The Loadstar

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Ocean carriers are writing-off the first six months of this year, banking on a restocking demand boost in H2 to

By Charlie Bartlett (The Loadstar) – OOCL Utah‘s near-collision on Sunday with a Panama Canal lock gate suggests a tragic and costly accident

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The outlook for ocean carriers is a sharp decline in earnings this year, as average freight rates fall and inflation

By Mike Wackett in Long Beach (The Loadstar) – Ocean carriers attending the S&P Global TPM conference in Long Beach this week are owning up to

By Mike Wackett in Long Beach (The Loadstar) – One year ago, there were more than 100 ships waiting outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The timing couldn’t be worse: with consumer demand lethargic and inventory stocks stubbornly high, ocean carriers are

By Martina Li in Taiwan (The Loadstar) – Just three months after its launch, Australian start-up Focus Container Line has entered administration as the

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Maersk said last week this year’s contract rates for its liner services were “trending towards spot rates” and,

By Ian Putzger, Americas correspondent (The Loadstar) The contract negotiations between the 22,000 port workers in the International Longshore &

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Maersk has said that being a member of a vessel-sharing alliance (VSA) was “not compatible” with its global

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The return to ‘supply chain normalisation’ has led to the container liner industry being hobbled by an

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – A parallel freight market is emerging for exports from China that undercuts the lowest container spot rates. Asia-North

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Ocean carriers are pulling capacity from Chinese export routes and redeploying the ships to more robust tradelanes with

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – MSC is continuing to buy second-hand containerships, and does not appear to have lost its appetite for ordering

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – North Europe’s container hub ports are bracing themselves for the weak January import volumes from Asia to continue

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Transpacific container carryings from Asia to the US west coast fell sharply in last year’s fourth quarter reflecting

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Ocean carriers are busy cascading bigger ships on to secondary trades in order to absorb some of their surplus tonnage

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Ocean carriers do not expect consumer demand in North Europe to recover until at least March, when they hope container

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Improved booking prospects show the Asia to Mediterranean tradelane is proving more resilient than the North European

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Container spot rates from Asia to North Europe, as recorded by Drewry’s WCI index, increased by 10% this week from