News Highlights week: 22 - 2023

Along with this expansion, Asean Seas Line (ASL), which joined ‘SCP’ in February as a slot taker, will henceforth become a vessel provider by bringing in the 1,118 teu PROS HOPE that is scheduled to join the loop at Shekou on 9 June.
While Emirates and ASL are rebranding this expanded loop to ‘SVP’, PIL is marketing it as ‘CPV’. 

The expanded ‘SVP / CPV’ will turn in three weeks (one week more) with three 1,100 – 1,200 teu ships, the 1,200 teu DANUM 175 (Emirates), the PROS HOPE (ASL) and a PIL ship that is yet to be nominated, calling at Shekou, Nansha, Xiamen, Manila (North), Subic Bay, Xiamen, Shekou, Nansha, Ho Chi Minh City, Shekou. 
The DANUM 175 will kick off the enhanced rotation of the ‘SVP / CPV’ loop when it sails from Xiamen on 2 June. 
Moreover, at the same time, China United Lines (CULines) will join the 'SVP / CPV' by taking slots on the ‘South China – Philippines’ segment of the loop and branding it as ‘SP1’. 
CMA CGM profits fall by USD 5 bn
French carrier CMA CGM reported a group net profit of USD 2.01 bn for the first quarter of 2023, a drop of more than USD 5 bn on a year ago as freight demand continued to slow.
CMA CGM saw revenue from shipping activities decline 40% year-onyear to USD 8.87 bn, while shipping EBITDA dropped 64% to USD 3.05 bn.
The EBITDA declines were higher than fellow large European carriers Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. 

However the line performed better than COSCO, with whom it shares a similar trade profile. Both groups operate 22% of their capacity on the Transpacific, and around 22/23% on the Far-East–Europe trades, with just a small amount of tonnage on the Atlantic (3%). Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have a lower exposure to the Transpacific.
CMA CGM carried 5.02 Mteu in the quarter, down 5% on a year ago, but average rates per teu were estimated at around USD 1,770 per teu, a near 40% drop on a year ago.
RCL to expand beyond Asia as profits drop 65%
Thai carrier Regional Container Lines (RCL) reported a reduced net profit of THB 913 M (USD 26 M) for the first quarter of the year, and declared it would expand beyond its traditional intra-Asia destinations in reaction to ‘intensifying market competition’.
Liftings dropped 11% year-on-year for the carrier in Q1 as the long holiday period for the Chinese new year penalised regional specialists. Meanwhile freight rates fell from USD 773 in Q1 2022 to just USD 394 per teu in the first three months of 2023, although they remained above pre-COVID levels.

Global inactive fleet dips back below 1 Mteu 
The global inactive container ships fleet continued to decline in the second half of May, the fifth consecutive drop since February. This latest contraction has driven inactive capacity back below 1 Mteu. 
The reduction came from both commercially idled ships and vessels in drydock, where a fair number of container ships have been reactivated to revenue-generating services in the past two weeks. 
The inactive ship count fell across the board with the exception of the 7,500—12,500 teu segment which rose by a single unit of 10,722 teu. Alphaliner’s latest survey on 22 May 2023 tallied 229 inactive ships with a total capacity of 946,792 teu. 
This is equivalent to 3.6% of the global cellular fleet, half the level of the recent peak of 7.2% seen in February and slightly higher than the same time last year when it stood at only 2%.