Newsletter: February 3, 2022

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Severe winter storm causing airport closures, flight cancellations

freightwaves.com
A powerful winter storm that began Tuesday night has been slowly moving across a large part of the country.
Places from the Southwest to the Northeast have been slammed with heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain. Winter storm alerts from the National Weather Service stretch more than 2,200 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth to the Maine-Canada border. Read more here. 

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Maersk service to southern India a hit, but market rates are still rising

theloadstar.com
Maersk Line appears upbeat after boosting the southern India market last year with regular direct connections from Ennore Port, near Chennai, to North Europe via its ME7 service.
The weekly loop deploys eight ships with an average nominal capacity of 6,500 teu each on a rotation of Ennore, Colombo, Salalah, Algeciras, Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Bremerhaven, Jeddah, Salalah, Colombo, and back to Ennore. Read more here (login required).

Maersk Megaship Grounded in Germany

gcaptain.com
A Maersk megaship has run aground in the North Sea just off Germany.
The Danish shipping giant has confirmed that its M/V Mumbai Maersk grounded outside Bremerhaven and efforts are underway to refloat the vessel.
All crew are reported safe, there is no pollution, and no sign of hull breach. Read more here.

LA, Long Beach port dockworker absences decline as omicron eases

ajot.com
Things are turning around for West Coast dockworkers unable to work due to the omicron spike last month, a welcome sign for the more than 100 ships waiting off the coast to unload at the U.S.’s two largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Read more here.

Hai Phong to build two additonal terminals

news.maritime-network.com
Vietnam’s Hai Phong Port has signed a US$310 million contract to build Terminals 3 and 4 to meet growing demand.
Phu Xuan Construction and Consulting has been contracted to carry out surveying, design and construction of a wharf, dredging and leveling works for the terminals on a 470,000m² site in the Lach Huyen port area. Read more here. 

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

Trucker protest strands beef shipments at US-Canada border

ajot.com
Protesters who are rallying against vaccine mandates are holding up shipments of Canadian beef to the U.S.
More than 150 loads of beef are stuck at the border at Coutts, Alberta, the Canadian Meat Council said Monday. A blockade of vehicles has been slowing traffic at the crossing between Alberta and Montana since the weekend in a protest against rules that require truckers crossing the border to be fully vaccinated. Read more here. 

CANADA BUSINESS- GOVERNMENT UPDATES

Prince Rupert stage-1 terminal expansion on track for July completion

news.maritime-network.com
Canada’s Port of Prince Rupert and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based DP World are making progress with several infrastructure projects aimed at improving Canada’s west coast.
The first stage of the Phase 2B expansion of Fairview Container Terminal is now halfway through completion and will be concluded in July.
Under the project, the terminal’s capacity will be extended to 1.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) this summer and 1.8 TEUs in 2024. Read more here.