Hutchison sells Panama Canal Ports To A U.S. Led Consortium Under Pressure From The U.S.
CK Hutchison Holdings sold its controlling interest in two major Panama Canal ports to a U.S. led consortium for $22.8billion. BlackRock Inc. Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited will receive a 90% stake of the Panama Ports Company that operates the Balboa & Cristobal Ports.The sale comes after President Donald Trump expressed concerns about China's influence on key infrastructure in the canal. Trump publicly criticized a Hong Kong based company's control over these ports…
Trump Hopes to Ship Alaskan Gas to Asia
When President Donald Trump sat down to lunch with his Japanese counterpart this month, talk turned quickly to how Tokyo could help realize a decades-old proposal to unlock gas in Alaska and ship it to U.S. allies in Asia.Trump and his energy tsar Doug Burgum framed the venture as a way for Japan to replace Middle East energy shipments and address its trade imbalance with the U.S., according to two officials briefed on the closed-door talks.Japanese premier Shigeru Ishiba - eager to ensure a positive first meeting and stave off damaging U.S.
FMC Approves Operation of Premier Alliance
The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has announced that the Premier Alliance Agreement (No. 201435) can take effect on February 9, 2025.The Premier Alliance is replacing THE Alliance, but does not include Hapag-Lloyd which instead entered the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk.The new arrangement allows Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming to share vessels on trade lines between the United States and Asia, the Middle East and Europe.The cooperation is comprised of mainline services across the major East – West Tradelines: Asia – North America West Coast…
Panama Canal Transits Drop in Favor of Alternatives
Between September 2024 and January 2025, ship capacity in deadweight tonnes transiting through the Panama Canal was 10% lower than the 2019-22 average.Although there were no transit restrictions during this period, transits of dry bulk, LNG and, to a lesser extent, tankers have not recovered to their historical levels, says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analysis Manager at BIMCO.Between June 2023 and September 2024, transits through the Panama Canal were restricted due to low water levels in the Gatun Lake.
WTO Barometer Shows Moderate Trade Growth as Policy Uncertainty Looms
Global goods trade continued to expand at a moderate pace in the fourth quarter of 2024 according to the latest World Trade Organization (WTO) Goods Trade Barometer. However, prospects for trade in 2025 are uncertain.The Goods Trade Barometer is a composite indicator for world trade, providing real-time information on the trajectory of merchandise trade relative to recent trends. Barometer values greater than 100 are associated with above-trend trade volumes while barometer values…
Argentina to Privatize Paraguay-Parana Waterway
The Argentine government will call for a national and international public tender to privatize its stretch of the Paraguay-Parana waterway through a 30-year concession, cabinet chief Guillermo Francos said on Tuesday.The waterway, a natural river corridor that extends through the Parana and Paraguay rivers, is a key transport route to the sea from inland areas of Paraguay, Bolivia and southern Brazil.Argentina uses the 3,400 km-long (2,100 mile-long) waterway to move nearly 80% its foreign trade, including its massive farm exports such as processed soybeans, corn and wheat.Francos said the con
Hong Kong Maritime Week Summit Highlights Threats to Free Trade
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the Transport and Logistics Bureau of the Government of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association and the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board, convened for a trade summit on November 18.The Hong Kong Global Trade Summit drew nearly 300 delegates from 28 countries, including ministers and senior policymakers from 12 nations, the European Commission and international organisations and CEOs of companies from the maritime value chain.The Summit addressed the challenges facing maritime trade including growing political tensions…
LNG Tankers Divert to Europe After Russia Halts Austrian Supplies
At least five cargoes of LNG have diverted from Asia to Europe in the past few days, drawn by higher gas prices on the continent after Russia's Gazprom halted supplies to Austria's OMV, data from analytics firm Kpler showed.On Saturday Gazprom halted supplies to top Austrian gas importer OMV after OMV threatened to impound some of the Russian state firm's gas as compensation for an arbitration it had won over a contractual dispute.Gazprom notified OMV of the planned halt on Friday…
U.S. Port Strike Settled— What happens next?
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) announced in an historic development for U.S. maritime industry that they had reached a tentative agreement which officially ends the longshoremen strike that had significantly disrupted East and Gulf Coast ports. After weeks of negotiation, the ILA secured a 62% wage increase over six years for its 47,000 members over this resolution; ending labor unrest that had brought critical U.S.
