The Loadstar

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Covid lockdowns in China, war in Ukraine and the threat of hyper-inflation are a toxic mix of unpredictability for

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The shift by some ocean carriers to owning more tonnage rather than chartering-in ships has depleted the containership

By Ian Putzger in Toronto (The Loadstar) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is on a mission to facilitate agriculture exports this year. Its

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Container spot rates continued their decline this week across most Chinese export routes, prompting ocean

By Sam Whelan (The Loadstar) – Forwarders have warned of landside logistics disruption in China from the latest round of Covid-related lockdowns,

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Low-sulphur bunker prices increased another $100 per ton yesterday and, having soared by a third since the end of

By Alex Whiteman (The Loadstar) – Putin’s war against Ukraine will exacerbate the logistics sector’s labour shortage, as sanctions impede

By Mike Wackett in Long Beach (The Loadstar) – BCOs and shippers at the TPM22 conference in Long Beach are questioning why ocean carriers

By Nick Savvides in Long Beach (The Loadstar) – US President Joe Biden will today take aim at shipping’s exemption from competition law,

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Containership charter rates and second-hand values are heading for a correction according to a broker source, after

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Through its brokers, Zim has made it known to containership owners that it is prepared to outbid competitor lines to

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – South Korean flagship carrier HMM has reported a $4.4bn net profit for 2021, compared with just $100m the year before,

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Maersk said this week it anticipated container spot rates would fall back in the second half of the year, justifying

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Investment in new LNG-fuelled ships has continued at pace, with class society DNV last month recording a further 40

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Global feeder operators are having their heads turned by huge offers for their owned tonnage and chartered-in ships

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The bull run for ocean carriers appears unstoppable, with profitability in the first quarter of the year looking to be

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – The cellular fleet grew by 4.5% last year, to 24.97m teu, but capacity was cut on some routes as carriers re-deployed

By Gavin van Marle (The Loadstar) – Huge increases in freight rates last year are likely to lead to container carriers reporting record fourth-quarter

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Container spot rates from Asia to the US west coast spiked this week, ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday on 1

By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) – Continued strong demand for container tonnage has resulted in many sizes now being totally ‘sold out’ and their