Posts Tagged “Maersk”
Maersk plans to eliminate Panama Canal vessel transits on a north-south service between Oceania and the U.S. East Coast, citing the ongoing drought that has reduced ship transits and container carrying capacity through the waterway, Journal of Commerce reports.
The Copenhagen-based carrier said Wednesday that its OC1 service linking Australia and New Zealand with the ports of Philadelphia and Charleston will instead use a 50-mile rail service across the Isthmus of Panama to handle cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific.
As a result, the OC1 service will be broken into two loops, Maersk said. The Pacific loop will drop off northbound cargo at Balboa for the land bridge service via rail to Manzanillo, where the Atlantic loop will retrieve the cargo and resume waterborne service.
The carrier did not say whether the nearly 26-day transit time from New Zealand to Philadelphia would change due to the land bridge. It said that while northbound cargo will not be delayed, southbound cargo may see some delays.
Other Maersk services from Asia to the US East Coast will continue to use the Panama Canal.
Along with the Panama Canal, Maersk said the OC1 would omit Cartagena, Colombia, as a call. It also directed shippers to the option of its PANZ service between Oceania and the US West Coast.
Maersk said the decision to omit the Panama Canal crossing on OC1 was “based on current and projected water levels in Gatun Lake,” which provides the water to raise and lower vessels in the canal’s locks. As of Wednesday, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) said Gatun Lake was at 81.6 feet, compared with a five-year average water level for January of 86.9 feet.
Low water levels have forced the ACP to only allow 24 ships of any size to transit the Canal daily, down from the 35 to 40 ships it could handle before the ongoing drought that has reduced Gatun’s water levels. Ships must also carry less cargo as the Canal is limiting the maximum depth of neo-Panamax vessels to 44 feet from 50 feet. Smaller Panamax vessels, such as the ones in the OC1 service, are restricted to a 39.5-foot depth versus the typical 45 feet.
In early December, ocean carriers in THE Alliance said they were preparing to divert east-west vessel services from the Panama Canal due to the potential for transits being reduced to as few as 18 by February. But with better-than-projected water levels on Gatun Lake, the ACP did not implement that further reduction.
Mediterranean Shipping Co. has become the word’s largest shipping line in terms of capacity, according to data compiled by Alphaliner and published on recently by Bloomberg.
The Danish carrier A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S is no longer the world’s largest container line.
MSC’s fleet can carry 4,284,728 standard 20-foot containers, 1,888 more than Maersk, giving both a market share of 17%.
Maersk, which first entered containerized trade in 1975, has held the top spot for decades. The carrier has been a pioneer in the industry, often breaking records by building the biggest ships.
More recently, it has invested in vessels that can sail on carbon-neutral methanol. It still has the most capacity in terms of owned vessels: MSC has about 65% of its capacity from chartered ships whereas Maersk only has 42%.
After struggling to make money for much of the past decade, the container shipping industry just had its most profitable year ever as pandemic-driven demand for consumer goods strains capacity on vessels. Freight rates out of Shanghai have jumped about five-fold over the last 18 months.
“We never set a specific target to be the biggest,” MSC Chief Executive Officer Soren Toft said in an emailed comment on Wednesday, adding that he’s focusing on growth and profitability.
Maersk CEO Soren Skou last month reiterated in an interview that holding the top spot isn’t important for the Copenhagen-based company, which is investing on expanding its land-based logistics where profit margins are higher.
New refrigerated containers have been ordered by Hapag-Loyd for export expansions…In Nogales, L&M has expanded its warehouse shipping facility.
Hapag-Lloyd is investing in 3700 refrigerated containers, which are used to ship food and other cargo around the world Of the total, 1,000 of the units have environmentally friendly refrigeration systems.
Another 1000 will also have controlled-atmosphere capabilities specifically for fresh produce.
The Maersk Container Industry Star Cool Integrated containers are being built in Maersk facilities in China and Chile.
“Working together with (Maersk Container), we have been able to refine (controlled-atmosphere) technology to offer our ExtraFresh Plus service,” said Niklas Ohling, senior director at Hapag-Lloyd, in a news release. “his service enables even extremely sensitive fruit such as blueberries and lychees to be transported to the desired level of quality and degree of ripeness.”
