Alphaliner, the freight analysts, reported that weekly sea freight  capacity on the Europe-Far East trade lane will increase from the current level of 248,000 teu to 284,000 teu weekly.

With significant alliances and consolidation on this trade lane in 2011, this increased capacity is a good indicator of the predicted fierce level of competition which is expected in 2012.

The main question posed by freight shippers is whether or not a rate war will ensue as a result of increased capacity?

Analysts believe that a rate war will be minimised by transferring shipments of over 10,000 teu’s onto secondary trade lanes. Despite this, analysts…

The TSA (Transpacific Stabilisation Agreement) is a research and discussion forum of major container shipping lines that carry sea freight from Asia to US ports. As a group, the TSA develop voluntary, non-binding guidelines for rates and charges.

The TSA suggested a rate increase of $400 per FEU and this translated into Drewrys trans-pacific spot rate stabilising at $1,832 per 40- foot equivilant unit. This is good news for ocean carriers despite the fact that the spot rate is 12% lower than the same week in January 2011.

TSA members include major shipping companies such as APL, China Shipping, CMA-CGM, Cosco,…

Evergreen Shipping is set to co-operate with the CKYH alliance of Cosco Container Line, K Line, Yang Ming and Hanjin shipping in order to counteract the threat recently posed by competitors joining similar alliances.

A [press release from Evergreen stated  “Through this co-operation, CKYH, together with Evergreen, will be able to provide the highest quality services to their customers with shortest transit time from major origin ports to European destinations.”.

This is a shrewd strategic move by Evergreen considering the recent G6 alliance in addition toMSC and CGM alliance which proved a significant threat to…