China's new ship orders rank first in the world; Canadian port strikes continue, and labor negotiations are deadlocked!

China's new ship orders rank first in the world

According to the data released by Clarksons, a British shipbuilding and shipping industry analysis agency, on July 7, the number of shipbuilding orders undertaken by China in June (2.2 million CGT, 71 ships) ranked first in the world. South Korea's shipbuilding orders were 380,000 corrected gross tons (CGT, 10 ships), continuing to rank second in the world after May.

The data shows that the global shipbuilding orders in the same month were 2.76 million CGT, a year-on-year decrease of 49%. In the first half of this year (January to June), the cumulative global order volume was 17.81 million CGT (678 ships), a year-on-year decrease of 34%. The orders received by China and South Korea were 10.43 million CGT (428 ships) and 5.16 million CGT (114 ships), accounting for 59% and 29%.

As of the end of June, total global orders in hand increased by 70,000 CGT month-on-month to 114.51 million CGT. China has 53.15 million CGT (46%) and South Korea has 38.8 million CGT (34%).

THE Alliance Adjusts Asia to Trans-Pacific-West Coast Route

The container shipping alliance formed by Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming, Ocean Network Express (ONE) and HMM has announced adjustments to the Asia-to-Transpacific-West Coast network.
THE Alliance will temporarily suspend PS5 services and will update existing PS3, PS6 and PS7 services, effective from August until further notice.
PS3 service will be enhanced with a call at the port of Tokyo, the port rotation will be Navasheva (India) – Pipavav (India) – Colombo (Sri Lanka) – Port Klang (Malaysia) – Singapore – Cai Mee (Vietnam) – Haiphong (Vietnam) – Yantian (China) – Los Angeles/Long Beach (USA) – Oakland (USA) – Tokyo (Japan) – Busan (Korea) – Shanghai (China) – Ningbo (China) – Shekou (China) – Singapore – Port Klang – Navasheva.

Labor talks stall as Canadian port strikes continue

Canadian West Coast port workers have been on strike since Saturday, July 1. Strikes at ports on Canada's west coast continued this week, amid growing calls for the federal government to intervene. Both sides said negotiations between the maritime employer and the union involved had stalled over the repair work.

The Ottawa government is facing pressure from exporters and interior provincial politicians to act. Alberta's transportation minister wants the federal government to recall parliament to consider back-to-work legislation to end strikes at British Columbia ports.

Due to the strike, cargo loading and unloading of vessels on Canada's west coast have been suspended since June 30, with 29 ports stuck in a backlog worth billion, a figure that is expected to grow.

The Ports of Vancouver and Port Rupert are the two most affected ports. Commodities passing through these ports primarily include products such as critical auto parts such as brakes, other auto and manufacturing parts, holiday items and consumer goods.

In the first half of the year, the cumulative number of China-Europe trains increased by 16%

From January to June this year, a total of 8,641 China-Europe trains have been operated, and 936,000 TEUs of goods have been delivered, a year-on-year increase of 16% and 30% respectively.

Among them, there were 4,620 trains and 499,000 TEUs on the outbound journey, a year-on-year increase of 16% and 29% respectively; 4021 trains and 437,000 TEUs on the return journey, a year-on-year increase of 16% and 31% respectively. Up to now, China Railway Express has operated more than 73,000 trains and 6.9 million TEUs over the years, reaching 216 cities in 25 European countries.

Containerized shipments from Asia to the U.S. drop sharply

This week, according to Japan Maritime Center (JMC) statistics, container exports from 18 Asian economies to the United States fell by about 21% year-on-year in May to 1,582,195 TEUs, the ninth consecutive month of decline.

Among them, China's export volume was 884,994TEU, a decrease of 18%, South Korea's export volume was 99,395TEU, a decrease of 14%, China's Taiwan region exported 58,553TEU, a decrease of 20%, and Japan's export volume was 49,174TEU, a decrease of 21%.

