Cscl News

“If consolidation was the solution to all that ails shipping, then container liner companies would be super profitable. They are not. In ‘commoditized’ sectors of the shipping industry, which by now includes pretty much everything apart from very small niche markets, there is hardly any economies of scale at the company level. As long as bigger is not in fact much better, then meaningful consolidation will not happen.”Dr. Roar Adland, visiting scholar at MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics and Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).Like any other business…

Short-term container rates on the China Main ports to North Europe Main ports have seen a slight drop since the beginning of the year. However, compared to Spring and Autumn 2018, overall the industry sees an increase, said a report from Xeneta, the ocean freight price benchmarking and market intelligence platform transforming the shipping and logistics industry.Xeneta reports rates on the up, with February 7, 2019 ticking in at USD1700 market average rate for a 40' box. Also, bunker prices are not as outrageous as before. Cargo from China to the United States has been moving at a record pace, but a slowdown is expected for the main…

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) announced that it has established a consortium with global liners, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, and ONE to launch joint services between Asia and west coast of South America. Previously, HMM operated three Asia-west coast of South America services with MSC, CMA-CGM, Hamburg Süd, Hapag-Lloyd, APL, and CSCL. The newly reorganized ‘Asia-west coast of South America’ joint services will connect Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan with the west coast of Mexico, Peru, Chile, Columbia through three loops starting at the beginning of April.

The layout of ship propellers is a balancing act between optimal power conversion and the avoidance of unwanted cavitation effects, which can result in damage to the propeller structure and higher noise levels. MAN Diesel & Turbo in Frederikshavn, Denmark, is using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation solution STAR-CCM+ from Siemens PLM Software to model cavitation and optimize ship propellers. Two mid-size container ships of 8,500 TEU – CSCL Europe and CSCL America – will be upgraded by retrofitting a efficient Kappel propeller.

Traffic to and from Antwerp, Europe's second-biggest port, was halted on Monday after a container ship ran aground on the banks of the river Scheldt which connects the port to the North Sea.   A spokeswoman said workers were trying to tow the 366-metre CSCL Jupiter away but could not say when this would be completed.   "We're heading for low tide in the coming hours, that does not make things easier," the spokeswoman said.   Covering a space of 20,000 football fields, the port of Antwerp is the 15th largest container port in the world and handles 214 million tonnes of maritime freight each year.   Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek

The U.S. maritime industry publicly recognized the merchant mariners responsible for safe ship operations at the Annual Safety Awards Luncheon held on June 7, 2017. In all, 211 people, representing 53 companies and their subsidiaries attended the annual industry-sponsored event where 1,582 vessels with 10,604 cumulative years of accident free operation were recognized. Since 1958, the Chamber of Shipping of America (CSA) has also sponsored the Safety Achievement Award program which recognizes outstanding feats of safety that contribute to saving a life, a ship or other property.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner William P. Yesterday, I voted to reject the Tripartite Agreement proposed by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (K Line); Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. (MOL); and Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK). This agreement was unanimously rejected by the Commissioners on the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). This decision by the FMC in no way precludes the Japanese carriers from merging their container trade business units into a single stand-alone company. Rather, the vote recognizes that the FMC cannot approve certain actions that would allow the three Japanese companies to act as a merged entity prior to actually merging. The Shipping Act does not provide the Federal Maritime Commission with authority to review and approve mergers.

China’s COSCO Shipping Development Co Ltd  announced a proposed nonpublic issuance of about 3.28 billion shares to specific investors, including its parent company, to raise up to 12 billion yuan ($1.79 billion), reports China Daily. COSCO Shipping Development will become a financing platform of its parent company－China Cosco Shipping Corp, the country's largest shipping company, according to its public statement. The company will use 6 billion yuan and 2.4 billion yuan from the proceeds for the capital injection into two of its subsidiaries, COSCO Shipping Leasing Co Ltd and Florens International respectively, while it will also use 1.8 billion yuan for the redemption of maturing corporate bonds and 1.8 billion yuan to refill the working capital of the company.

