Newsletter – February 7, 2024

AIR FREIGHT UPDATES

Virgin Atlantic Cargo expands online booking offering
aircargonews.net
Virgin Atlantic Cargo has continued to expand its online booking capabilities by placing its capacity on WebCargo.
WebCargo said that its users would now be able to book capacity on the carrier’s flights to 30 destinations in the US, India, China, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Caribbean. Read more here.

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

BCMEA/ILWU Local 514 Bargaining Update
bcmeanegotiations.com
Further to the appointment of conciliation officers by the Minister of Labour on January 19, the BC Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Ship and Dock Foremen Local 514 (Local 514) are resuming negotiations this week with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. Read more here.

HMM sale fails due to differences over management rights
theloadstar.com
HMM’s sale to the Harim Group-JKL Partners consortium has been called off.
Another round of discussions with the South Korean flagship carrier’s major shareholders, Korea Development Bank and Korea Ocean Business Corp, broke down just after midnight, Seoul time. Read more here.

Revised carrier schedules bedding-in, say shippers, but they see trouble ahead
theloadstar.com
Amid continuing attacks on commercial shipping by Houthi rebels, scheduling issues caused by re-routing of services away from the Suez Canal and around the Cape of Good Hope (CGH) have begun to stabilise.
According to UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), a UK-owned ship was fired on at just after midnight yesterday, just west of Yemen’s Hodeidah port. Read more here (login required).

Will the Year of the Dragon spring some surprises?
splash247.com
So where is the market headed to this year? Sorry to disappoint you but we will not be answering this question. Instead we will look at four topics with two of them likely to have an impact on the shipping market and two highly unlikely to have any. These four topics are a financial crisis, the geopolitical situation, global warming and the AI ‘revolution’. Read more here.

Carriers soak up 300,000 teu of newbuilds – but there’s more to come
theloadstar.com
A record 41 containerships, with a capacity of some 300,000 teu, were delivered last month, including eight of more than 15,000 teu.
However, this eye-watering capacity record for newbuild deliveries is unlikely to last very long, given that a further 2.8m teu of cellular tonnage is scheduled to hit the water this year. Read more here (login required).

HMM privatisation process collapses
splash247.com
The long planned privatisation plans for South Korea’s flagship carrier lie in ruin today. Harim Group, whose bid with a local private equity firm had been the one selected by state banks, announced in a stock market release that it was pulling out of the deal to take HMM private.
“Negotiations were conducted on the main contents of the agreement between bondholders, but no agreement was reached,” Harim stated. The group, best known as a poultry producer, also has a shipping presence already, having taken over Pan Ocean, one of the nation’s largest bulk owners, a few years ago. Read more here.