APL announced on 31st May that it was enhancing its exclusive Eagle Express X (EXX) service to provide a more expeditious delivery of import cargo with same-day cargo availability at the Global Gateway South (GGS) Terminal in Los Angeles. The EXX service is a weekly China-U.S. West Coast ocean freight product with an expeditious 11-day transit from Shanghai to Los Angeles. Ports of call are Ningbo, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Dutch Harbour, Yokohama and Busan. The first sailing of the EXX service will depart Ningbo on 2nd August and Shanghai on 3rd August, and arrive in Los Angeles on 14th August.

CMA CGM, Maersk Line and ONE were among the first shipping operators to reintroduce Bunker Fuel Surcharges in May to counter the rising price of crude oil and fuel prices. CMA CGM took delivery of the 20,600 TEU capacity CMA CGM Jean Mermoz from the Hanjin Subic Bay shipyard in Philippines yard on 25th May. The 400m long and 59m beam ULCV follows on from sister vessel CMA CGM Antoine de Saint Exupery and the third vessel is expected to be delivered in September 2018.

The CMA CGM Jean Mermoz has been deployed on the French Asia Line 1 which connects Asia to Northern Europe. In 2018, CMA CGM is celebrating its 40th anniversary having commenced operations in 1978. To celebrate the milestone a striking 40th logo has been unveiled. Another feeder vessel has been acquired by the company in the form of the 16,162gt/2007 built and 1,350 TEU capacity Magari. The ship had previously been operated by HMM.

COSCO Shipping’s fifth 20,119 TEU capacity containership Cosco Shipping Virgo was named on 29th May aat the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. shipyard (above). Wife of the managing director of Hutchison Ports, Ms. Kanako Ip, named the vessel. Together with other sister ships, the 399.8m long and 58.6m beam vessel will serve on the Far East-Northwest Europe loop (AEU3) in a joint effort to boost the growing fleet capacity on the European routes.

Crowley Maritime Corp. announced on 17th May that they had launched a new direct, weekly shipping service from Puerto Plata to Port Everglades to better serve customers shipping from the Dominican Republic to South Florida. This fast, two-day northbound containerised cargo sailing complements the company’s existing freight transportation services connecting Santo Domingo and Rio Haina, Dominican Republic, with South Florida, Central America and the surrounding Caribbean. Making the service possible are two container ships that will alternate carrying cargo northbound from Puerto Plata on Mondays, with arrival in Port Everglades on Wednesday mornings. A few days later on 29th May, and to better serve customers shipping in the Caribbean Basin and beyond, Crowley Maritime Corp.’s liner services group announced that it had launched a new feeder shipping service connecting San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rio Haina, Dominican Republic; and St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). With the new service, vessels depart Rio Haina on Sundays and arrive in San Juan on Tuesdays. After departure on Thursdays, cargo arrives in St. Thomas and St. Croix on Fridays, before the vessel moves to the Dominican Republic again for Sunday operations.

Hapag-Lloyd’s 66,280gt/2006 built Allegoria, a Post-Panamax containership, suffered a main engine problem off Freeport in May. The 5,527 TEU capacity ship went to anchor in Freeport with repairs commencing. The ship was due to resume her voyage from Miami on 30th May on the company’s Mediterranean Gulf Express (MGX) service connecting America with the Mediterranean.

Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) is ending its two Trans-Atlantic services to concentrate on its core trades. The TA2 and TA3 loops were introduced via HMM’s cooperation agreement with the 2M Alliance comprising Maersk Line and MSC. The trio signed the co-operation agreement in March 2017, officially launching their strategic co-operation on East-West trades. The final westbound voyages on TA2 and T3 were scheduled for 25th/24th June respectively while the final eastbound voyages took place on 13th/31st July respectively.

I-Motion Shipping of Ghent, launched a new service providing three sailings a week between Ghent and the Port of Hull on 28th May using the 5,886gt/1977 built and 509 TEU capacity Cartagena. These additional services will bring an extra 30,000 containers per year through Hull. The services arrive in Hull on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Container business on the Humber is booming with an increase of 23% in the past year. On 29th May the company also opened a new thrice-weekly service from Hutchison Ports London Thamesport to Ghent. This service employs the aforementioned Cartagena and the 2,906gt/1996 built and 340 TEU capacity Marus. The latter made the first call to Thamesport.

