Cargo News

CMA CGM delivered a resilient first quarter, but the numbers underscore the increasingly complex environment facing the global container shipping and logistics giant.The Marseille-based group reported first-quarter revenue of $13.23 billion, essentially flat year-over-year, while EBITDA fell 31.6% to $2.11 billion and net income dropped sharply to $250 million, down from $1.12 billion a year earlier.For the shipping division, the picture was mixed. Volumes rose 1.5% to 5.93 million TEU, but maritime revenue declined 8.5% to $8.02 billion as average revenue per container weakened nearly 10%.

"So far this year, ship transits via the Panama Canal have increased 8% y/y to a daily average of 38, driven by the tanker sector. Transits have been especially high during the past five weeks, rising 16% y/y, as US energy exports to the Pacific jumped,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.The Iran War and the subsequent reduction in Strait of Hormuz transits have disrupted exports from the Persian Gulf, tightening the global energy supply and boosting prices for energy commodities.

Rio Tinto has celebrated the shipment of 8 billion tonnes1 of iron ore to global markets from the Pilbara region, 60 years after the company’s first shipment set sail from Western Australia for Japan.The milestone shipment departed from Cape Lambert port aboard the Juno Horizon on May 19, bound for Nippon Steel Corporation, one of Rio Tinto’s longstanding partners.Rio Tinto’s first Pilbara iron ore shipment departed in August 1966 for Japan.Eight billion tonnes of iron ore is enough to produce the steel needed for more than 161…

Three supertankers were crossing the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday carrying oil bound for Asian markets, after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude on board, while another was entering, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed.The ships are among a handful of supertankers exiting the Gulf this month via a transit route that Iran has ordered ships to use.The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran which began on February 28 has severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz…

Dassault Systèmes announced the real-world deployment of its virtual twin technology for autonomous cargo operations with Singapore-based deep-tech startup iHawk Global. The system is currently being piloted at an active 50,000 sqm container yard in Singapore, where autonomous aerial drones and ground rovers work together to capture live inventory data and provide operators with real-time asset visibility. The deployment is among the first of its kind in ASEAN for cargo operations in dense…

Diamond Gas Jade, a 174,000-cu.-m. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carrier invested by a joint venture under U-Ming Marine Transport Corp., held its grand naming ceremony on May 19 at the Samsung Heavy Industries Geoje Shipyard. Built by Samsung Heavy Industries, Diamond Gas Jade is equipped with the latest energy-saving environmental technologies and a dual-fuel propulsion engine. Upon delivery, it will commence long-term LNG transportation operations supporting global energy logistics.U-Ming Marine's Board of Directors recently approved the construction of four 210…

Two Chinese supertankers carrying 4 million barrels of Middle East crude oil exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed.The ships are among a handful of supertankers carrying Iraqi crude exiting the Gulf this month via a transit route that Iran has ordered ships to use.Chinese-flagged very large crude carrier (VLCC) Yuan Gui Yang loaded 2 million barrels of Iraqi Basrah crude on February 27, a day before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran started, the data showed.The vessel, chartered by Unipec, the trading arm

The South African Veterinary Association’s (SAVA) has released a formal position statement opposing the export of live animals by sea for slaughter at destination.SAVA joins many other international veterinary associations in condemning this practice. SAVA’s statement draws on extensive peer-reviewed scientific research to conclude that the welfare of animals transported by sea is unavoidably compromised. It identifies a range of inherent harms, among them thermal stress, dangerous ammonia accumulation, the physical impact of ship motion, and risk of infectious disease.

I watched the first episode of The Madison, a Michelle Pfeiffer TV Drama on Paramount.In short, it deals with a rich NY family, where the patriarch dies while fishing in Montana and the daughter of the matriarch played, by Michelle Pfeiffer, gets mugged in New York City. Very quickly it is conveyed that New York City is fake and that truth can be found fly fishing on the Madison River in Montana.The mugging as depicted in the show symbolizes the evilness and moral loneliness of New York City…

Shipping giants CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd said on Sunday they had suspended all bookings to and from Cuba until further notice, with both citing a U.S. executive order issued on May 1, in the latest blow to the crisis-wracked island's economy.The temporary suspension of new orders by two of the world’s largest shipping companies could jeopardize as much as 60% of Cuba's shipping traffic by volume, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said - a fresh hit to a country already nearing collapse amid a U.S. oil blockade that has throttled the island's fuel supply.“Following the U.S.

The Iran war is starting to shape China's imports of major commodities, with April data showing a sharp decline in crude oil but rising trade in metals.The headline-grabbing number from the figures released last week by customs was the slide in arrivals of crude oil, with the world's biggest importer taking in 9.37 million barrels per day (bpd), the lowest in almost four years.April's imports were down 20% from the same month in 2025 as seaborne imports from the Middle East declined sharply amid the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S.

