APL’s 151,963gt/2013 built APL Temasek struck a ship-to-shore gantry crane while berthing in Egypt’s Port Said on 27th October. Local media reports said that the crane sustained substantial damage. The ship was prevented from moving due to the risk of the crane collapsing.

AP Moller-Maersk has made a significant cut in its full-year forecast for Maersk Line. The group has said it now expects the container line operator to contribute $1.6bn rather than the previously predicted $2.2bn due to continued poor freight rates on its key routes. In its guidance, Maersk Line had said that a $100 per TEU drop in freight rates would knock $500m off its financial bottom line, while a volume drop of 100,000 TEU would have a $100m negative impact. The group’s preliminary reported result for the third quarter is $778m, compared with $1.5bn a year earlier.

Maersk Line has also merged its aE3 and aE15 services in a move that would remove nine 5,500 TEU vessels. as previously announced, the closure of four services (ME5, aE9, aE3 and Ta4) has already been initiated and plans are in place to further cancel a total of 35 sailings in the fourth quarter of 2015. Around 4,000 job losses globally for the group are expected overall with a Triple-E Class container vessel also to be laid up until conditions improve. In view of these cuts, the company does not plan to exercise the previously announced options for six 19,630 TEU vessels and two 3,600 TEU feeders and will postpone the decision on the optional eight 14,000 TEU vessels.

Figures released on 6th November revealed that Maersk’s container line profits for the third quarter of 2015 had slumped by 61%.

CMA CGM is, according to industry reports, in talks to acquire Singapore container shipping company Neptune orient Lines Ltd. (NOL). The majority owner of NOL, Temasek Holdings Pte., is seeking to sell its interests with CMA CGM believed to have made a preliminary offer for NOL, which has a market value of $1.9 billion. Maersk Line is also in talks to acquire NOL.

CMA CGM/CMA ships, in conjunction with French LNG containment specialist GTT and classification society DNV GL, has released a technical and feasibility study for a new mega boxship dubbed the Piston Engine room Free Efficient Containership (PERFECt), which could eradicate engine rooms all together. The concept vessel is LNG-fuelled, powered by a combined gas and steam turbine, and is electrically driven. The COGAS system with electrical propulsion gives a great deal of freedom in the general arrangement and in tailoring the installed power to the actual operational requirements.

The lower carbon footprint of the machinery system and increased flexibility of the electric propulsion system permits an increase in the capacity of the vessel, despite LNG tanks requiring more space than traditional fuel oil tanks, thereby generating greater revenues. The two 10,960 cubic metre LNG fuel tanks are located below the deck house, giving the vessel enough fuel capacity for an Asia/Europe round trip. With the gas and steam turbines integrated at deck level within the same deck house as the tanks, the space normally occupied by the conventional engine room can be used to increase cargo capacity significantly.

China Shipping Container Lines, the container shipping arm of China Shipping group, is to acquire up to 11 ultra large containerships under a bareboat charter via a wholly owned subsidiary. The company said that the board had approved the proposal to charter in six 21,000 TEU ships, with an option for another five. CSCL currently has five 19,000 TEU ships in operation built at Hyundai Heavy industries between 2014 and 2015. It also has eight 13,500 TEU vessels on order at Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing Shipbuilding and China Shipping industry (Jiangsu) Co.

DP World took full control of the container facilities at Southampton in early November 2015 after acquiring the 49% stake owned by associated British Ports. The facility began life as Southampton Container Terminal in a joint-venture between P&O Ports and ABP. P&o Ports’ stake was transferred to DP World after the Dubai-headquartered company acquired the British terminal operator in a $6.9bn deal in 2006, and the Southampton facility was later renamed DP World Southampton. The new agreement was accompanied by a 25-year extension of the terminal lease until 2047.

DP World Limited handled 46.5 million TEU across its global portfolio of container terminals during the first nine months of 2015, with gross container volumes growing by 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. On a reported basis gross volumes grew by 3.7%. During the week of 23rd October DP World Southampton welcomed a new service providing shippers with one of the fastest transit times between Asia and the UK. The new aE2/Swan service provides shippers with a 24 day transit time from Yantian (South China) to Southampton and 19 days from Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia. Operated by the 2M alliance (Maersk Line and MSC), twelve vessels will be deployed on the service including the newest and largest vessels in the world. Ships involved in the rotation include the Triple E Mathilde Maersk (the first visit of this class of ship, arriving 28th October) plus the Emma Maersk and MSC Maya.

MSC is pressing ahead with its containership newbuilding programme despite option cancellations by 2M partner Maersk Line, but will be removing tonnage from its fleet as market conditions deteriorate. The world’s second largest containership operator is still planning to take delivery of all 20 of its Oscar class 19,224 TEU ships, of which five have already been delivered. The same goes for a series of 9,400 TEU ships, with the latest, MSC Silvia, recently joining the Empire service between Asia and US east coast ports. Less efficient chartered tonnage will be returned to the owning companies.

The Port of Felixstowe saw the opening of its 190m long Berth 9 extension by Dr Therese Coffey MP, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons on 5th November. The new area increases the port’s capability to work two of the world’s largest containerships simultaneously. More than eighty ships of 18,000+ TEU have already been handled at the port in 2015, confirming Felixstowe’s position as the port of choice for mega-ships in the UK. Berths 8/9 at the port were the first in the UK to handle the latest generation of giant container ships. The quay length of the port’s newest terminal is now 920 metres, and the total quay length in the port nearly 4,000 metres.

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) has welcomed into the fleet the final 8,888 TEU class containership from a series of eight ordered from the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding shipyard, the 91,499gt OOCL Ho Chi Minh City. The ship was christened on 29th October during a ceremony held on Changxing Island.

TOTE took delivery of the world’s first LNG powered containership, the 36,751gt Isla Bella (above), on 16th October. Sadly, TOTE has been in the headlines for the loss of the El Faro but the newbuild, effectively the El Faro’s replacement, was delivered nearly two months ahead of schedule by NASSCO, as part of a two-ship contract signed in December 2012. The Marlin Class containerships will be the largest dry cargo ships powered by LNG, making them the cleanest of their type in the world.

UASC held an event in Hamburg, Germany on 27th October to celebrate the delivery of the 195,636gt/18,800 TEU Al Muraykh. The shipping line hosted the event on-board the “green” ship with its banking partners, to acknowledge the financing partners who have collectively contributed to backing the carrier’s newbuilding programme, comprising eleven 15,000 TEU vessels and six 18,800 TEU ships. The Al Muraykh also met up with her sister, Barzan, at Zeebrugge during her maiden rotation.