Newsletter – June 22, 2021

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Sharp increase in ‘double-sailings’ adds to pressure on ports

lloydsloadinglist.com
A sharp increase in ‘double-sailings’ is adding further pressure on ports already struggling with high volumes and disrupted container shipping schedules, new analysis by Sea-Intelligence has revealed.
Its latest Sunday Spotlight briefing analysed the frequency of double sailings – when two or more vessels are sailing within the same week on the same service string. “What happens is that both the origin and destination ports are placed under higher strain in the week of two vessels,” highlighted Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence. Read more here.

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Hapag-Lloyd adds six megamaxes at DSME

splash247.com
Hamburg-based liner Hapag-Lloyd has ordered another six 23,500+ teu ultra-large container vessels at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).
The vessels will be equipped with high-pressure dual-fuel LNG engines, and are scheduled for delivery from 2024. The vessels will also have sufficient tank capacity to operate on conventional fuel as an alternative. Read more here.

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Mounting evidence that container crunch will persist until 2022

freightwaves.com
A widely held theory on pandemic spending is that container imports surged because Americans bought a lot more goods when COVID prevented them from buying services. Ergo, with more vaccinations and fewer hospitalizations, Americans will resume spending on services and consequently have less to spend on goods, the pandemic-induced driver of import demand will wane, spot rates will fall, and the market will return to some semblance of normality. Read more here.

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It’s time to embrace chaos in the supply chain

freightwaves.com
When I first launched FreightWaves, I would get asked if I could build a media and data business solely dedicated to supply chain and logistics. To many this seemed like a boring and niche topic that few would ever care about.
The reality is that supply chain and logistics is far from boring and anything but a niche. Read more here.

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GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

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CN lays out plan for capital investments in 4 provinces

freightwaves.com
Canadian railway CN (NYSE: CNI) so far has announced CA$95 million in 2021 capital investment projects in Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick.
CA$95 million is worth about $77 million U.S., and 1 Canadian dollar equals about 81 U.S. cents.  Read more here.

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INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

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Elon Musk eyes subterranean container transport

splash247.com
Elon Musk is reportedly looking into getting into the red hot container transport sector, but from a typically different angle.
The Boring Company, which Musk founded five years ago, has developed a 6.4 m wide tunnel concept capable of transporting two lanes of containers. Read more here.

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How Traffic Congestion In Chicago Is Backing Things Up In Los Angeles: Pipeline Inventory Is Now A Big Logistics Problem

forbes.com
The surge in American demand for consumer goods coupled with logistics bottlenecks around the world have led to uncomfortably low retail inventories as stores scramble to get goods on their shelves. As retailers try to bring a surge of imports into their distribution centers, they are exceeding the capacity of logistics providers to move them through choked hubs like the Union Pacific Global 4 intermodal terminal in Joliet, Illinois outside of Chicago. A shortage of truck chassis means its difficult to get containers out of the terminal to warehouses, that in turn leads to congestion that makes it is difficult to unload trains.

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FedEx Freight prunes 1,400 customers to protect service levels

freightwaves.com
FedEx Freight is immediately cutting service to about 1,400 less-than-truckload customers, affecting thousands of locations, in an effort to reduce terminal bottlenecks and shipping delays as unprecedented amounts of tonnage pour into the sector. Read more here.