The new containers allows the company to expand the market reach of fresh fruits and vegetables, said Saren Leth Johannsen, chief commercial officer At Maersk Container, in the release.
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L&M Begins Winter Season with New Facility
By L&M
L&M’s Nogales location has moved and is now operating in a new, expanded facility. The new location features over 33,000 square feet of cold storage, including 8 ripening rooms for mature green tomatoes and over 9,000 square feet of office space. This allows L&M to service up to 24 loads at one time. We are happy to offer consolidation services for our customers, as well as in-and-out service year-round.
L&M is already shipping melons, zucchini, yellow squash, hard squash, eggplant and bell peppers. Mature Green tomatoes will be available in December and cucumbers are available year-round. L&M will be adding production on eggplant and hard squash out of Culiacan, Mexico.
L&M Nogales is now located at 1450 W. La Quinta Rd. The company is a grower and shipper of fresh vegetables, potatoes and onions, with farms and offices nationwide
PORT HUENEME, CA. — Over 100,000 tons of additional fresh fruits and vegetables should be arriving at the Port of Hueneme annually as SeaLand has designated the facility as a new port call.
SeaLand, the Intra-Americas regional ocean carrier for the Maersk Group, based in Miramar, FL, launched a new service at the port in September.
Although the ocean carrier will transport a wide range of cargo, fresh fruit will make up the majority of its payload coming to the Port of Hueneme, said Tim Child, SeaLand’s chief operations officer.
Bananas, avocados, pineapples, limes, dried fruit and nuts are some of the items the carrier will bring in as part of the company’s West Coast Central America (WCCA) service, which will offer weekly runs between Southern California, Mexico, Central America and the west coast of South America.
As for exports, SeaLand will be handling apples, table grapes and stone fruit on a seasonal basis.
Shipping is the most fuel-efficient method of transporting goods and provides an alternative for produce that typically is trucked from Mexico, Child said.
It also could improve distribution of goods coming to or from California’s Central Valley, he said.
Steve Barnard, president and CEO of Mission Produce Inc., an Oxnard-based avocado grower-shipper, was on hand for the welcoming event.
“This new service into Oxnard is going to be be huge, at least for the local community and Mission in particular,” he said. “We bring in several thousand loads a year from Mexico and South America,” he said.
Until now, the company’s product from Mexico has been delivered by truck.
“This is going to save time and energy,” he said. “The carbon footprint is going to be significantly reduced.”
The Port of Hueneme, known as “the port that farmers built,” is surrounded by the Oxnard growing area, specializes in refrigerated cargo and is well-suited to the volume of fresh fruit bound for the U.S. Southwest from Latin America, said Ariel Frias, SeaLand’s head of marketing.
It’s about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles and will serve as “an alternative gateway” to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The port offers an efficient infrastructure for fresh produce that includes faster inspections and nearby cold storage facilities, he said.
The port already handles 650,600 tons of bananas and 113,400 tons of other fruit annually.
Holt Logistics Corp., of Gloucester City, NJ has landed separate business agreementsthat has attacted two additional weekly shipments from South America and Central America to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
The “South American Express” service started June 3rd, operated by SeaLand, the Denmark-based Maersk Group’s intra-Americas regional ocean carrier, plans to begin calling on the terminal.
The service previously terminated in Norfolk, Va., and the change expands SeaLand’s direct connections from Central America into the northeast and provides shippers with better access to U.S. consumers and a user-friendly docking environment for refrigerated peribshable goods, including tropical fruits and other commodities, according to a news release.
Additionally, a joint vessel sharing agreement between SeaLand and American President Lines is designed to create a new “North American Express” service that should attract an additional ship to the terminal each week.
The “North Atlantic Express” service is pending regulatory approval but is scheduled to commence in late June.
The service rotation plans to cycle between the Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama, Cartagena, Columbia, south Florida, Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia and New York.
It boosts SeaLand’s network and offers additional direct connections and service between the West Coast of South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. Business at the Port of Philadelphia continues to grow, and the addition of two weekly service calls from SeaLand/APL will increase efficiency, shorten overall transit times and provide greater opportunities to expand business in both perishable and non-perishable commerce between North and South America.