Gavin Van Marle

We got it spot on, if you'll excuse the pun – with the movement of one week's SCFI (Shanghai Containerized Freight Index) continuing as a reliable indicator of the following week's WCI (World Container Index) from Drewry.

The Emirati owner of the port of Khor Fakkan has unveiled a massive capacity expansion project to coincide with its transformation from common-user terminal operator to one-stop shop logistics service provider.

Ask a visibility vendor about ETA [estimated time of arrival] accuracy and you will hear the same figure: 90%.

Container freight spot rates on the transpacific and Asia-Europe trades showed moderate gains this week, in the absence of carrier-led price hikes, while demand remained firm.

Gulf importers and their forwarders are once more turning to Middle East landbridge routes after renewed conflict between the US and Iran effectively closed the Gulf of Hormuz again.

Maersk has announced that it is returning a third service to the Red Sea routing, its Mediterranean-West Africa WAF 6 service.

European shippers and forwarders have been warned to expect significant disruption to operations after a toxic gas leak from a container last night forced the port of Antwerp to close.

Last week – week 28, starting 6 July – Drewry's World Container Index (WCI) bucked the recently observed Fortnight Brace trends from earlier this year* (more here and here; click to expand the table below).

Antwerp's Deurganckdok port area partially reopened today after an emergency services clean-up following Tuesday night's hydrofluoric acid toxic gas leak that saw 155 people hospitalised.

Container spot freight rates on the main east-west ocean trades showed their first decline since the end of April – a first sign that the market is emerging from the peak season, at least in terms of pricing.