The migrant crisis continues in Europe and the shipping industry is getting increasingly worried about it, as merchant ships are obliged to rescue persons in distress at sea but, as we have recently witnessed, these operations now may end up with ports being closed for migrants’ disembarkation. The recent case is the 1,068 TEU Maersk […]
China’s plan to create free-trade ports as part of its ongoing reform and opening up could be one of the major announcements that President Xi Jinping is expected to make at Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) this week-end, South China Morning Post informs. BFA is often called Asia’s Davos and will take place on Hainan […]
Australia, the United States, India and Japan are in talks about establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China’s One Belt One Road concept, writes Reuters. The unnamed senior U.S. official has been quoted as saying that the plan is still “nascent” but is being seriously discussed adding that it is on […]
The Container Supply Chain Conference within TOC Europe 2017 held in Amsterdam this week has brought up the question of the impact of China’s concept of One Belt One Road on future container trade and infrastructure projects in Eurasia. Hercules Haralambides, professor of Maritime Economics and Logistics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, presented a holistic overview […]
Based on strong results of the first quarter of 2017, Alphaliner has revised upwards its forecast of container shipping volumes for the current year. Now the full year global port throughput growth is expected to reach 4.6% in 2017, compared with earlier projections of just 2-3%. This adjustment is explained by a healthy increase of […]
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to sign a three-year agreement with China attracting investment to the country’s port and shipping infrastructure, during his visit at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, inform Greek media. The Forum will be held in Beijing on May 14-15, with the attendance of 28 state leaders, […]
Severe port congestion that Shanghai has been suffering since the beginning of April, eased slightly by the end of the month, however may last till late May, as carriers and forwarders warn their customers. During the week of April 16 to 22, the average vessel arrival delay decreased from 53.1 hours to 51.2 hours and the […]
Hackett Associates in its latest Global Port Tracker report produced for the National Retail Federation (NRF) marks an “unusually high” growth in import volumes of US major retail container ports in January 2017, up 12.5% as compared with the previous year, reports NRF. The ports covered by the Global Port Tracker include Los Angeles/Long Beach, […]
On Monday, January 23, President Donald Trump signed the executive order to withdraw the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), reported CNN. With this act, he has started to fulfill his campaign promises “to undo America’s trade ties”. “Great thing for the American worker, what we just did,” Trump told reporters as he signed […]
