Short sea shipping is back 
In Spain, shortsea shipping volumes are beginning to recover and returning to the level prior to the Covid-19 crisis in Q1/2021 compared to the same period in 2019 and 2020. According to the report from SPC Spain, international ro-ro traffic (excluding freight vehicles)... more
Rising global fleet faces staff shortfall
London-based maritime consultancy Drewry draws attention to a growing concern of the high sea shipping industry, according to the latest Manning Annual Review and Forecast report. Due to the diminishing attractiveness of a career at sea, coupled with rising man-berth ratios... more
Nordic barge service now in operation
Sweden’s first container barge shuttle service on inland waterways between Stockholm Norvik Port and the Port of Västerås set sail in June. The services are operated by German shipping company Deymann. On this EU class inland waterway, the container barge "Emelie... more
Contargo wins tender in Weil
Contargo, founded in 2004, has been awarded the contract for handling operations at the container terminal of the Rhine port of Weil am Rhein (Rheinhafengesellschaft Weil am Rhein), near Basel (Switzerland) at the end of a Europe-wide tendering process. Contargo, which has... more
High freight rates inflate prices
Copenhagen-based maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence recently analysed the impact of the elevated freight rates on importers for a variety of consumer goods, especially on the Asia to US West Coast and North Europe trade lanes. An OECD-data-based value of consumer goods... more
Italian islands get closer to mainland
Naples-based Grimaldi Group has launched a new Naples-Cagliari-Palermo ro-pax after winning the relative tender of the Italian ministry of sustainable infrastructures and mobility for long-distance land-based services of territorial continuity. The new link will be served... more
A silver lining for reliability at sea?
According to Sea-Intelligence, a maritime intelligence provider from Copenhagen (Denmark), the increase in global schedule reliability in March 2021 didn’t last. Reliability levelled out, with carriers recording a 1 percentage point decrease month-on-month in April, coming to... more
An old and new brand in Argentina
In September 2020 the towing company Svitzer took over the firm Madero Amarres from Grupo Meridian in Argentina, and subsequently changed the company name of the subsidiary to Svitzer Argentina. Now the company has acquired a new client in Argentina. On 1 April Svitzer started a... more
Shanghai test centre now operative
In Shanghai, Centre Testing International (CTI)-Maritec, a fuel and environmental technical advisory company for the maritime industry, recently cut the ribbon of a new fuel-testing centre. The opening of the lab, located in the city’s Minhang district, coincides with the first... more
