The idle container ship fleet has contracted again as the crises in the Red Sea and Panama Canal suck capacity into service diversions and distort the market, as newbuildings arrive to alleviate tonnage crunch.

Throughput at the Port of Rotterdam fell by 6.1% in 2023 as geopolitical unrest, low economic growth and high inflation weighed on Europe.

Container lines and their clients are engaging in their annual pre-contract rate dance, aided, to a certain degree, by analysts’ forecasts on the state of the industry.

SeaLead and Blue Water Line are rolling out a new service connecting Indian ports with Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman.

Shipping associations have welcomed the European Union’s operation Aspides, a defensive maritime security operation to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

The Chinese private shipbuilder, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, has entered into a contract with Danaos Corporation for the construction of two methanol-ready 8,258 teu container ships.

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, but few observers would describe the widening chasm that has opened between western and some Middle Eastern interests in the Red Sea as objectively attractive.

CMB.TECH has announced the order of the world’s first ammonia-powered container vessel in partnership with Yara Clean Ammonia, North Sea Container Line and Yara International.

Unifeeder Group has signed long-term charters for two more feeder vessels for its European network.

Seafarers covered by International Bargaining Forum (IBF) agreements can refuse to sail through the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, but it takes a high level of pre-planning according to ITF head Stephen Cotton.