Newsletter – March 8, 2023

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Maersk Air Cargo idles new freighters as demand subsides

freightwaves.com
Maersk Air Cargo has parked several leased cargo jets and dialed back flight activity in response to deteriorating demand in the airfreight market. And a planned route between China and the U.S. is on hold, possibly because adding new capacity doesn’t make economic sense. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Maersk reintroduces direct bookings to Ukraine

container-news.com
Maersk announced that it is now able to offer direct bookings to Ukraine from anywhere in the world, alleviating a common customer issue over the last year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Therefore, the Danish carrier started a new weekly barge service from the Port of Constanta in Romania to the Port of Reni in Ukraine. This service is now fully operational across two routes – via the Constanta/Danube Channel and the Black Sea – with a transit time of approximately 1.5 days.  Read more here.

Busy week for boxship sales

splash247.com
Signs that the container sector is getting towards a market bottom can be seen in the sale and purchase secondhand market where vessels are changing hands in significant numbers.
As has been the case since the middle of 2020, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) is leading the charge for tonnage. Read more here.

MSC ship loses more than 40 boxes overboard in bad weather

splash247.com
An MSC panamax boxship has lost more than 40 empty containers overboard during bad weather some 350 nautical miles east of Bermuda.
The incident was reported by the Bermuda Maritime Operations Center, which was advised via email from the MSC Shristi that it had lost a total of 46 boxes at three different times. Read more here.

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

FMCSA wants more feedback to help weed out corrupt brokers

freightwaves.com
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced on Tuesday a listening session it will hold at a major truck show to get more public input that will help the agency crack down on illegal brokering.
FMCSA, which will host the session March 31 at the Mid America Trucking Show (MATS) in Louisville, Kentucky, wants to hear comments on two matters: interim guidance issued in November on the agency’s interpretation of how brokers and bona fide agents are defined, and a proposal issued on Jan. 5 to regulate five areas of broker financial responsibility. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Another benchmark diesel price drop, but decline may be sputtering

freightwaves.com
Diesel prices in the wholesale and futures markets have trended higher over the past several trading days, but retail prices are still stuck in the past. And that’s to be expected.
For the fifth consecutive week, the benchmark Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average national retail price declined, this time by 1.2 cents per gallon to $4.282. It’s also the 14th drop in the last 17 weeks, a decline that has taken the data point used for most fuel surcharges down $1.053 a gallon from the $5.333 recorded Nov. 7, the last time the DOE/EIA price rose. Read more here.