Shipping: too much supply
Overcapacity and weak demand – what would you do? Cutting supply would seem obvious but container shipping lines prefer, it appears, to add it. Net, the industry is on course…
Maersk warns on slowing global trade
AP Møller-Maersk has downgraded its outlook for global trade, warning that demand for container shipping would be lower than it thought three months ago. The world’s largest container shipping company…
Oil tanker trade grows fastest in a decade
©Bloomberg Oil tanker trade is growing at its fastest rate in a decade as the boom in US production forces exporters that in the past supplied the American market to…
Coals to Newcastle lift Port of Tyne to record
Higher demand for coal from UK power stations has contributed to record revenues and pre-tax profits for the Port of Tyne, as the bulk cargo handled by the South Shields…
Hong Kong dockers end strike action
©Bloomberg A month-long strike that pitted Hong Kong dock workers against Asia’s richest man has ended with the strikers accepting a 9.8 per cent pay rise, much less than the…
Loss-making Sealine put in administration
By John Murray Brown Sealine International, the Kidderminster-based luxury yacht builder, has been put into administration. A spokesman for administrator Baker Tilly said it was looking for buyers for the…
Mitsui Engineering jumps on merger report
Shares in Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding jumped as much as a fifth on Monday, to their highest level since before the global financial crisis, on a report that the Japanese…
China permits giant Valemax to dock
©AFP A port in eastern China has allowed one of the controversial huge Valemax ships to dock and unload a cargo of iron ore, potentially signalling a relaxation of China’s…
US rail operators divided over LNG future
The US rail industry has reached a crossing point in its debate over making a transition from running diesel fuel to adopting liquefied natural gas. Natural gas power could slash…
Earnings boost for Jones Act tankers
The shale oil boom in the US has sparked a rare increase in earnings for the handful of tankers allowed to operate round its coast. The doubling of earnings for…
Stobart rocked by coup and counter coup
When Stobart Group wheeled out Avril Palmer-Baunack as its executive chairman in January, the Cumbria-based haulier appeared poised to speed off in a new direction. Ms Palmer-Baunack – highly-rated in…
MSC offloads 35% stake in ports business
Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s second-largest container line by capacity, has sold a 35 per cent stake in its ports business to a consortium led by Global Investment Partners in…
STX Offshore seeks creditor reprieve
©Bloomberg The world’s fourth-largest shipbuilder in terms of orders received is seeking financial support from creditor banks as the South Korean group’s liquidity situation worsens amid a slump in the…
Virginia governor mulls port privatisation
©Getty The governor of Virginia is set to decide the future of efforts to privatise some operations of the state’s main port, after bids from a leading container terminal operator…
Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Süd end talks
An attempt to create the fourth-largest container shipping company by capacity came unstuck as Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Süd ended merger talks. In a brief statement late on Sunday, Hapag-Lloyd’s…