Drewry’s Z-score carrier financial stress index sunk to its lowest ever point following the first-half 2016 results. After Hanjin’s bankruptcy shippers are demanding more financial transparency from carriers. There is still much work to be done to clean up the logistical chaos created by Hanjin’s bankruptcy, but even so there are lessons from the sorry mess that need to be learned to avoid a repeat occurring. Firstly, all stakeholders must understand that no carrier is too big to fail. The hitherto expectation that some white knight would rescue an ailing carrier has been erased forever. Secondly, while Hanjin’s financial position was at the extreme edges and its demise is not expected to create a domino effect…

Drewry says that the container shipping world is shrinking as M&A and carrier failures increase. Is reduced competition the real cost of low rates? The container shipping world is getting smaller. Hanjin Shipping may continue as a regional Intra-Asia carrier if its survival plan is successful but its days of being a leading global player in the Top 20 are over. Other brands that have effectively disappeared from the upper echelons of carrier rankings this summer include China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) after its merger with Cosco, while APL and UASC are now merely sub-brands within larger companies after deals with CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd respectively.

Wärtsilä has been awarded the contract to supply newbuild Chinese container vessels with a total of 24 9-cylinder Wärtsilä 32 Auxpac generating sets. The engines will power six 21,000 TEU ships being built at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard (SWS) for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL). The order was placed in June with Wärtsilä's joint venture company CSSC Wärtsilä Engine (Shanghai) Co Ltd (CWEC). Because of its reliability, efficiency, and high availability the Wärtsilä 32 Auxpac engine has become a popular choice for vessels in the upper end of the shipping market. The Wärtsilä 32 is the most powerful of the company's Auxpac range of generating sets.

China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL) has proposed to change its name to Cosco Shipping Development Co (CSDC), in line with the company’s future business strategy and as a group member of China Cosco Shipping Corporation (Coscocs). "China Shipping Container Lines Co., Ltd. Board of Directors hereby announces that, in view of the Major asset restructuring program the company has been related to the motion of the Company and in February 1, 2016 the first meeting of 2016 Extraordinary General Meeting, through a major reorganization of assets, the Company will transfer container liner operators Type into a ship leasing, container leasing and non-leasing aircraft leasing business as the core…

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) announced today the conclusion of a 100% compliant Verified Gross Mass (VGM) lift of 159 UASC containers on board CSCL’s Saturn. This achievement comes ahead of the VGM requirement deadline of July 1st, 2016 making container weight verification a condition for vessel loading. The VGM requirement is an industry wide initiative that was kicked-started by the IMO Maritime Safety Committee’s recently approved changes to the SOLAS convention. UASC is working closely with its customers and partners to ensure the requirement that becomes legally binding tomorrow will accomplish its goal to increase maritime safety and reduce the dangers to cargo, containers and all those involved in container transport throughout the supply chain.

MAN Diesel & Turbo has won the order to supply Danaos Shipping Co. Ltd. with fixed pitch Kappel propellers, propeller boss caps with fins, and Engine Power Limitation for two container vessels – the 8,500 TEU ‘CSCL Europe’ and ‘CSCL America’. Mr. Dimitrios Vastarouchas, Technical Director & Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Danaos said: “At Danaos we look forward to have the vessels upgraded. Our R&D Department has conducted very thorough investigations before concluding what the right upgrade solutions for these vessels are and we are confident that the vessels will be highly competitive in the market once upgraded”. Both container vessels are powered by MAN B&W 12K98MC-C main engines rated at 68,520 kW at 104 RPM.

Speaking at the Intermodal Association of North America on May 5 in Chicago, U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner William P. Doyle discussed several of the shipping industry’s hottest topics, including ocean carrier consolidations and alliances, container weight VGM under SOLAS, and chassis. “We’ve all heard the recent announcements related to consolidations, for instance, CGM CGM and NOL-APL; and COSCO and CSCL. “We’ve all heard the announcement that Hapag Lloyd and UASC are in discussions on a possible merger.

Mergers and acquisitions, rather than the historically more popular alliances, are inevitable to address chronic overcapacity and drive further cost savings in container shipping, Fitch Ratings says. The merger talks between Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) announced last week demonstrate that full-blown M&A deals are gaining momentum. Although capacity on the Far East to Europe trade routes is dominated by just four alliances - 2M (36% of the total fleet capacity in September 2015, according to A.P. Moller-Maersk), CKYHE (24%), Ocean Three (21%) and G6 (18%) - container shipping remains effectively fragmented, highly competitive and plagued by overcapacity.

