The Danish conglomorote, Maersk, which operates mainly in the transportation and energy sectors, announced in their latest outlook report that it is expecting to experience losses again this year in its transportation subsidiary.

Despite successful implementation of GRI’s (General Rate Increases) earlier this year, Michael Pram Rasmussen, chairman of A-P Moller Maersk, said that a “negative result” for its container line division would be a result of “excess capacity”. Maersk also expects that “Global demand for seaborne containers is expected to increase by 4-6% in 2012, lower on the Asia–Europe trades but supported…

US diesel prices have fallen for the third consecutive week, as of the week ending 23/4/2012. In the past three weeks US diesel prices have fallen form an average of $4.148 per gallon to $4.085 per gallon for the week ended 23^rd April.

The Midwest witnessed the largest decrease in the past week, with diesel fuel prices falling by 4.7 cents to a price level of $3.974 per gallon, which is the lowest average diesel price recorded in the states.

Conversely, the most expensive diesel prices were on the US west coast, where prices averaged $4.345 per gallon, a differential of 8% when compared to the Midwest.

It is predicted that increased U.S demand for Chinese goods will lead to the Chinese export sector recovering late in 2012. This is despite the fact that China has just experienced its slowest quarterly growth since the Lehman collapse in 2008 and subsequent global financial crisis in 2009. Q1 growth in the Chinese export sector was 8.1% year on year which was a dismal performance when compared to the year on year increase of 26.4% in Q1, 2011.

HIS global Insights reported that there are many green shoots appearing in the Chinese economy, such as in the chemical and steel sector. However the decrease in exports is mainly due to weakened…

February witnessed a sharp decline in US containerised imports as they fell by 5.8%. This equated to imports of 1.19 million TEU’s for the month. Furniture imports fell by 145, footwear fell by 15% and toys were down 20%. In regards regional distribution of US imports, Northeast Asia fared the worst, down 13%.

Conversely, European shipments fared the best as they witnessed a sharp increase of 10% into the US market.

To read about US retail sales, please click here...

The GRI (General Rate Increase) by major carriers on the Asia-Europe trade lanes came into effect on April 1^st, which resulted in a pot rate increase of 28% by April 5^th. In monetary terms this equated to a spot rate increase of $844 per FEU (forty foot equivalent unit) on the Shanghai to Rotterdam freight lane.

This 28% hike follows on form March 1^st, when the World Container Index (WCI) reported that Shanghai to Rotterdam freight rates increased by a staggering 114%.

The spot rate on March 29 per FEU was $2,654 and rose to $3,408 per FEU on April 5^th 2012.…