Queuing up at the Panama Canal 
According to data collected by Bloomberg, the number of vessels waiting to pass through the Panama Canal is rising. A week ago, there were 101 vessels waiting their turn to make the 64.5 km journey through the canal, six more than the average so far this year. The lockdown in... more
A new Asian-African link
A new African connection is on. Hapag-Lloyd is launching its new bi-weekly service Maputo Express (MAX) at the beginning of June 2022. The direct service will rotate between only three ports: Jebel Ali, Dubai, Mundra, India, and Maputo in Mozambique. The new link will thus speed... more
Green label in Gabon
The Owendo Container Terminal (OCT) in the port of Owendo in Gabon has been granted the Green Terminal label. The certification was issued after an audit conducted by Bureau Veritas in early May 2022. This audit includes the check-up of work procedures, building infrastructure... more
Seaspan's growing order book
The Hong Kong-based Seaspan Corporation, an affiliate of the Atlas Corporation, is planning to acquire more newbuilds. Its agreement with "a major shipyard" that was not specified, includes the order of four 7,700 teu dual-fuel liquefied natural gas containerships. The... more
Jacksonville's deepened channel is wide open
Jacksonville (Florida) recently celebrated the completion of the Jacksonville Harbour deepening project. Covering 13-miles (21 km), the project is also funded by the US federal authorities. The federal shipping channel was taken down to a depth of 14.3 m from its previous... more
175 candles on the cake
These are early congratulations, since the first founding of the future Hapag-Lloyd took place on 27 May 1847 – almost exactly 175 years ago. Shipowners and merchants in Hamburg created the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) that day. It was not... more
Big investment for Panama
It's a big deal: Notarc Management Group (NMG), a Latin American-focused private investment and asset management firm, which launched its Panama Development Fund (PDF) last year, is going to acquire and accomplish the Panama Canal Container Port (PCCP), a USD 1.4 billion modern... more
The return of the idle fleet?
According to the Swedish maritime platform provider Xeneta, carriers are starting to "balance demand and capacity to protect rates." A capacity reduction of 517,300 teu - or 25% of the initial capacity offering - was witnessed on the Far East to US West Coast corridor... more
More containers down the Rhine
In Q1/2022, throughput at the Swiss Rhine ports was just under 1.2 million t, 7.8% below Q1/2021 (1.26 million t). The big winner was the container sector with almost 37,000 teu (+31%). Export traffic recorded an uptick of 13.2% to 243,292 t, while import traffic, which is... more