April 8, 2024 | Page 7

Spotlight
Shipping industry adjusts to fatal Baltimore bridge collision
The collision of a Maersk-chartered vessels into a major Baltimore bridge , closing the port with no timeline immediately available , as of print deadline , is expected to have modest operational impact , even as the industry mourns the loss of six presumed dead . The Biden administration has pledged to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the 948- foot container ship Dali destroyed the artery for trade and passengers spanning the Patpsco ’ s River in the early morning of March 26 . “ I directed my team to move heaven and Earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible ,” President Joe Biden said that day . Container lines have diverted services to the ports of Philadelphia , New York
EyePress News / Shutterstock and New Jersey , and Virginia until the fifth-largest container gateway on the East Coast reopens . Modest demand , coupled with spare capacity at other East Coast ports , position other terminals well to handle the diverted cargo , but that doesn ’ t rule out challenged ocean reliability and vessel bunching . Baltimore handled around 3 % of all imports landing at US East and Gulf coast ports and 10 % of US Northeast containerized imports , according to an analysis from S & P Global , parent company of the Journal of Commerce . The port accounted for almost 10 % of furniture imports into the Northeast during that period and 16 % of the region ’ s imports of home appliances . Mediterranea Shipping Co . has the largest share of the cargo flowing into Baltimore , followed by its 2M Alliance partner , Maersk . Synergy Maritime , which manages the vessel ’ s operation , said in a statement that the Dali was outbound from Baltimore under the control of two local harbor pilots at the time of the accident . The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident .
unchanged since September . Hede ’ s new service would appear to be a direct challenge to Matson , which operates two express services from China to the US West Coast , and UWL , the forwarding arm of third-party logistics provider World Group , which in May 2022 launched a partnership with multipurpose shipping line Swire Shipping to offer a biweekly express container service from the Port of Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam to the Port of Seattle ’ s T-30 terminal . Hede ’ s expedited service will fill a niche for e-commerce and similar shipments that require faster handling , Zhang said .

Gateway

An extensive dashboard of continuously updated charts organized by trade lane , mode and topic .
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