Drewry Shipping Consultants News

Drewry Shipping Consultants has revealed that it now expects global port throughput to rise by 2.6% in 2019, down from the previous 3.0% expectation.The mood-music surrounding the container market has deteriorated further in the last three months, resulting in Drewry downgrading its outlook for world container port throughput for the current year and the rest of the five-year horizon in the Container Market Annual Review and Forecast.The weight of risks pressing down on the container market seems to be getting heavier by the day,” said Simon Heaney, senior manager, container research at Drewry and editor of the Container Forecaster.

COSCO Shipping Holdings Co Ltd saw its stock climb on Monday after bidding $6.3 billion for a Hong Kong peer, a deal that would see it become the world's third-biggest container shipper and underline China's supply-chain ambitions. The offer for Orient Overseas International Ltd (OOIL) comes as China's government pushes to raise the country's profile in global shipping, which dovetails with its Belt and Road initiative aimed at increasing China's influence over distribution from Asia to Europe. Beijing merged two shippers last year to form COSCO Shipping which, after the latest deal, will rise from fourth to rank only behind Denmark's Maersk Line and Switzerland's Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).

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…

Starting July 1, 2016, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Maritime Safety Committee approved amendments to The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Seas’ (SOLAS), will require that shippers verify gross container weight prior to shipping. But now, according to a report in the WSJ, IMO says ‘practical and pragmatic’ three-month grace period would calm exporter fears of widespread backups. The top global shipping regulator, trying to quiet industry alarms over impending rules that exporters fear will trigger widespread backups at ports, is recommending a three-month grace period for enforcing the ship-safety rule. Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd.

Despite historically low rates carriers are unlikely to be killed off as creditors and governments will step in, says Drewry Shipping Consultants Limited. Recent news stories, backed-up by anecdotal stories told to Drewry, report that carriers have quoted zero dollar freight rates to some forwarders on certain lanes out of Asia. Whether these are merely isolated cases or something more widespread is difficult to judge at the present time, but whatever the exact quantum there is no denying the container rates are now close to the historic lows as seen in 2009. The World Container Index’s composite index, an average of spot freight rates on 11 global East-West routes connecting Asia, Europe and the US, reached a record low of $666 per 40-foot container on 24 March.

The World Container Index’s composite index, an average of spot freight rates on 11 global East-West routes connecting Asia, Europe and the US, reached a record low of US$701 per 40-foot container on March 10, says Drewry Shipping Consultants. This was the lowest reading since the World Container Index (WCI) starting tracking weekly transatlantic, transpacific and Asia-Europe rates in June 2011. “The World Container Index’s composite index is now 60% lower than the average of the past 5 years and has decreased by 62% in the past year,” said Richard Heath, director of WCI. Jonathan Chappell, an analyst at Evercore ISI in New York says that there’s been an arms race in building bigger and bigger ships and they’re coming at a time the economy is slowing.

Paris-based consultancy, Alphaliner, reports “a new mega alliance appears to be in the making,” as French container shipping major CMA CGM and its Chinese counterpart China COSCO lead efforts to set up a new carrier partnership. (Marine Link has reported about this last week. The duo is also seeking to also rope-in Evergreen and OOCL in a plan that could potentially split up three of today’s four main East-West alliances. The movement that will radically alter the current liner shipping landscape and leave the eight remaining carriers of the Ocean Three, CKYHE and G6 alliances in the lurch. "Discussions are believed to be still ongoing and the carriers involved have not yet publicly announced their plans,” Alphaliner analysts say.

Owners are rapidly laying up containerships as the market slows. The size of the idle fleet will get bigger while rates and profits slide, says Drewry Shipping Consultants Limited. The number of idle container vessels has gained momentum in November and hasjumped 52 percent from October, Drewry said in its Container Insight Weekly. Idled ships are defined by Drewry as those which have been inactive for at least 14 days. The crisis weighs heavily on the global container freight market, which continues to be dominated by massive overcapacity, low demand and historically low freight rates. The world’s idle containership fleet swelled to 238 vessels and topped 900,000 TEU in November as owners rapidly lay up containerships as the market slows.

