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Trans-Pacific Container Shipping Outlook : Analyzing the Red Sea Crisis and a Disruptive Year Ahead
On demand , Free
If 2023 was to be boiled down into a single story line that defined the trans-Pacific container shipping , it might be that the market suffered from a complacency brought about by the rebalancing and so-called normalization of supply chains following the unprecedented upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic . But as veterans of the industry can attest , normalization only lasts so long in this industry , and the next cycle of disruption is always just around the corner . Indeed , warning signs began to emerge during the late summer , replacing the relative calm of the first three quarters of 2023 . First came the restricted transits through the Panama Canal , the result of historic drought in Central America . What followed in December — a full-blown shipping upheaval in the Middle East — made the Panama Canal disruption seem like child ’ s play . The resulting diversion away from the Suez Canal to the much longer route around southern Africa ’ s Cape of Good Hope has absorbed much of the capacity carriers had laid up during the lull , delayed cargo deliveries , and doubled rates on some lanes , while also prompting carriers to implement war-risk and other surcharges . Add to that the uncertainty and rhetoric surrounding negotiations that will begin in the spring on a new longshore labor contract on the US East and Gulf coasts , and 2024 is shaping up to be a year of great unease for cargo owners . https :// bit . ly / 3SFLqPW
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TimHa511 / Hapag-Lloyd .
Hapag-Lloyd reports Q4 loss on falling rates , Red Sea disruption
Hapag-Lloyd has reported a $ 300 million operating loss for the fourth quarter of 2023 as rapidly normalizing rate levels coincided with a loss of volume from the rerouting of ships around southern Africa to avoid attacks on shipping in the Red Sea . https :// bit . ly / 3UqjwIP
2024 Project and Breakbulk Shipping Outlook
On demand , Free
The global push to decarbonize energy production and improve energy security is supporting optimism in the breakbulk and project cargo logistics sector despite lower-than-expected cargo volumes . Softening rates are good news for shippers , offering some relief and a return to at least some predictability after they endured the feverish COVID spillover market , when capacity-strapped container shippers bull-rushed the breakbulk and project sector looking for shipping space . For carriers , 2023 volumes and rates were disappointing but still heaps better than pre-COVID , and they are looking ahead at increasing demand even as they add little to no new capacity . This hardly guarantees smooth sailing for the carriers , however . Congestion remains an issue . Many multipurpose and heavy-lift carriers have been forced to find alternative routings to the droughtstricken Panama Canal , adding time and costs to voyages just as risk escalates in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden . And we have all learned that new , unpredictable challenges could be lurking right around the next bend . https :// bit . ly / 3HlkKgM
RESOURCES
Top 100 Importers and Exporters https :// bit . ly / 3MViTSn
Kingfishcafe / Shutterstock . com
Knight-Swift adding 25 LTL terminals , plans to buy more
Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings is expanding its less-than-truckload ( LTL ) business , not by buying more carrier subsidiaries but by acquiring terminals and property . https :// bit . ly / 3w4ZqcR
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Journal of Commerce ( USPS 279 – 060 ), ISSN 1530-7557 , February 12 , 2024 , Volume 25 , Issue No . 4 . Journal of Commerce is published biweekly except the last week in December ( printed 25 times per year ) by JOC Group Inc ., 55 Water St ., 39th Floor , New York , N . Y . 10041 . Subscription price : $ 595 a year . Periodicals postage paid at New York , N . Y ., and additional mailing offices . © All rights reserved . No portion of this publication may be copied or reprinted without written permission from the publisher . POSTMASTER : Please send address changes to Journal of Commerce , Subscription Services Department , 55 Water St ., 39th Floor , New York , N . Y . 10041 .
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