In addition, containers from Southeast Asia also fell by 28% to 367,453TEU, of which Vietnam was 187,356TEU, equivalent to a drop of 28%; Thailand was 73,473TEU, down 25%; Indonesia was 37,441TEU, down 34%; Malaysia was 30,601TEU, down 34%. up 28%.

South Asia exported 116,381 TEU of containerized cargo to the US in May, down 19%, while India exported 90,701 TEU, down 17%.

Overall, from January to May this year, the containerized trade volume of exports from Asia to the US was 7,091,823 TEUs, a 25% drop from the same period in 2022.

Most container shipping companies believe that freight rates will drop by 0% to 10%

At present, the demand in the domestic transportation market is weak, and at the same time, it is in the stage of centralized delivery of new ships and a large number of old ships withdrawing from the market.

In the context of the replacement of shipping capacity, the China Shipping Prosperity Index Compilation Office of the Shanghai International Shipping Research Center launched a survey of shipping companies on the trend of freight rates in the second half of the year.

The results of the survey show that 60% of the surveyed container shipping companies believe that freight rates will drop by 0% to 10% in the second half of the year; 20% of the companies believe that freight rates will drop by 10% to 10% in the second half of the year 30%; 15% of companies believe that freight rates will rise by 0% to 10%; only 5% of container shipping companies believe that freight rates will rise by 10% to 30% in the second half of the year.

Far East-North America Line Container Fleet Scale Down

According to statistics from Alphaliner, since last month, a total of 514 ships have been operating on the Far East-North America route, with a total capacity of 4.86 million TEU, compared with 674 ships with a total capacity of 5.56 million TEU in the same period last year.

The analyst further explained that this equates to a 12.6% reduction in the size of the container fleet deployed on the trade route, as carriers are deploying more vessels on the longer Asia-US east coast route, which This means that the Asia-US East Coast route requires more vessels to provide the same weekly capacity compared to the Far East-US West Coast route.

According to the subdivided data of the branch, MSC is the shipping company that removes the most capacity on the Pacific route. What's more worth mentioning is that by the end of June, all new players who joined this route during the epidemic will all withdraw.

New container ship deliveries set record in June

According to data from Asia-based container watcher Linerlytica, new deliveries of container ships reached 277,873 teu in June, setting a new record for the highest level of new ship delivery capacity in a single month.

Linerlytica warned that the total number of new ships delivered in the first six months of this year has reached 148, totaling 979,344 teu, and even after preparing for the decline in deliveries, more than 1.2 million teu will still be delivered in the second half of this year.

Annual deliveries will reach 2.2 million teu by the end of 2023, which will also set a new annual delivery record, surpassing the 1.7 million teu delivered in 2015.

The container shipping industry has ordered a record number of containerships over the past three years, with current orders standing at around 8 million TEUs.

CMA CGM Raises FAK Sea Freight Fees for Asia-North Europe Routes

Recently, CMA CGM issued an official notice, announcing that it will significantly increase the FAK sea freight on the Asia-North Europe route starting from August 1. CMA CGM said the move was to "continue to provide reliable and efficient service to customers", with the new rates effective from August 1 until further notice.

From August 1st, the FAK rate for all Asian ports (including Japan, Southeast Asia and Bangladesh) exported to Nordic ports (including the United Kingdom and the entire route from Portugal to Finland/Estonia) will be raised to 1075 per 20-foot dry container USD, raised to USD 1950 per 40ft dry/refrigerated container.

HMM Launches New Far East-India-Mediterranean Route

HMM recently announced that it will independently operate the new route FIM connecting the Far East-India-Mediterranean.

The route will make its maiden voyage from Busan on August 6, with a round-trip time of 84 days. The first voyage is the 11,000TEU "HMM BLESSING" ship.

The port of call of the route is: Busan-Gwangyang-Shanghai-Ningbo-Shekou-Singapore-Port Klang-Katubali-Navasheva-Mundra-Karachi-Jeddah-(Suez Canal)-Damier Tower - Piraeus - Genoa - Valencia - Barcelona - Piraeus - Damietta - (Suez Canal) - Jeddah - Karachi - Mundra - Navasheva - Katupali - Singapore - Da Chan Bay - Busan.