With the likelihood of US east coast ports being paralysed by a strike from 16 January, Hapag-Lloyd announced an extra surcharge and Maersk appealed to US customers.

2024 is fast becoming the third most profitable year in the history of container liner shipping, French shipping data firm Alphaliner has provided insight with a pictorial bar chart.

For the time being, freight traffic seems to be little to no affected by the temporary border controls that have begun. Transport and Logistics Netherlands has not received any reports from drivers about delays or checks at the border.

Container ports in both China and northern Europe are experiencing sharply increased congestion and serious delays ahead of the holiday season. This is what data analyst Linerlytica notes in its Global Port Congestion Watch.

In the Strait of Gibraltar on Tuesday, the container ship 'HMM St Petersburg' of the South Korean shipping company HMM, a giant of 24,000 teu, collided with the Greek oil tanker 'Gloria Maris'. The accident happened off the Spanish port of Algeciras.

After ONE and CMA CGM, MSC has now also decided to have large wind screens installed on the bow of new ships.

The Suez Canal experienced its busiest week of the year in terms of container ships last week, reports French shipping data agency Alphaliner. The shipping link, which saw traffic slump this year due to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea, welcomed 54 container ships in seven days.

The port of Rotterdam continues to be Europe's largest container port in the first nine months of 2024. This is a growth of over 2% compared to the same period in 2023. Antwerp follows shortly after with growth of 7%. The port of Hamburg lags behind with stable volumes.

HGK Intermodal has introduced a new train connection between the Duisburg Gateway West terminal and five terminals in the port of Rotterdam. The connection, called 'SchachZUG', runs three times a week and was set up to move more containers from road to rail.