Container Management

March market report: #Hormuz crossed from disruption to military confrontation. @COSCOSHIPPING safe passage collapsed 29 March. Asia–Europe spot rates +10% to $2,883/feu. Schedule reliability at a 10-month low. And a stark carrier earnings split is widening. container-mag.com/2026/04/02/mar…

Asia–Europe container exports reached a record 1.88m teu in January, but the headline obscured a critical divergence that accelerated throughout March: Mediterranean destinations grew at nearly three times the rate of Northern Europe, signalling a structural realignment of the continent’s gateway hierarchy rather than a temporary routing adjustment. WTCP data reveals a clear winner: the Strait of Gibraltar corridor. @TM_Officiel’s liner shipping connectivity index reached 571 — the highest of any #Mediterranean port — with throughput surging 18.8% year on year to 10.24m teu. @AutPortValencia (LSCI 570, throughput up 3.9%) and @PuertoAlgeciras (LSCI 513, 2,932 container vessel calls) round out a western Mediterranean gateway cluster that is pulling decisively ahead. By contrast, eastern Mediterranean hubs are declining: Piraeus’s LSCI fell 4.7% year on year to 429 with turnaround times ballooning to 17.9 hours, whilst Gioia Tauro’s throughput collapsed 29.2%. The pattern is unambiguous — carriers are rerouting around the #Hormuz closure via the Strait of #Gibraltar rather than through eastern Mediterranean transhipment hubs that depended on Suez-origin cargo. Freight rates reflected the severity of the disruption. Asia–Europe spot rates surged 10% in a single week to $2,883 per feu, whilst global schedule reliability fell to 59% in February — a ten-month low that worsened further in March as #Gulf diversions cascaded through carrier networks. For shippers on index-linked contracts, the crisis created a double recovery risk: emergency fuel surcharges stacked on top of index-linked rate adjustments that already reflected the crisis premium, exposing a structural flaw in how surcharge mechanisms interact with floating-rate agreements. #Africa’s container trade provided a rare bright spot amid the disruption, with volumes surging in a pattern that raises the question of whether this represents a genuine structural shift in trade patterns or merely overflow from congested alternative routes. Meanwhile, the Gulf disruption began leaking into freight costs beyond direct Asia–Europe routes, with secondary effects visible across intra-Asian and trans-Pacific trades as equipment imbalances and vessel redeployments rippled through the global network. #ContainerShipping container-mag.com/2026/04/02/mar…

@LTDManagement That’s a very interesting and likely accurate point. When time allows, the team could look at the trade flow changes you describe & perhaps see a trend in the numbers confirming it with data. If we do, I’ll be sure to ping you.

@ContainerMag Trump targeted China in his trade war. Import activity defined by the finished product and not by its content can be deceptive. Such as Vietnam assembly with Chinese parts. Think of laptops, for example..

Call it supply chain shifts or derisking. Moving retail and manufacturing supply away from China to other countries. Given the tiers of suppliers and size, how deep into the upstream supply chain does the change go?

The Med is winning. Asia–Europe volumes hit a record 1.88m teu but #Mediterranean routes grew at 3x the rate of Northern Europe. That's not a detour — it's a permanent gateway realignment. Our March market report: container-mag.com/2026/04/02/mar…

ONE has made four terminal investments in four months. Hapag-Lloyd has put US$800m into Indian port infrastructure. Both are converting pandemic-era cash into physical assets across Asia's fastest-growing container markets — and Hutchison's retreat is opening the door. container-mag.com/2026/04/01/one…

AD Ports' 20% stake in Latakia — Syria's primary container gateway — is one of the first major commercial bets on the country's reconstruction. Capacity is set to nearly triple to 625,000 teu by end of 2026, backed by €200m from CMA CGM. container-mag.com/2026/04/01/ad-…

Seafarers stuck near the Strait of Hormuz are short on supplies and experiencing high levels of anxiety. Governments must do more to protect them.

Carriers are buying terminals — and the volatility is part of the reason. ONE takes a 30% stake in Hutchison's Laem Chabang operations; Hapag-Lloyd raises its JM Baxi holding to 50%. When port calls become less reliable, owning the berth changes the equation.container-mag.com/2026/04/01/one…

AD Ports Group turned free cash flow positive for the first time since its 2022 listing, a year ahead of guidance. Revenue hit AED 20.8bn, up 20%, with container throughput rising 23% to 7.7m teu. The group also took a 20% stake in Syria's Latakia terminal with CMA CGM. container-mag.com/2026/04/01/ad-…

Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk were joint-most reliable carriers in January at 72.2%. PIL was lowest at 50.1%. February's numbers are worse across the board — and the contract season implications are real. container-mag.com/2026/03/31/sch… #Shipping #SupplyChain

Global container shipping schedule reliability dropped to 59.0% in February — the lowest since April 2025. Hormuz diversions, Cape rerouting and blank sailings are compounding network disruption. Full analysis: container-mag.com/2026/03/31/sch… #ContainerShipping #ScheduleReliability

HapagLloydAG carried 13.5m teu in 2025 — roughly 3x market growth — but pricing power fell. Average freight rate: US$1,376/teu, down 8%. EBIT fell 62% to US$1.1bn. The 2026 guidance range of US$-1.5bn to US$0.5bn tells you where the cycle is heading. #ContainerShipping #FreightRates container-mag.com/2026/03/30/hap…

HapagLloydAG's 2026 guidance centres on an operating loss — the carrier's first since the pre-pandemic trough. Volumes grew 8% in 2025 but freight rates fell 8%, compressing EBIT margin to 5%. Meanwhile its terminal arm HGT grew revenues 18% and is targeting 30+ terminals by 2030. #Shipping container-mag.com/2026/03/30/hap…

This needs more attention! Everyone is talking about oil & gas —whist this has a profound impact, it’s the lives of sons/daughters, parents, siblings that are suffering in a conflict they did not start & have no power to end. Let us not forget that. #seafarers #hormuz

We are standing up for seafarers stuck in the Persian Gulf to make sure they have food, water, medical attention and repatriation support. ITF General Secretary, Stephen Cotton, speaks to @BBCNews about the War Zone Area and the dangers of shadow fleet vessels.

Middle East conflict is now hitting store shelves Candies, bananas etc into Asian countries like Korea are being delayed as logistics, raw materials, packaging, and quarantine issues disrupt supply chains.

One month into the Hormuz crisis, the picture is clear: — China's diplomatic shield did not protect COSCO tonnage — The IRGC is enforcing nationality-blind, not selective — Multimodal workarounds are now industry-wide — The UN is building architecture for sustained disruption, not resolution The question is no longer whether Hormuz reopens on pre-crisis terms — but what permanent rerouting replaces it. container-mag.com/2026/03/29/cos… #Hormuz #MaritimeTrade #ContainerShipping #FreightRates #SupplyChain #GlobalTrade

Europe-to-Asia exports fell 8% in January, with western Mediterranean origins down 15%. More boxes heading east-to-west, fewer coming back. The repositioning cost equation is getting worse for carriers. container-mag.com/2026/03/29/asi…