Mediterranean Shipping Company and AP Møller-Maersk that since 2015 set aside their rivalry and shrugged off opposition from regulators to form a capacity-sharing alliance have now agreed to part, with different focus in the future of the industry.
Maersk, one of the world’s largest container shipping firms, on Wednesday posted a record profit for the third quarter on the back of high ocean freight rates but also cautioned about a slowdown in demand.
The Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (ABTP) – a group representing 73 port companies across 235 terminals in Brazil – filed a legal request at Brazil’s Administrative Economic Defense Council (CADE) to investigate Maersk and MSC’s impact on the port market. ABTP accuses the two companies of abusing their domination in the maritime transport of containers business to favor their own terminals, raising costs and reducing options for the flow of cargo in Brazil.
Møller-Maersk has warned of growing economic risks including potential stagflation and Chinese factory closures even as the world’s largest container shipping group by profits reported a record quarter.
Some US$ 400 million of top brand cars (Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini) have been definitively lost when the carrier Felicty Ace with 4,000 units from the Volkswagen Group went down, close to the Portuguese Azores islands, nearly two weeks after a fire broke out in the vessel.
The growth of China’s exports to the United States is expected to boost global trade in 2021, according to Moller-Maersk. The logistics company predicts that global container trade is expected to increase between 5% and 7% in 2021 as consumers shift their demands, prioritizing the purchase of consumer goods over services.
The shipping company Maersk expects world trade to grow by 3% or more in 2021. The company sees global trade recovering, but there is still a lot of uncertainty about the size of the impact of Covid-19 on the world economy in 2021. So it is implementing a global strategy that positions it for growth in several countries, including Mercosur members.
More than 300 large companies pledged this week to work together to help hundreds of thousands of merchant sailors trapped on ships for many months due to Covid-19. About 90% of world trade is transported by sea, and coronavirus restrictions in many countries are affecting global supply chains.
A.P.Moller-Maersk announced the arrival of Douglas Piagentini as its new commercial director for the East Coast of Latin America made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
At least 750 containers were lost from the ship Maersk Essen during its journey between the Port of Xiamen, in China, and Los Angeles, in the United States. According to the maritime consultancy WK Webster, the incident occurred on January 16 and was allegedly caused by the fact that the ship faced adverse weather conditions during navigation.