NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 14, 2022

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Maersk launches new Chicago airfreight gateway

aircargonews.net
Maersk has inaugurated a new Chicago airfreight gateway near Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) that is designed to offer direct planeside recovery with immediate transfers to the new facility.
The shipping giant, which launched Maersk Air Cargo in April, said the new facility also serves Maersk’s air cargo hub at Chicago’s Rockford International Airport. Read more here.

Heathrow handlers ballot over strike action

aircargonews.net
Heathrow ground handlers working at Menzies and dnata will take part in a ballot for potential strike action over pay levels.
Unite, the union representing the workers, said that 700 workers would take part in the poll that will run from October 12 to November 3. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Load factors nosedive, pushing carriers to idle ships in a bid to ‘stop the rot’

theloadstar.com
Container spot and short-term freight rates from China remain under pressure after the Golden Week holiday, as sluggish demand obliges ocean carriers to take out more capacity.
Reports to The Loadstar suggest vessel utilisation on sailings from Asia to North Europe this week was much worse than expected, with talk of load factors “below 70%” on some voyages. Read more here (login required).

MSC may be gearing up to be ‘master of its own destiny’, outside the 2M

theloadstar.com
According to Alphaliner data, MSC’s orderbook now stands at an eye-watering 1.76m teu, equivalent to the total capacity of the fifth-largest ocean carrier, Hapag-Lloyd.
The statistic has left some questioning the future of the 2M Alliance. Read more here (loginr required).

Chittagong port keeps Hapag Lloyd vessel detained after crane incident

container-news.com
The Chittagong Port Authority has detained a 1,718 TEU container feeder vessel operated by Hapag Lloyd in the Chittagong-Colombo route after it hit and damaged a quay gantry crane.
The German carrier deployed the Liberia-flagged vessel namely Hansa Rendsburg on this route last month to cut the operator’s dependence on other feeder vessels. Read more here.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Consumer sentiment could be setting up retailers for gloomy holiday

freightwaves.com
Global inflation may finally be taking its toll on consumers.
A new survey of more than 8,000 consumers and 800 merchants in eight countries found that holiday shopping will be muted this year, with as much as $46 billion in total being cut from spending budgets.
The Holiday Shopping Trends Report: Winning Customers Despite Uncertainty, conducted by Auctane and Retail Economics for ShipStation (Auctane is the parent company of ShipStation), found a disconnect between shoppers and merchants. Read more here.

Tide of US shippers fed up with import delays look to near-shoring instead

theloadstar.com
Opportunities have opened up for trade between the Americas, as US-based companies have begun to shift sourcing to the region.
As a result, Richard Seeg, president of Houston-based breakbulk carrier Intermarine, said the firm had moved a growing volume of materials from Mexico and Colombia to other points involved in US near-shoring. Read more here.