News Highlights week: 38 - 2021

IAL, RCL and PIL will market this new service as ‘China - India - Haiphong’ service (CIH), ‘RCL China - Western India service’ (RWA), and as 'South China India Express' (SIS), respectively. CULines meanwhile has yet to unveil its branding. 

The new ‘CIH / RWA’ will connect Nansha, Shekou, Singapore, Port Kelang, Nhava Sheva, Mundra, Port Kelang, Haiphong, Nansha and will turn in five weeks, using five ships. 

The vessels have yet to be nominated, but their sizes will range from from 2,500 to 2,800 teu. 

RCL will contribute two vessels while the other three partners will operate one ship each. 

The carriers expect to start this new service sometime around 22 October, however this has yet to be finalized. 

US ports move up the ranks on post-COVID demand 

American consumers are shaking up the lower orders of the global port throughput rankings as demand for goods soars in North America in the wake of COVID. 

Figures for the first six months of 2021 show Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York/New Jersey recorded year-on-year throughput growth of 41% and 31% respectively, with LA/LB processing more than 10 million teu in the first half of the year. LA/LB’s volumes have now overtaken those of Hong Kong, and activity at the Californian port today rivals Tianjin, China’s sixth largest port.

Although year-on-year increases are distorted by the drop in port throughput recorded in H1 2020, LA/LB also increased its volumes by nearly 24% compared to H1 2019. 

NY/NJ meanwhile logged volumes of nearly 4.4 million teu in the six-month period, leapfrogging Hamburg and Laem Chabang to move up to 18th place globally. The increase was smaller than that seen at LA/LB but nevertheless represents a 31% increase on the same period in 2020, and 20% on H1 2019. The surge in traffic has led to severe congestion at the two ports.

Overall, the top 20 container ports handled 13% more twenty-foot boxes in the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, although there was a slight decline of around 1% compared to the last six months of 2020 - another sign that the current boom is being driven by disruption and capacity shortages rather than volumes.

VNS