A China Ocean Shipping Company COSCO-China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL)merger makes financial sense, but would have huge implications for competition in the container shipping industry, according to Drewry Maritime Research. Drewry Shipping Consultants has released a report examining the consequences of a rumoured merger between China’s two shipping giants. The merger will have a domino effect on the existing alliance structure of the container shipping industry and could see other Asian countries follow China’s lead. The merger will have a severe impact on the current shipping alliances, with the Middle East’s United Arab Shipping Company standing to lose the most.

The slowdown in China’s economy poses some risks for container shipping, according to Drewry Maritime Research. According to a new report from Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd, the risks from a slowdown in Chinese consumption to container shipping are far smaller than for the dry bulk sector, but they are not inconsiderable and will contribute to slowing world box growth. Container-shipping lines, already concerned about demand from struggling economies in Europe and many emerging markets, can now add China to their list of problems. The analyst is now predicting a growth in Chinese container throughput of 4.9%, down from 5.8%. This shortfall accounts for around 1.85m teu, roughly 1% of world traffic in 2014.

The rapid expansion of container shipping capacity this year threatens to reverse the strong profitability ocean carriers showed in the first quarter, Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd said. Carriers weathered a storm of low rates in the first quarter to deliver some of the best profits in recent times. Will big newbuild deliveries and rising costs mean that was the peak, it asks. The London-based consultants said in a report this week that carriers will add at least 100,000 containers, measured in 20-foot containers, of carrying capacity in June and more than that in each month through the end of the year even as shipping prices on major trade routes are declining.

Although Brazil, Russia, India and China are suffering from overheated economies, the BRIC region is still generating attractive cargo growth, finds Drewry Shipping Consultants in their 'Container Insight Weekly'. Drewry Maritime Research considers that as Brazil’s, Russia’s, India’s and China’s maritime gateways handle little transhipment traffic, the change is a good barometer of what the downturn in their economies since the beginning of last year has meant to ocean carriers in terms of cargo carried in and out. Although their economies slowed significantly, the message is that the BRIC region is still very much alive and kicking…

Peter Frederiksen, Member of the Executive Board at Hamburg Süd and Thomas Eskesen, Global Head of Refrigerated Business at Maersk Line will be providing two separate keynote addresses at the fifth Cool Logistics Global, taking place in Rotterdam from September 24-26. Exactly one year after Maersk’s momentous announcement about reefer rate restoration at Cool Logistics Global 2012, Thomas Eskesen will review the results of these measures and provide an outlook about the challenges facing the global reefer sector today. Looking more broadly at the health of container shipping overall, Peter Fredriksen is expected to review the impact of current carrier strategies on shippers of chilled and frozen cargoes.

The last 12 months has been one for the books ... or the trash. There was no shortage of government inducements to turn the lackluster tide in 2012—stimulus spending in China and Japan, quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and multiple actions by the European Central Bank to strengthen the Eurozone. But as the year evolved, weak macroeconomic fundamentals decisively trumped monetary policy initiatives and continued their choke on global commerce, hence the maritime sector.

The continent of Africa will take center stage at the 2013 World Ports & Trade Summit, which takes place in Abu Dhabi from March 19-20, with a special focus session on day two of the event to examine opportunities in the region for both trade and infrastructure development. Growth in seaborne trade between China and Africa is already benefiting UAE ports, as the world’s third largest economy and the emerging African continent rely on the Emirates’ trading gateway status, further boosted by growth in bilateral trade between South Africa and the UAE…

