Nestle News

Recent hostilities in the Red Sea have thrown global shippers of vital goods for a loop - but it is hardly the only issue that big carriers are facing as 2024 kicks off.Giants like Maersk say the industry, which handles 90% of global trade, faces the possibility of significant disruptions, from ongoing wars to droughts affecting key routes like the Panama Canal. Complex vessel schedules are likely to be knocked out of sync for giant container ships, fuel tankers and other commodity haulers throughout the year.That will increase delays and raise costs for retailers like Walmart…

French shipping firm CMA CGM will take a stake in Air France-KLM as part of an air cargo partnership, betting on growing demand for flying goods around the world as supply chains remain snarled in the wake of the pandemic.CMA CGM will take up to 9% of Air France-KLM, worth about 240 million euros ($252 million) based on Tuesday's closing price, part of a possible capital increase by the airline group for the duration of their partnership that is initially set to run for 10 years…

Russia's shipping trade has plummeted since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions push many foreign companies to suspend sailings, adding further pressure on the country's economy, according to freight data.The world's biggest foreign container lines—including the top three MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and others such as Hapag Lloyd—have temporarily suspended cargo shipments to and from Russia, while multiple companies including home furnishings firm IKEA have shut stores.Food companies Nestle…

Much like the coronavirus pandemic, and the economic disruption that it has caused, a global shipping crisis looks set to go on delaying goods traffic and fueling inflation well into 2023.Shipping rarely figures in economists' inflation and GDP calculations, and companies tend to fret more about raw materials and labor costs than transportation. But that might be changing.The cost of shipping a 40-foot container (FEU) unit has eased some 15% from record highs above $11,000 touched in September, according to the Freightos FBX index.

The container shipping segment appears to have caught coronavirus, with the industry suffering its first monthly fall in long-term contracted ocean freight rates since October 2019. According to the latest XSI Public Indices report from Xeneta, March 2020 saw a small dip of 0.5% in rates after a sustained period of growth. Although these symptoms look mild, the future is characterized by growing uncertainty, with widespread economic disruption and looming global recession likely…

Plunging into the deep, dark abyss of the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard heard a loud cracking sound in their vessel—the bathyscaphe Trieste, which the Office of Naval Research (ONR) purchased for scientific observations.Already 30,000 feet below sea level, Walsh and Piccard faced the ultimate decision—risk their lives to become the first people to travel to the deepest part of the ocean, the Challenger Deep, or return to safety.The crack had scarred one of Trieste’s outer plexiglass panels.

The ongoing trend of downward pressure on long-term contracted ocean freight rates appears to have been broken, or at least temporarily derailed, with marginal increases seen across the board in November.According to the latest XSI Public Indices report from Xeneta, which provides unique business intelligence based on real-time crowd-sourced data from the world’s leading shippers, global rates climbed by 0.9% over the last month. This disrupts a long-term pattern of decline that, with the exception of a sizable and unexpected rise in May, has been ongoing since Summer 2018.Oslo-based Xeneta’s XSI Public Indices report utilities over 110 million data points, covering over 160,000 port-to-port pairings, to provide unparalleled insight into the very latest market moves.

Look beneath the surface of a relatively calm month for long-term contracted ocean freight rates and, says Oslo-headquartered Xeneta, industry observers will see a maelstrom of activity, adjustments and market uncertainty.According to the latest XSI Public Indices report from Xeneta, the leading ocean freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform, July saw a marginal decline in rates of 0.4%, with a marked fall in the Far East export benchmark. Meanwhile US exports and European imports performed well.The global index has now fallen by 2.4% since its all time high in May this year…

U.S. furniture company RC Willey Home Furnishings is so concerned that new global clean air rules will cause transport disruption that it brought forward the shipment of arm chairs and sofas from China by two months.The tougher regulations, set by the United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), come into force on Jan 1. Costs will rise for ships towards the end of this year and there will be a knock on effect for trucks and other transporters…

Ocean freight rate benchmarking platform Xeneta unveiled public indices delivering monthly insights on long-term ocean freight rate development.Oslo-based ocean freight rate benchmarking and market intelligence company  is utilizing its database of over 85 million contracted freight rates to deliver a unique monthly snapshot of long-term rate developments in the container industry.The new Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI) Public Indices report, launching today, provides a detailed overview of the busiest global trade corridors, allowing users to gauge regional developments and track trends for key markets.In June this year Xeneta debuted the full version of the XSI index-linked contracting product.

Xeneta, the leading ocean freight rate benchmarking and market intelligence platform, is launching a product offering that aims to transform the way shippers, freight forwarders and carriers conduct freight rate negotiations. The Oslo headquartered firm has created a new offering, Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI) that allows all parties to set rates at transparent, efficient and fair prices that directly follow market fluctuations. This ensures all stakeholders get the right price for their products and services, relationships are improved and complex, time-consuming negotiations become efficient. “After several years working closely with cargo buyers and sellers…

Jochen Gutschmidt, head of global transport procurement at Nestle, asked the Global Liner Shipping Conference in Hamburg last week: “Why is cargo waiting in Asia for two weeks?” Using data from Drewry’s latest 'Container Forecaster', just published, this week’s 'Container Insight Weekly' attempts to answer that question and quantify how much capacity has been taken out of the system by slow steaming and lay-ups. There was a time when vessel optimisation was achieved by simply deploying the biggest ships at full speed so to minimise the number of vessels required.

When the first nuclear-powered merchant ship N.S. Savannah was christened and launched on July 21, 1959, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower served as the sponsor. Plans are being made to replicate those events this year on Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19. The 50th anniversary events will occur at N.S. Savannah's layberth at Canton Marine Terminal Pier 13, Baltimore, Maryland. This will be the first time the 596-ft. ship will be open for general tours since she sailed from Patriots Point, Charleston, SC, in 1994.

How many great ships have graced the front page of The New York Times? In a century and a half of publication, the newspaper of record has featured plenty. Ships were once the technological measure of civilization, like the automobiles and aircraft and TVs and PCs and Gameboys that followed. All of them characterized and defined an epoch, an age, a generation. Each changed the things people did, the way they saw, how they thought, spoke, and behaved. Yet of all those technological inspirations, the most truly regal, the most romantic were ships. They are the most embracing. People dine and sleep aboard. Some earn their livings and some play. All go to the bathroom, many recreate, perhaps even procreate on ships. People are sometimes born on ships.