Far East Maritime
A new approach is needed to tackle excess tonnage and volatile rates, but are the lines willing to change.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/17/2012 11:31:03 PM | with 0 comments


Don’t expect anything good this year is the bleak assessment from the world’s largest box carrier.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/16/2012 4:52:49 AM | with 0 comments


Just days after shippers on the transpacific were warned of an impressively high peak levy, peak season surcharge fever has arrived on Asia-Europe.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/10/2012 8:37:26 PM | with 0 comments


Never slow to seize a revenue-gathering opportunity, transpacific carriers expecting cargo to build through the summer were swift to slap down the peak levy.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/8/2012 11:35:39 PM | with 0 comments


Here’s a question for US ports: Would it be possible to get planning approval to reclaim 220 square kilometres of land?

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/4/2012 3:59:11 AM | with 0 comments


The port of the future will need to take into account the capacity problems plaguing their customers.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 5/2/2012 10:12:42 PM | with 0 comments


Taiwan’s biggest container shipping line has seized an opportunity to ramp up its orderbook at fire sale prices.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/26/2012 9:33:22 PM | with 0 comments


Reporting on the mainland can be tricky even for shipping media hacks, as I found out in Chongqing recently.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/25/2012 12:12:09 AM | with 0 comments


When it comes to maritime hubs, Hong Kong has fallen well behind Singapore.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/20/2012 5:48:07 AM | with 0 comments


Rates are sticking and capacity management appears to be improving. But how long can it last?

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/18/2012 1:32:15 AM | with 0 comments


This year will see the weakest Chinese growth rate since 2001, is the grim prediction from HSBC’s aptly named chief economist Stephen King.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/13/2012 10:52:01 AM | with 0 comments


Just as the carriers finally bend the supply demand curve back into shape, they appear ready to blow it out all over again.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/10/2012 10:56:06 PM | with 0 comments


Mercifully, the 2011 reporting season is almost over and soon will be consigned to the scrapheap of history, or better still, wrapped in a shroud and dumped overboard.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 4/3/2012 8:01:29 PM | with 2 comments


With not much going on in the mainland export markets, the world’s transport and logistics operators are fast moving into the country’s domestic distribution arena.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/28/2012 2:51:20 AM | with 0 comments


The steady fall in China’s manufacturing activity over the past few months is raising a giant red flag.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/22/2012 9:39:47 PM | with 0 comments


The Factory of the World is on a go slow, and the thick cluster of container terminals in South China are nervously contemplating a steady fall in traffic.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/15/2012 10:39:08 PM | with 0 comments


The container shipping line mantra over the past few years has been “get big or go home”, but the size of ships on a bloated orderbook threatens to create havoc on Intra-Asia trade.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/14/2012 3:16:34 AM | with 0 comments


The numbers may have changed, but the issues that keep transpacific container shipping lines and their customers at each other’s throats remain the same.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/7/2012 7:48:59 PM | with 1 comments


They don’t call shipping a cyclical business for nothing, so by definition the bad times can’t last forever.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 3/2/2012 1:08:35 AM | with 0 comments


Unless there is a mass withdrawal of capacity, the container shipping business is going to have a very unhappy 2012.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/28/2012 6:32:48 PM | with 1 comments


Russia’s transportation officials are failing to address the country’s vast infrastructure shortcomings, bureaucratic snafus and general mismanagement.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/24/2012 4:23:02 AM | with 0 comments


The bad news is that this year will not be a good one, and probably not next year, either. The good news is that the future is so bright HSBC’s trade analysts have all flipped down their welding helmets.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/22/2012 1:12:29 AM | with 0 comments


The real growth in Hong Kong lies in the double counting of transhipment cargo barged down the Pearl River or fed in from regional ports.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/16/2012 9:48:25 PM | with 0 comments


In the parallel universe occupied by container shipping lines, the steep rate hikes are unrealistic and a desperate attempt to raise profitability before signing annual contracts.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/14/2012 10:23:22 PM | with 1 comments


Summer can’t come fast enough for the frozen northeast.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/10/2012 2:18:13 AM | with 0 comments


The traditional government inertia means Hong Kong’s inexorable transition to a transshipment port will continue.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/2/2012 10:29:33 PM | with 0 comments


As the losses pour in, it is hardly surprising to see container carriers preparing to hit shippers with hefty GRIs.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 2/1/2012 4:21:37 AM | with 0 comments


Rail remains the south China port’s best bet as export-producing factories move away from the coast.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 1/26/2012 7:03:26 PM | with 0 comments


The greatest threat to Beijing’s Go West initiative is emerging as a lack of water in the parched inland provinces.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 1/25/2012 9:01:51 PM | with 0 comments


You don't have to be an accounting guru to predict dismal 2011 results, but China Shipping's expected financials give an indication of the depth to which container carriers can expect to sink.

Posted to Far East Maritime by Greg Knowler on 1/20/2012 2:30:10 AM | with 0 comments


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Colin Henthorne
Thanks for your response, Dennis. You are correct that the...

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I must add a clarification to this. I am referring to the a...

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