The Suez Canal News

Washington comes to grips with the reality that the domestic intermodal equation includes four modes. One of them is by water. It’s about time.One of the great things about spending five years in retirement (I mean, aside from being blissfully idle while you toiled) is that, when you do come back to work, you enjoy a truly fresh perspective in all aspects of your job. Not only does this provide new energy, more importantly, a half decade of change is much easier to discern. Nowhere…

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and Maersk Training (MT) have entered into a landmark agreement to establish a Centre of Excellence focused on leadership and crisis management training for SCA employees. The agreement was signed at a ceremony attended by senior representatives from both organizations.The contract was formalized by Yasser El Sheshengy, Director of the Communication & Information Systems Department at the Suez Canal Authority; Vijay Rangachari, Head of Growth and Strategic Projects at Maersk Training…

Hapag-Lloyd's CEO said on Thursday he expects continued strength in container shipping volumes, which are driven by global demand for transporting goods and seen as a proxy for trade and a health barometer for the world economy.The volume of twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) containers moved by its 292 ships rose to 9.3 million metric tons in the nine months from January to September, up 5% from 8.9 million in the same period a year ago, the German company said."I don't see much of a change there in the fourth quarter…

Van Oord has finished dredging two new port basins in Ain Sokhna Port, successfully completing a project that forms part of a port expansion program meant to improve and develop the Suez Canal Economic Zone and harness the potential of the Suez Canal as a global hub for maritime transport.The General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone and the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Egypt awarded Van Oord the contract to dredge approximately 21 million cubic meters of soil to create two new port basins.

Suez Canal Chairman Gamal El-Dein says Canal Economic Zone set for rapid expansion.Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZ) has invested $3 billion on infrastructure over the past few years and has plans to invest a similar amount over the next few years as it works to attract investors, its chairman said in an interview.The zone, a collection of six ports and four industrial areas alongside, or near the waterway, has been given special legal and tax advantages to benefit from the vast amount of international shipping passing by.While government-run…

A.P. Moller-Maersk expects strong demand for shipping goods around the globe to continue in the coming months, though does not expect to resume sailing through the Suez Canal until "well into 2025".Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants have disrupted a shipping route vital to east-west trade, with prolonged re-routing of shipments pushing freight rates higher and causing congestion in Asian and European ports."There are no signs of de-escalation and it is not safe for our vessels or personnel to go there ...

The ongoing impact of conflict in the Red Sea, spiraling freight rates and congestion across global ocean container supply chains resulted in record high carbon emissions from the ocean container shipping industry in Q3.The Xeneta and Marine Benchmark Carbon Emissions Index (CEI), which measures carbon emissions across Xeneta’s top 13 ocean container shipping trades, hit 107.9 points in Q3 – the highest on record and up 12.2% compared to a year ago before the Red Sea crisis.The CEI is based on Q1 2018…

Yemen's Houthis said on Monday that they targeted three ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, attacks they called part of their efforts to enforce a naval blockade on Israel.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a televised address the vessels were targeted for attempting to approach ports bound for Israel.According to the latest data from LSEG, all three targeted vessels were Liberia-registered.One of the vessels, identified by the Houthis as bulk carrier Motaro, was last seen off Yemen's western coast in the Red Sea…

International shipping company Hapag-Lloyd raised its full-year earnings guidance on Thursday citing stronger-than-expected demand and higher freight rates.Despite increased expenses from the diversion of vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, Hapag-Lloyd says it now expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2024 of between $4.6 billion and $5 billion, up from previous guidance of $3.5 billion to $4.6 billion.However, given very volatile freight rates and major geopolitical challenges…

Ships carrying Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asia are returning to the longer routes around Africa's Cape of Good Hope rather than those along the Arctic shore as the winter season begins, LSEG data showed on Thursday.Russia's new Arctic LNG 2 project also lacks enough ice-class gas carriers to continue navigation along the Northern Sea Route, although some such tankers still sail it.According to LSEG data, the conventional gas tanker LNG Megrez loaded at Yamal LNG plant on Oct. 2 and started its voyage around Africa to Asia with arrival set for Nov.

Russia has begun designing nuclear-powered submarines to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Arctic to Asia to try to nearly halve the journey time along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a senior state official has said.Russia already uses nuclear-powered ice breakers to pave the way for such transport via the NSR, which runs along Russia's Arctic shores from Murmansk in the west to the Bering Strait in the east, a route Moscow sees as a faster alternative to the Suez Canal and has plans to develop.But Russia is suffering from a shortage of vessels able to battle thick Arctic ice…

Russia has begun designing nuclear-powered submarines to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Arctic to Asia to try to nearly halve the journey time along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a senior state official has said.Russia already uses nuclear-powered ice breakers to pave the way for such transport via the NSR, which runs along Russia's Arctic shores from Murmansk in the west to the Bering Strait in the east, a route Moscow sees as a faster alternative to the Suez Canal and has plans to develop.But Russia is suffering from a shortage of vessels able to battle thick Arctic ice…

VesselsValue has released its Q4 2024 Market Outlook indicating a forecast period up to 2027 which suggests a mixed outlook across different vessel types.The company anticipates that orders for bulkers and tankers will gain momentum, while demand for containers and LNG/LPG vessels will decline. Despite the expected rise in bulker and tanker orders, the overall orderbook will likely shrink due to a surge in deliveries for container and gas vessels.Geopolitical tensions, such as the Houthi attacks in the Bab Al Mandeb Strait, are creating both risks and opportunities for shipping.

