s third largest container shipping Group, APL is poised to serve a network coverage of 38 loops within the OCEAN Alliance; along with more than 70 other loops beyond the Alliance. APL Chief Executive Officer, Nicolas Sartini said, “APL will be well-placed as a formidable container shipping carrier as we stand amongst the strongest forces behind the Alliance. While the Alliance will be characterized by unparalleled port coverage, frequent sailings and very competitive transit time, APL will continue to make a difference beyond the reliable transportation of cargoes from origin to destination.

A.P. Moller-Maersk , the world's biggest shipping firm, said the container business on which it is staking its future made a loss in the third quarter of the year as freight rates declined further. Shares in the Danish company fell as much as 9 percent after profit in the three months to the end of September fell 44 percent and came in below forecasts. Low oil prices have depressed returns from the energy business which is the other main arm of the company. The results underline the problems facing the family-controlled group which said in September it would focus its attention on building up its transport and logistics business, while creating a separate energy division. The company stuck to its forecast for annual profit to be significantly below last year's $3.1 billion.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, in its strategic review, is considering several options including a two-way split into an energy and a transport company, says a Bloomberg report. According to Danish daily Berlingske, the shipping group is likely to break up into transportation and energy divisions. "Maersk Transport" would include the Maersk Line, APM Terminals, Maersk Tankers, Damco and Svitzer units, while "Maersk Energy" would include Maersk Oil, Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service. The company's chairman first floated the idea of breaking up its business segments in June after appointing a new chief executive, Soren Skou. "The question is whether we should be a large group…

Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S has reported a plunge in profits in the second quarter in the face of tough market conditions. Maersk's quarterly net profit dropped 89 per cent to $118m compared with a year earlier. However, it stuck to a profit forecast of an underlying profit for 2016 significantly below last year’s $3.1 billion. The company maintained its outlook for an underlying profit for the full year significantly below last year's $3.1 billion. Soren Skou, head of Maersk Line called the results “unsatisfactory”. “Cost reductions and operational optimisations . . . made a significant contribution to mitigating the impact of the negative market conditions,” Skou said in a statement.

Net profit below forecasts, operating figure above; group hit by low freight rates and low oil prices. A.P. Moller-Maersk's progress in cutting costs reassured investors on Friday after the Danish shipping and oil giant reported a sharp decline in quarterly profit and its new chief executive confirmed that earnings would fall this year. The Copenhagen-based company fired its CEO in June and replaced him with Soren Skou, head of its Maersk Line container business, indicating it could split it into separate companies and sell off part of the group, including its oil division. Skou, a company veteran who has to respond to a shipping industry recession and tough oil markets, is expected to present the results of a strategy review in late September.

Danish shipping and oil group A. P. Moller-Maersk could split up into separate companies, its chairman said on Thursday after naming Soren Skou, the head of its container business, as chief executive. Maersk shares rose more than 10 percent on the news with investors betting on a break-up and seeing the appointment as a sign of a more profound restructuring. "The question is whether we should be a large group, or whether we should be a number of independent companies," Chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen told Danish online media Finans.

Denmark's Maersk Line is fighting to remain the world's no.1 container shipping carrier as a wave of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in Asia, creates new challengers trying to grab a bigger share of a depressed market. Maersk itself hasn't made a major acquisition for more than a decade but says it might be open to "the right opportunity", although doubters believe such deals risk accumulating ships without securing enough customers. A unit of oil and shipping group A.P. Moller-Maersk , the line has a 15 percent share of the overall container market.

APL, the world’s seventh largest container shipping carrier, confirmed a land purchase in the city of Joliet, Ill., to develop its latest intermodal container terminal in the United States. The 43 acres of space was acquired from CenterPoint Properties within the CenterPoint Intermodal Center, the largest inland port in the U.S. APL’s new container yard will be advantageously located close to the Union Pacific and BNSF Intermodal Rail Terminals, as well as numerous customer warehouse and distribution centers. Due for completion by December 2011, the container yard will function as APL’s Chicago Global Gateway, serving customers in Chicago and the surrounding areas. It will feature automated gate technology, an equipment maintenance facility as well as reefer servicing capabilities.

International container shipping carrier APL, has introduced to customers in the Greater China market its new Pacific China Express (PCX) service commencing early May 2006. The new weekly service will depart from Ningbo (Mon) and will call at Shanghai (Tues/Weds), Pusan (Thurs/Fri), Los Angeles (Tues/Wed/Thurs) and Oakland (Fri). The mid-week departure from Shanghai complements existing services departing on Sunday and Monday and will offer greater flexibility for customers. The PCX Service will provide transit times from Shanghai to Los Angeles of 13 days with the same for the reverse journey, which are among the industry’s fastest.