Autonomous ship stands the test 
The Japanese liner MOL finalised its first sea trial of unmanned ship operation from port to port on 24 and 25 January 2022. Departing from Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture, the vessels arrived safely in Sakai Port in the Tottori Prefecture. The consortium carried out the... more
OOCL: high earnings with similar volumes
Chinese liner OOCL, an affiliate of Cosco Shipping since 2018, has released its results for Q4/2021 and the full year 2021. For Q4/2021, revenues rose by 101.4% to USD 4.9 billion compared to the same period in 2020. Nevertheless, liftings declined by 16.9%, loadable... more
Next Finnlines link to start on 1 February 
At the beginning of February 2022, Finnlines will put the ro-pax "Finnfellow" into operation on its Travemünde–Malmö route in the Baltic Sea. This will increase the number of departures up to four direct connections per day from Germany to Sweden and vice versa (up to... more
Scrapping of vessels at historic low
The Junio Cargo Analyst Joey Daly has analysed the changes and trends in the shipping industry's demolition market, making use of data of the maritime intelligence provider Vessels Value. It is striking that the need for capacities in the container and bulker markets led to a... more
Reaching Manila by barge instead of truck
Manila-headquartered International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is building up its Cavite Gateway Terminal (CGT) in the province of Tanza, Philippines. The terminal and port operator recently invested yard and wharf operations with the deployment of additional... more
Expanding framework for Indian waterways
Improving the safety of the inland waterways is a constant issue in India. Now that the inland vessels act 2021 was passed by the Indian parliament, the Indian Register of Shipping has drafted ten different rules in consultation with ministries, state governments, and various... more
More reinforcements in the Suez Canal
Towage provider Svitzer, an affiliate of Maersk, is further extending its current contract with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) to include two additional tugs to service the Canal. After operations were launched with two tugs in Port Said in late 2019, two more tugs followed... more
New piracy hot spots on the horizon
In 2021, pirate attacks and armed robberies fell to their lowest level since 1994, according to the annual report on piracy of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) published on 13 January 2022. IMB attributes this decrease "to the measures adopted by the... more
A peak on the West Coast
As predicted, the Californian Port of Long Beach set a new record in 2021 by handling more than 9.38 million teu. This corresponds to a 15.7% increase from the previous record of more than 8.11 million teu moved in 2020. While imports took a significant leap up of 14.6% up... more
Rising traffic in the Baltic Sea pushes Kiel
Kiel's seaport handled a record 7.6 million t in 2021, 9.3 % above 2020. Volume increases on the Gothenburg line (+16% to 2.1 million t) and the Klaipeda line (+9% to 2.9 million t) more than compensated for the 12% decline in the paper business to 660,000 t. Dirk Claus,... more