Vesselindex has released its annual Performance Report, providing an independent assessment of how listed dry bulk companies perform relative to peers and the broader market in terms of Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) earnings.The report covers 19 publicly listed companies representing approximately 825 vessels across more than 150 vessel designs. It is based on a normalized benchmarking framework that enables comparisons across fleets with differing specifications.While industry performance is traditionally measured against Baltic Exchange indices…

UTC Overseas and Transoceanic Development have launched UTC Transoceanic (UTC Transo), a joint venture aimed at supporting the growing logistics needs of energy, power and industrial infrastructure projects along the U.S. Gulf Coast.Headquartered in New Orleans, the venture combines UTC Overseas’ project logistics and customs brokerage operations with Transoceanic Development’s regional infrastructure and port expertise in Louisiana.The companies said UTC Transo would focus on logistics support for large-scale projects including LNG developments…

Descartes Systems Group has released its May Global Shipping Report which found that U.S. container imports decreased by 3.2% in April 2025, as trade uncertainty and geopolitical risks persist.In April 2026, U.S. container import volumes decreased by 3.2% over March to 2,277,965 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). China-origin imports decreased 4.3% month-over-month and 15.3% year-over-year, according to the latest report by Descartes.West Coast ports reclaimed market share lead over East and Gulf Coast ports and port transit delays improved broadly over March.

MISC Group (MISC) named two new generation Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers, Seri Dian and Seri Dayang, on May 7, 2026. The addition of these vessels further strengthens its long-standing partnership with SeaRiver Maritime LLC (SRM), a wholly owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil.Constructed by Hanwha Ocean Co., Ltd., the 174,000 CBM LNG carriers are equipped with smart and energy-efficient technologies, including the Intelligent Control by Exhaust Recycling (ICER) system and an…

It was March that South Korea’s LOTTE Fine Chemical announced that it has successfully completed the world’s first commercial cross-border import of green ammonia. Then on April 23, the Ulsan Port Authority announced the successful completion of the world’s first ammonia bunkering operation involving a gas carrier at the port – a world first port-to-ship ammonia bunkering operation.This milestone builds on Ulsan Port’s earlier achievements, including the world’s first methanol…

Coal shipments to Japan, South Korea and the European Union rose 27% year-on-year in April as tight gas supplies and disruption to LNG shipments prompted buyers to seek alternative fuel sources for electricity generation, shipping association BIMCO said.The increase came as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted LNG exports from the Persian Gulf and contributed to an 8% decline in global seaborne LNG shipments in April, BIMCO said.“In April 2026, coal shipments to Japan…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would briefly pause an operation to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress toward a comprehensive agreement with Iran."We have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom ... will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote on social media.There was no immediate reaction from Tehran, where it was very early on Wednesday morning.Only hours earlier, U.S.

The U.S. military said on Monday it destroyed six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian cruise missiles and drones as Tehran sought to thwart a new U.S. naval effort to open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.U.S. President Donald Trump launched the operation, called Project Freedom, on Monday as he sought to wrest control of the critical waterway from Iran, which effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel started the conflict on February 28.U.S.

President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would begin an effort to free up ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday morning.Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, gave few details about the operation, including whether the U.S. Navy would be involved. He described the effort as a "humanitarian gesture" meant only to aid neutral countries that were not involved in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran."For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United States…

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said his country maintains a positive relationship with China despite being caught up in a dispute between the Asian superpower and the U.S., and defended Panama's takeover of port contracts held by Hong Kong's CK Hutchison.He spoke at a regular press conference after receiving what he called a "high-level" message from China's government acknowledging that a dispute over the port contracts will be heard by international arbitration courts, and did not constitute an issue between the Panamanian and Chinese governments.The message…

A U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports has shrunk Tehran's oil exports, stranding a growing stockpile of crude on tankers as Iranian storage sites run out of space, shipping data showed and analysts said.With some vessels switching off tracking systems and U.S. forces turning back Iranian tankers, how much crude Iran is delivering to customers, particularly main customer China, is impossible to measure.Just a handful of carriers carrying Iranian crude have left the Gulf of Oman between April 13-25, oil analytics firm Vortexa said.

Russia has added four LNG carriers to its fleet, LSEG ship-tracking data and the Russian ship register showed on Wednesday, which could help the country to increase its market share ahead of an EU ban on Russian gas imports.The European Union in January gave its final approval to a ban on Russian gas imports by late 2027.The bloc has also imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its war on Ukraine. The sanctions have limited Russia's access to the vessels it needs to gain a…