Concerns are rising among West Coast ports as negotiations resume between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). The slow pace of contract talks is negatively impacting import and export shipping business. January container volume numbers show a significant year-over-year drop at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, […]
Read MoreMost of the weakness in the broader economy occurred in the first half of 2022, when real GDP declined at annual rates of 1.6% and 0.6% in the first and second quarters, respectively. Real GDP growth then accelerated over the second half of the year, averaging 3%. Thus, the economy entered 2023 with a healthy […]
Read MoreChina’s major ports are facing a growing stack of empty containers, leading to the relocation of surplus boxes to secondary ports to create more space. Container xChange’s Container Availability index (CAx) shows that Shanghai, Ningbo, Tianjin, and Shenzhen ports have recorded a surplus of containers above 0.6 for 11 consecutive weeks as of February 5, […]
Read MoreThe January inflation rate was slightly higher than expected, with the government reporting a 0.5% increase compared to economists’ expectation of a 0.4% increase. In the past year, inflation has risen by 6.4%, which is 0.2% higher than expected. The core rate, which excludes food and energy prices, rose by 0.4% in January, which […]
Read MoreGlobal Ocean carriers reached the top of the bullish market in 2022 by realizing high profits largely due to tight capacity and exceptionally high container rates. In fact, analysts at Blue Alpha Capital project that the world’s biggest container lines are on course to post profits in 2022 that will top 2021’s record by 73%. However, […]
Read More2022 saw many disruptive events impact the global freight market, and we’re bound to witness some spillover from last year on air rates and volumes in 2023. In January and February last year, air freight volume was sky-high, seeing an accumulative 4% year-on-year growth compared to 2021. But this growth dropped from mid-April 2022. […]
Read MoreThe drop in the cost of shipping containers will help reduce price pressures, Jonathan Ostry, a professor at Georgetown University and the former acting director of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Asia and Pacific department wrote in a post on the IMF’s website. In a previous IMF study by Ostry and four colleagues examining the […]
Read MoreAir Freight rates continue to decline on major routes with exception of the China-U.S. route which has grown 10%, the TAC Index shows. This development comes on the heels of early factory closures in China as the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday nears but also in part because of new COVID cases and weak […]
Read MoreInternational trade growth will not match the global economic pace over most of the next decade, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Trade patters will change even as the war in Ukraine is reshaping strategic alliances and altering the flow of cross-border commerce. World trade’s annual expansion rate […]
Read MoreTaking stock of developments in the maritime industry in 2022, one must be content: Every segment experienced a performance ranging from good to outstanding. From offshore to cruise ships and LNG vessels, shipping markets were overall profitable in 2022, in stark contrast to extremely poor markets of a couple of years earlier. Everyone’s mind is […]
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