Four carriers have announced a new OCEAN Alliance to start next year. Where does this leave those carriers left behind? To the surprise of many it was announced last Wednesday that four carriers – CMA CGM, COSCO Container Lines, Evergreen Line and OOCL – from three different alliances are planning to join forces to create the OCEAN Alliance, to become operational from April 2017 subject to regulatory approval. There has been much speculation regarding potential changes to alliance membership following CMA CGM’s pending takeover of NOL/APL and the merger between the two Chinese state-backed lines Cosco and CSCL. However, while numerous permutations dropped into Drewry’s inbox…

Wärtsilä has been awarded a contract to supply its Wärtsilä Auxpac 32 generating sets for eight new 13,500 TEU container vessels being built for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL). Four generating sets are needed for each vessel, making a total of 32 sets in all. The order was placed in March 2016 with Wärtsilä's joint venture company, CSSC Wärtsilä Engine (Shanghai) Co Ltd (CWEC). The ships have been ordered from the Hudong-Zhonghua yard in China. The total power output from the contracted Wärtsilä engines will exceed 100 MW. Delivery of the engines to the yard will commence in the first half of 2017. The Wärtsilä Auxpac 32 is the auxiliary engine version of theWärtsilä 32 family, of which more than 1,200 engines are in operation worldwide.

A merger between Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) and Hanjin Shipping remains a real possibility, says the London-based analyst firmDrewry, who has looked at how such a company will look like. The research firm said in its Container Insight Weekly previous merger talks between HMM and Hanjin were put to rest by the Korean government last year, but the debt situation in both companies was causing serious concern in local circles and could bring the companies back to the table. “A merger would propel both carriers from being on the peripheries of the Top 20 to the become the fourth largest operator in the world (before the merger of Cosco and CSCL into China Lines) with combined worldwide volumes of 8 million teu from a fleet capacity of just over 1 million teu…

MacGregor has carried out optimised cargo system upgrades for two 14,000 TEU container vessels owned and operated by China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL). The vessels have re-entered service following the upgrades, which have been designed to increase their actual payload capacity. MacGregor and CSCL have signed a letter of intent for similar modifications for five more vessels. The vessels were built by Samsung Heavy Industries in 2011. Their MacGregor Cargo Boost system upgrades include modifications to the lashing system along with lashing bridge enhancement and the provision of Lashmate software. Planning for the upgrades was conducted in close cooperation between CSCL…

The most often quoted reason for consolidation is the reduction in unit costs which can be obtained by an operator with a larger volume of business. The ways in which these reductions can be achieved in practice are discussed in a new white paper, Consolidation in the liner industry, published by Drewry. Consolidation may put a shipping line in a better position to chart its future, with larger volumes and a greater control of its own destiny. • COSCO and CSCL’s merger advances them to fourth place (previously sixth and seventh respectively) though around 4% points behind CMA-CGM. Other carrier combinations could achieve comparable scale and there has been plenty of speculation around the case for shipping lines of the same nationality to merge.

China Shipping Container Lines Co. posted a net loss of 2.9 billion yuan ($448.5m)  in 2015, compared with profit of 1.04 billion yuan in 2014, the nation’s second-biggest container shipping company said in a statement. China Shipping in January had forecast a loss of 2.8 billion yuan for 2015. The revenues also fell 12% to RMB31.83bn from RMB36.08bn previously, the company said. The operating result has been of sign negative for -2.49 billion yuan respect to an operating profit of 1.96 billion yuan in 2014. Both international and domestic volumes were affected, falling 3.6% and 3.4% respectively. Last year the fleet of portacontainer of Chinese CSCL has transported cargo volumes pairs to altogether 7.8 million container teu…

In a continued effort to provide reliable and quality services in a complex environment, CMA CGM is pleased to introduce its new FAL 8 service rotation linking Asia to North Europe.   FAL 8 will stop calling at Zeebrugge port, last vessel being m/v CSCL ARCTIC OCEAN voy. 086SCE, sailing from Zeebrugge on May 7th, 2016.   Effective from m/v AL DAHNA voy. 088SCE, sailing from Felixstowe on May 6th, 2016, FAL 8 new rotation will be the following:   Qingdao - Shanghai - Ningbo - Xiamen - Yantian - Port Kelang - Felixstowe - Rotterdam - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Port Kelang - Yantian - Qingdao