Maersk Line plans to repair its 153,153gt/2017 built ultra large containership Maersk Honam (above) which was damaged in a major fire that broke out on board the vessel in March. The decision was announced based on the initial assessment of the ship’s condition when the remaining hotspots on board had finally been extinguished. The ship was anchored outside the port of Jebel Ali, UAE, in May being stabilised and had arrived there on 24th April.

The ship was towed into port on 27th May. Following completion of the discharging operations, the containers identified as potentially damaged will undergo an inspection at Jebel Ali and relevant customers will be invited to be represented at a joint inspection, according to Maersk Line’s 2M partner MSC. Containers that are identified as sound will be loaded at the first opportunity to reach their final destination. The discharging of cargo from the Maersk Honam was completed over the weekend of 2nd/3rd June.

Maersk Line is also expanding its presence between Europe’s Mediterranean region and Canada to cater for the growing demands on both sides of the Atlantic by introducing a new weekly service that will be a five-vessel rotation calling in Salerno, La Spezia, Fos-sur-Mer, Valencia, Algeciras, Montreal, and Halifax. The first Mediterranean-Montreal Express sailing departs from Salerno on 2nd July, arriving in Montreal on 19th July. Subsidiary Hamburg Süd has also revised the sequence of ports in its EMCS service between Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and North Europe. Beginning in June, weekly calls will be made at Puerto Moin, Cork, Tilbury, Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Altamira, Veracruz, Port of Big Creek and Manzanillo.

MSC announced on 16th May that it was ceasing to accept new cargo bookings for Iran due to the decision by the United States of America to re-impose sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing from the international nuclear deal. The 2015 nuclear agreement, worked out by the U.S.A, five other world powers and Iran, lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits to its nuclear programme.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to re-impose U.S. sanctions after a winding down period. MSC and Maersk Line began reviewing their Iran operations along with other shipping companies. Both MSC and Maersk have served Iran via third-party feeder ships from transhipment hubs in Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. Iran relies on seaborne trade for both imports as well as for sales of its goods apart from oil, and the country had struggled with logistical difficulties before international sanctions were lifted in 2016. Iran’s port operators and shipping sectors, including top cargo operator the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and oil tanker group NITC, will once again be blacklisted from 4th November.

Ocean Network Express’ (ONE) first magenta liveried containership, the 87,022gt/2013 built ONE Commitment (above), formerly the MOL Commitment, sailed from Singapore in her new guise on 15th May. The 8,560 TEU capacity ship called at Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) in China, arriving 24th May, via Laem Chabang, Cai Mep and Kaohsiung before continuing to Tacoma and Vancouver. The ship serves the PN2 network that provides an eastbound service from South East Asia, South China and Taiwan to the Pacific Northwest plus a westbound service from the Pacific Northwest to Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. ONE, a joint venture of Japanese shipping companies Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, commenced operations in April 2018 and has around 230 ships in the combined fleet.

Seaspan Corporation of Hong Kong added another 10,000 TEU capacity Saver design containership to its fleet on 11th May. The 336m long, 48.2m beam and 112,967gt/2018 built newbuild CMA CGM Cochin (above) has commenced a fixed rate time charter with CMA CGM for a three year term with an option to extend for an additional three years. The ship is the second in a series of four Saver vessels under time charter to CMA CGM that are scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2018. The ship was constructed at the Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding and Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding facilities. Sister vessel CMA CGM Mundra was delivered on 9th May and the third sister, the CMA CGM Mumbai, was handed over the following week. The fourth ship, CMA CGM Chennai, arrived at the end of May.

Yang Ming Line’s and 268m long YM Eficiency lost 83 containers overboard whilst in a heavy sea swell off the east coast of Australia on 1st June. The ship was en-route from Tawain to Port Botany near Sydney when the stack of containers collapsed. Another 30 containers were reportedly damaged but remained attached to the ship.