A ship’s officer on board a commercial vessel was recently arrested, fined and at risk of being deported from Norway for flying his personal drone over a commercial port in Norway, where the vessel was berthed.The incident was detailed in a report from P&I club Gard, who said the seafarer, a European national, was aboard one its member’s vessels."Norwegian and other national authorities take these matters very seriously in the current geopolitical climate and a number of foreign nationals have already been deported for flying drones in various locations around Norway," Gard said.

A Turkish seismic research vessel plans to arrive off the coast of Somalia at the end of October and begin searching for oil and natural gas, after the countries agreed on energy cooperation, Turkey's energy ministry said on Thursday.The March agreement envisaged oil exploration and production and allowed Turkish Petroleum to obtain licenses for three areas in the Somali seas.The ship Oruc Reis will explore in areas covering approximately 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles), the ministry said…

On a warm spring night in Athens, shortly before midnight, a senior executive at a Greek shipping company noticed an unusual email had landed in his personal inbox.The message, which was also sent to the manager's business email address, warned that one of the company's vessels travelling through the Red Sea was at risk of being attacked by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi militia.The Greek-managed ship had violated a Houthi-imposed transit ban by docking at an Israeli port and would be "directly targeted by the Yemeni Armed Forces in any area they deem appropriate…

The Pioneer tanker, sanctioned by the United States over its links to Russia-sourced liquefied natural gas (LNG), has passed through the Suez Canal with an LNG cargo, LSEG data showed on Monday.The source of the LNG and Palau-flagged Pioneer's destination were not immediately clear. The tanker is registered to Zara Shipholding Co, which has offices in Dubai and India's Mumbai.Shippers have largely shunned the Suez route since late last year to avoid attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea.The canal is a key trade link between Europe and Asia, channeling nearly 12% of global cargo.

U.S. companies that rely on East and Gulf Coast seaports have been importing early, shifting goods to the West Coast, and even putting cargo on pricey flights to hedge against a threatened Oct. 1 strike that could jam supply chains and reignite inflation ahead of the U.S. presidential election."This is just another headache after everything else we've been dealing with," said Kenneth Sanchez, CEO of Chesapeake Specialty Products, which sends goods like metallic abrasives and foundry…

Broker Marsh and Lloyd's underwriter Tokio Marine Kiln (TMK) have set up business interruption insurance for ports to provide cover against growing trade disruption risks such as threats to shipping in the Red Sea, executives involved said.Ports across the globe are dealing with multiple issues that are disrupting flows of goods, including attacks by Yemen's Houthis on commercial shipping as well as the risk of strikes at terminals in the United States."Recent geopolitical turmoil has exposed a clear gap in the standard cover available to ports and other cargo facilities.

U.S. presidential contender Donald Trump's plan to hike tariffs on imports if he is elected back to the White House in November would send cargo rates soaring and accelerate inflation, just like it did during his 2017-21 term, shipping and retail experts said.Trump, who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election, has floated second-term plans for blanket tariffs of 10% to 20% on virtually all imports as well as tariffs of 60% or more on goods from China, in a bid to boost U.S.

Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd could add more container vessels to an alliance announced earlier this year if shipping disruptions in the Red Sea continue, the companies said on Tuesday.Attacks in the Red Sea by Iran-aligned Houthi militants have since late last year forced shipping companies to reroute traffic away from the Suez Canal and instead sail around Africa, a longer journey that ties up more capacity.Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd in January said they had agreed on a new collaboration, starting in February of 2025, to transport a combined 3.4 million containers annually with a fleet of 290 vessels,

Container liner shipping company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., announced it has entered into a new long-term operational cooperation with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) on the Asia - U.S. East Coast and Asia - U.S. Gulf trades.The new services are scheduled to be launched in February 2025, subject to regulatory approvals and filings, ZIM said.Eli Glickman, ZIM President & CEO, said, "This important collaboration reflects ZIM's commitment to both delivering an outstanding shipping solution to its customers…

Fuel oil exports bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast slumped to their lowest level since January 2019 last month, a sign of weakened refinery demand as margins have softened, analysts said.Feedstocks like high sulfur fuel oil and other heavy residues can be refined into higher value products such as gasoline and diesel using secondary units.But loadings of those products to the Gulf Coast, America's largest refining hub, fell by a third in August from the prior month to 260,000 barrels per day (bpd)…