Indian Railways is discussing if its current 25% discount for moving empty containers inland along some routes needs to be extended beyond March. Read more
Containership
Exporters Take Unusual Steps to Ease Container Shortage
“Exporters and their industry groups are noisier and more active lobbyists on these types of issues,” said Daniel Richards, a senior analyst at Maritime Strategies International Ltd., a shipping consultancy. “When you add to that the importance of the export sector to most Asian economies you can see why these governments have at least made efforts to be seen to be proactive. Read more in Bloomberg
Market efficiency could rain on the parade despite comparisons to supercycle
The ability to separate exuberance from inefficiency is key to understanding how long higher earnings are likely to be maintained. Read more, written by MSI’s Managing Director, Adam Kent, in TradeWinds
World boxship fleet update: New orders emerge at end of extraordinary year
“A flurry of large containership order at the end of 2020 has increased the industry orderbook back to just over 10% of the fleet, although almost all were orders we already had anticipated would take place in either 2020 or 2021,” said analysts at Maritime Strategies International. Read more in Lloyd’s List
No end in sight for container shipping dysfunction
For anyone who might have thought the arrival of the new year would bring relief from the crushing port congestion and global deceleration of container flows, disappointment arrived promptly and will likely linger for months to come. Read more here in JOC
Which sectors will fare best and worst in 2021?
“Perhaps the most spectacular and at first glance counterintuitive, given the headline macroeconomic backdrop, has been the levels to which the containership charter market has been able to reach in Q4 2020,” Kent said. Read more in Splash!
Boxship market on fire as owners cash-in on rising asset values
Today, the Maersk Semarang has a fair market value of around $26.3m, according to forecasting platform MSI Horizon, which suggests that Zodiac will making a handsome profit on the sale…’ Read more in TradeWinds
Containership owners toast a ‘sold-out’ Christmas season
Shippers are squealing, ports are creaking and box-building is booming, but owners of small and large ships are sitting pretty, says Daniel Richards, Maritime Strategies International. Read more in Splash!
How the charter and container markets have collided
The shipowning and finance side of the container industry on the one hand, and the liner and logistics side on the other, operate generally in isolation…. MSI Senior Container analyst Dan Richards writes in The Loadstar
RCEP deal could boost global container volumes by 2pc
‘A key takeaway is the potential benefit for reefer trades: there will likely be boosts to trade for certain agricultural products, which is a key source of growth within intra-Asia container trades,’ said Maritime Strategies International analyst Daniel Richards. Read more here