By Irene García Pérez (Bloomberg) -- As Theresa May mulls moves to stop the U.K. leaving the European Union without a deal next month, some businesses have already made plans to bypass the port of Dover in case a hard Brexit brings it to a standstill. The prospect of truck jams snarling Europe’s busiest ferry port is prompting a rethink of transport modes, with a switch of … [Read more...]
Hapag-Lloyd Operating Profit Rises 32 Percent
by Vera Eckert (Reuters) - Container shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd said volume growth and a modest recovery in freight rates in the second half of 2018 helped push operating profit 32 percent higher, lifting shares in the German group on Monday. Hapag-Lloyd said preliminary earnings showed operating profit before interest and tax (EBIT) rose 32 percent to 443 million euros … [Read more...]
Container Spot Rates Decline Sharply
By Mike Wackett (TheLoadstar) Both of the major east-west tradelanes recorded significant falls on today’s Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), reflecting an increasingly soft demand environment. The Asia-Europe components of the SCFI saw container spot rates for North Europe decline 8.3% to $831 per teu, and rates for Mediterranean ports lose 6.8% to $857 per … [Read more...]
Maersk Shares Sink As Trade War Looms
by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen (Reuters) - The world’s largest container shipping company, A.P. Moller-Maersk, warned trade headwinds would slow growth this year, sending its shares down 10 percent on Thursday. Maersk is also moving ahead with spinning off Maersk Drilling, announcing it expected its new listing in Copenhagen to begin trading on April 4. Maersk Line in … [Read more...]
Elbe Deepening Turns Crucial as Port of Hamburg Throughput Falls
By Mike Wackett (The Loadstar) - Container throughput at the port of Hamburg declined for the second consecutive year in 2018. The port’s throughput was down to 8.73m teu, adding urgency to the completion of the long-awaited deepening and widening programme in the river Elbe. Although this represents a marginal 1% year-on-year fall in containers handled at Hamburg’s box … [Read more...]