Drewry Shipping Consultants estimate that container shipping lines collectively lost $5.2 billion in 2011. To thrive in 2012, the industry will have to tackle declining rates and a potentially chaotic round of mergers and acquisitions. Business leaders will discuss the potential scenarios and predictions for the upcoming year at UBM Global Trade's JOC Container Shipping Conference ShanghaiJune 4-5 at the Sheraton Shanghai Hongkou Hotel. Some analysts, including SeaIntel's Lars Jensen,  believe that container shipping rates have bottomed out and the worst of the declines may have come and gone. Others in the industry anticipate that the largest carriers will continue to build market share and use their financial muscle to drive smaller carriers out of key markets like Asia-Europe…

Drewry Shipping Consultants has published its Annual Container Market Review & Forecast 2010/11. This report is a forecasting tool for both global and individual trade lane supply, demand and pricing analyses. The report says that 2010 has seen a strong improvement by the major container industry stakeholders. Now in its eleventh year, the Container Review is a yearly check-up on the health of this sector. Container volumes are a gauge of global economic well-being that can respond to market fluctuations with a degree of sensitivity. In a nutshell, the report says container trade is recovering well on the major routes, although some doubts remain about the short to mid-term.

Recognising the vital role of the UAE’s ports in providing trade links between the Far East, Asia, Europe and the US, international shipping and cargo experts are set to gather in Abu Dhabi on 28-30 March, for the World Ports and Trade Summit 2011. Across the emirates, a number of port developments are moving forward as global trade gathers renewed momentum and investment capital again begins to flow post-recession. The economic and social imperatives of securing export and import routes for food and oil respectively are important drivers of the UAE’s rejuvenated ports investment.

Drewry Shipping Consultants and The Cleartrade Exchange have announced that the World Container Index (WCI), the first Europe-based assessment of container freight rates and index production, is scheduled for launch in September 2011. The index will provide a new and important facility for the global market to hedge their freight rate risk and see major improvements in forward price discovery through the container derivatives market. Significantly, the new index will be the first of its kind to report weekly freight rates on backhaul as well as headhaul routes and will provide increased efficiencies in hedging strategies for freight users dealing in bulk, commoditised and recovered cargoes.

Drewry Shipping Consultants and The Cleartrade Exchange announced that the World Container Index (WCI), the first Europe-based assessment of container freight rates and index production, is scheduled for launch in September 2011. The index will be designed to provide a new and important facility for the global market to hedge their freight rate risk and see major improvements in forward price discovery through the container derivatives market. Significantly, the new index will be the first of its kind to report weekly freight rates on backhaul as well as headhaul routes and will provide increased efficiencies in hedging strategies for freight users dealing in bulk, commoditised and recovered cargoes.

If it wasn’t bad enough that demand in the shipping markets has not recovered, commodity price rises have put more than a little pressure on ship operating costs. Fleet owners and managers are certainly feeling the squeeze in 2011. Drewry has just published its latest annual analysis of ship operating costs, covering 8 vessel sectors and over 35 different sizes of vessel plus detailed operating budgets for a range of oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers, dry bulk vessels…

Cargotec's commitment to continue growing its share of the keenly competitive Chinese port equipment market has been confirmed by a new order from Cosco Pacific subsidiary Jinjiang Pacific Ports Development (JPPDC). JPPDC, which currently operates a two berth facility in Weitou Port in Fujian Province, has contracted the company to supply two Kalmar E-One2 type rubber-tyred cranes, which are scheduled for delivery in May 2012. The all-electric RTGs will be able to stack containers one-over-five high, span six container rows plus a roadway and have a lift capacity of 41 tons.

Drewry Shipping Consultants Limited announced that Philip Damas has been appointed a director of the company, with responsibility for developing Drewry Supply Chain Advisors, the specialist supply chain consulting practice within the Drewry group. Philip joined Drewry in 2005 from American Shipper with many years of experience of analyzing the international logistics challenges of exporters and importers in Europe, the Americas and Asia, Philip will also be responsible for further improving specialist market intelligence and cost benchmarks for international logistics, including Drewry's industry-leading freight rate benchmarks.