The Loadstar

Adani Ports (APSEZ) is pushing hard to open of its under-construction fifth container terminal (CT5) at Mundra, India’s largest box port by volume. Competition among terminal operators along India’s western coast for market share leadership is heating up as new projects add capacity and introduce new gateway options for container lines.

In a nutshell: A ransomware hit on the country’s biggest cold-chain operator is the latest reminder that logistics cybersecurity has real-world teeth. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fried chicken chain in possession of no chicken is in want of a crisis plan. KFC learned this the hard way in 2018. Eight years later, the Colonel is back in the same uncomfortable spot, only this time the villain is not a botched logistics transition but a cyberattack ...

FreightWaves: US Postal Service on brink of financial collapse, chief tells Congress FreightWaves reports: The U.S. Postal Service will be out of cash and unable to deliver mail, ...

ID 158040357 © Byvalet | Dreamstime.com Maersk has announced that it is returning a third service to the Red Sea routing, its Mediterranean-West Africa WAF 6 service. “We are pleased to inform you of immediate structural changes to our WAF6 service,” the carriers said in a statement yesterday. “WAF6 is solely operated by Maersk and is a service that connects the Middle East, Mediterranean and West Africa. “It will now transit via the Red Sea between Salalah and West Mediterranean.

Photo: © Marian Vejcik | Dreamstime.com US Customs officials have accepted more than 70% of the applications for refunds related to the Trump tariffs imposed last year, but shippers are being warned to submit claims as soon as possible with submission deadlines in the balance.

ID 3828244 © Jason Hawkins | Dreamstime.com It has often been observed since the end of February that the US and Israeli strikes on Iran have been counterproductive at best – the rebuilt Iranian regime seems stronger than ever – its nuclear programme freed from the shackles of agreements and international observers – and then there’s Hormuz, open to all navigation before the conflict, and now… very much not.

ID 141902314 © Mauriceschuckart | Dreamstime.com Every major waterfront consolidation move of the past few years has had a familiar cast of characters missing from the bidding table. MSC bought into HHLA. AD Ports pushed into Noatum, picking up a logistics arm alongside the terminals, and followed it with an entry into Brazil worth roughly US$845m. Container lines and terminal operators outside China have been reshaping the global ports map.

Typhoon Bavi created chaos in North Asian ports over the weekend, with nearly 2m teu of containership capacity delayed in major ports. Consultancy Linerlytica said that by Sunday, 54% of congestion in all container ports was in North Asia and estimates that the gateways will need two weeks to clear the backlog – mostly concentrated in Shanghai and Ningbo.

D 2483668 © Starfotograf | Dreamstime.com Container spot rates have done exactly what they did in 2021, and the market has drawn exactly the conclusion you’d expect: this is a repeat performance of a one-off, and it will end the same way. The SCFI is up roughly 150% since late February and 11% since the mid-June truce alone, container timecharter rates are near cycle highs, and forwarders and carriers alike are reporting sharply improved earnings.

OOCL’s second-quarter trading update has reinforced signs of a stronger-than-expected container shipping market, the carrier reporting double-digit gains in both revenue and volumes, as demand and freight rates continued to recover. For the three months to 30 June, OOCL.recorded liner revenue of $2.5bn, up 19.8% year on year, with liftings up 8.8%, to 2.14m teu; loadable capacity grew 6.3%, and the carrier’s load factor improved by 1.9%. The results outpaced broader Q2 market growth.