Topic “Shipping” — Exporter Magazine

Slow steaming has at the end of May 2010 absorbed 100 ships totalling 580,000 TEU, or 4.1 % of the world’s cellular fleet, according to the Shipping Gazette, citing the Paris-based Alphaliner agency. International shipping giant Maersk says it will continue to ship orange roughy caught legally in New Zealand waters while conducting a policy review on sustainable fisheries. On-time performance by global carriers in the last quarter of 2009 significantly worsened from the first half of the year. From a high of nearly 68% in the second quarter of 2009, carriers were on time only 53% of the time in the last quarter, AmericanShipper.com says, citing research by London-based Drewry. Evergreen plans on ordering roughly 100 new vessels, of which the largest will be 8,000-TEU ships. It will order 32 of these ships as it intends to deploy eight ships with each of its four group companies in Taiwan, England, Italy and Singapore. Amid last year’s slump, lines mothballed more than 500 ships worldwide to pare capacity. They also began operating vessels at slower speeds, which cuts fuel usage and reduces the total amount of cargo each ship can haul per month. Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), owner of Southeast Asia’s largest container line, plans to boost capacity about 7% this year as a rebounding global economy revives trade and freight rates. AP Moeller, the Copenhagen-based global shipping line, reported an annual loss of 7.0 billion kroner (USD$1.3 billion), citing a drop in global shipments of goods amid the economic crisis.