Briefs	E-mail PagePrint Version

STEAMSHIP GROUP SUSPENDS SERVICE

SAN FRANCISCO - Carrier members of the Grand Alliance - Hapag Lloyd, NYK, Orient Overseas Container Line, and P&ONedlloyd - have announced a temporary suspension of the group's FEX Transpacific service.
 
The suspension is scheduled to last approximately six weeks and "will enable the Alliance to perform regular vessel maintenance and scheduled fleet reassignments," the group said.
The Grand Alliance will continue service coverage for ports called by the FEX, primarily utilizing its SCX loop.

"As with all its services, the Alliance will keep market conditions under review and, if there is sufficient demand, will reinstate the FEX service with its current rotation," the group said.

LONG BEACH CONTAINER VOLUME SETS RECORD IN 2003
 
LONG BEACH - Favorable economic conditions lifted container cargo volumes at the Port of Long Beach to a record in 2003 with shipping terminals moving the equivalent of nearly 4.7 million twenty-foot-long units during the year, topping the previous best of 4.6 million container units in 2000.

The total number of cargo containers shipped through Long Beach climbed to   4,658,124 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2003, an increase of 2.9% over 2002, based on preliminary figures.

Long Beach's privately operated shipping terminal set a record for calendar 2003 despite the departure in August, 2002 of Maersk Sealand, one of the world's leading shipping lines, which had accounted for a quarter of the port's container volume.

A second-half surge in the US economy helped the port's terminals offset the loss of Maersk Sealand, with imports slipping only 1.8% to 2,409,576 TEUs. Amid economic improvement in Asia and a weakening US dollar, exports climbed 5.8% to 904,539 TEUs - the first upturn in exports since 2000. Empty containers, nearly all headed back to be re-filled overseas, jumped 10.3% to 1,344,009 TEUs.

The port finished the year with a record-breaking December and a record-setting November. The total number of containers leaped 12.2% to 406,021 TEUs in December. The period from November through February is historically the slowest part of the year for the port.

With importers replenishing their inventories after a stronger-than-expected final quarter, the number of inbound loaded containers climbed to 210,094 TEUs, an increase of 12.8% over December, 2002.

The number of loaded outbound containers jumped 30.6% to 83,941 TEUs - the sixth straight month that exports have shown gains over the same month a year ago. The number of empties was virtually the same as a year ago at 111,986 TEUs.

Go back, or read the latest briefs:

TRADE

empty