As confirmed by General Dynamics NASSCO, the World’s second LNG powered container ship which is known as TOTE 2 is planned to be launched by end of August. The first LNG powered container ship was launched on April. The LNG powered ships are designed to reduce NOx, CO2, PM and Sox emissions.
CTA
German port of Hamburg has recorded 4.5 million TEU throughput for the first half of the year which is 6.8 percent less than the recorded throughput of same period last year. This drop has been assigned to the weaker trend in trade for China and Russia being the leading partners of Hamburg port. As per records, the container traffic for China dropped to 1.3 million TEU which is 10.9 percent lower than last year and for Russia dropped to 212k TEU which is 35.9 percent lower than same period last year. The weak trade for China could be attributed to lower export from China which is for the drop of Euro against Yuan during the first half of 2015 which is making purchase of Chinese goods more expensive. For Russia, the main factors could be sanctions in force as well as weak Rouble and drop in oil price and the economic recession.
Following the announcement of a new direct call at Dakar to MSC’s North Europe-West Africa service, calling at DP World London Gateway Port has been added to MSC service from where direct calls to Saudi Arabia (King Abdullah port) and Sri Lanka and other Australian coast ports are introduced. These direct calls from DP World London Gateway port would be the fastest direct service between North Europe and Australia which is expected to improve the transit time exceptionally.
As it was reported by South China Morning port, the Government of China has called for merger between the two leading shipping companies of China being China Ocean Shipping Group and China Shipping Group. As per COSCO Group the two companies are expected to prepare their initial merger plan in three months. The two groups might be considering pooling chances for their box shipping business.
The ordered merger is construed as the Chinese response to Global Shipping Alliances.
The German Airline cargo service (Lufthansa Cargo) and the Swiss Worldcargo have taken a fresh pricing strategy. This new pricing concept is indicated to produce notably lower surcharge than the existing method as it would exclude fuel and other surcharges from the basic rate and will be formed up by two components of Net rate and the Airfreight surcharge. As per the two airlines, by this new method, the surcharge would be market-oriented so that the significant 
fluctuations of fuel price and exchange rate and airport charges and fees -as the main factors of cost, would be considered.
It has been officially confirmed by the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority, that the New Suez canal has been completed and will be launched officially within a week. The project has been started 11 months ago and its completion is ahead of the initial schedule. The New Suez canal has been tested last week by three containerships of American, Danish and Bahraini flags prior to its formal launch. The New Suez canal expansion project would lead off ships of up to 20 meters draft to transit while the transit time is expected to cut from 20 to 11 hours.
Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) declared that it is planning to cut off 97 out of 224 jobs at ports of Botany and Brisbane which accounts for over forty per cent of its workforce. This is following its automation plans at the two ports. However Maritime Union Australia expressed sever concerns on HPA announcement and warned of employing all possible tools to avoid such a vast lay off by HPA.
The Taiwanese liner Wan Hai Line has accomplished the leader place in the Performance report by SeaIntel’s Global Liner in May 2015. Wan Hai line that previously had the third place in the same report, has beaten well-known Danish liner Maersk moving it down to the second place. As reported by the SeaIntel’s, Wan Hai had the most reliable container shipping services in the period of March to May according the customers.Wan Hai line focusing on customer service efficiency, concerns about availability of intensive shipping network within Asia in order to remain the leader in competitive advantages.
Following the recent development of the container terminal infrastructures at port of Laem by Mitsui OSK Lines, the Japanese MOL has made a JVA with the Thai terminal operator of Bangkok (SahaThai) to establish the Bangkok Barge Terminal Company (BBT). This new terminal that is aimed to be the main gateway to Laem Chabang port is expected to be operational in 2016.
Vale Sohar, 400,315 dwt over 23 meters draft, has been the first Valemax that entered a Chinese port with full capacity. She has been carrying a full cargo of iron ore from Northern Brasil (Ponta Da Maderia terminal) to China (Dongjiakou port). This was the first direct call of a full capacity Valemax to a Chinese port since 2012 ban on Valemaxes.
It has been confirmed by Chineses Ministry of Transport that fully laden 
Valemaxes are now allowed to berth and discharge at selected Chinese port.
