Tag Archives: ports

China prepares retaliation playbook

Posted on September 30, 2025 by just2bruce | Leave a comment

China is taking preemptive action against the US’s plans to hike port fees for China-linked tonnage. The port fees are scheduled to come into effect on October 14, but there haven’t been any administrative rules set yet.

So we don’t know how, or if, they will be collected.

Quite a few experts believe that there won’t ever be any. The box-booking platform Freightos is one source mentioned in the article. Trump has a history of putting penalties out there and giving way in negotiations just before they will go into effect. It’s known as the Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO) effect.

I agree that we may never see any container ship fees. But I am also wary of what Trump may be giving away in the negotiations with China.

And I think history tells us that we will see severe blowback in terms of various trade restraints placed by foreign nations. These will hurt American businesses.

Sam Chambers September 30, 2025

https://splash247.com/china-prepares-retaliation-playbook-ahead-of-us-port-fee-deadline/

China prepares retaliation playbook ahead of US port fee deadline

How Ultra-Large Container Ships are Transforming West Africa

Posted on June 4, 2025 by just2bruce | Leave a comment

Ultra-large container vessels are coming to West Africa. There is pent-up demand for goods in West Africa and throughout the continent. That’s because African economies are slowly improving, creating more consumers and businesses with money to spend.

Infrastructure to handle the ULCVs has been in short supply, but after considerable investment over the past few years, the giants can now land in numerous African ports.

With the impending container charges imposed by the US on containers arriving at its shores, more carriers and shippers are looking for ways to avoid landing in the US. Increasing West African trade is a natural way to use that capacity.

MSC is a major player in this trade. Their situation is helped by the fact that MSC has partial interests in port terminals in key West African locations, as the table below from the article shows. Tema is located in Ghana, Lome in Nigeria, Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire, and Kribi in Cameroon. MSC has investments in Africa Global Logistics, which operates terminals at three of these ports; and a share in TIL, which has a terminal in Lome.

It’s good to see West Africa getting better access to the world’s goods. Trade improves the lives of both partners, exporter and importer.

Gavin van Marle 04/06/2025

https://theloadstar.com/asia-west-africa-ulcv-deployment-opens-new-markets-for-carriers

Red Sea ripples spread across trades

Posted on August 7, 2024 by just2bruce | 1 comment

The repercussions of the Red Sea crisis have been longer-lasting and more severe than many shippers thought. Shippers expected delays proportional to the extra sailing time. They may have expected proportional cost increases as well.

But they did not count on such factors as the extreme congestion in Singapore and in other ports. And in ports that have become pivotal, there are looming shortages of equipment such as chassis.

It looks like the disruptions will be with us awhile.

Trade besides containers is also in an upheaval. Sam Chambers’s recent Splash story points out that there is landside competition for capesize ocean shipments of coal.

Mongolia has always had big coal deposits, but moving the coal to international users was a problem. But new rail lines are making the country a viable source for China. China is also importing more from Russia. This chart from Drewry’s shows how the mix of countries China imports from has changed over the past few years.

The impact on shipping is that there will be less demand for capesize bulkers to import from Australia and Indonesia.

This is one more piece of evidence that global trade is radically changing. It will affect both shipowners and shippers in ways that are hard to foresee. Hold on to your hat!