New container ship accident with 1.745 TEU feeder on the Pearl River in China
The Chinese-flagged 180-metre long 1,746-TEU Hai Lan Zhong Gu 9 collided and sank the Chinese-flagged 110-metre long coastal feeder Haohang No XXX in the upper Pearl River, while sailing downstream late at night, reports Kiev’s Maritime Bulletin, which specialises in marine casualties
All 13 crew were rescued from the Haohang No XXX. The Hai Lan Zhong Gu 9 sustained insignificant damages, and remained anchored near collision site.
All crew members rescued
The Hai Lan Zhong Gu 9, managed by Shanghai Zhonggu Xinliang Shipping, was en route from Dongguan, near Guangzhou and bound for Shanghai.
Nimble Hawaiian Matson fleet outruns mega ships in Covid crisis
As a result of the Covid crisis and an increase in online shopping, ocean freight demand is so high that customers are willing to pay smaller and nimbler vessels for the premium over the rates to transport on much larger ships, reports Bloomberg News.
Matson Inc, a Honolulu-based company with a fleet of smaller vessels declared that the need for a Shanghai-to-Los Angeles service became so great that executives decided to add a second weekly run last year and make it a permanent offering.
Increased demand on container capacity makes shipping more vulnerable
‘I was getting calls at 2 in the morning from customers saying, ‘Look, you’ve got to do something, you’ve got to help me,” said Matson’s CEO Matthew Cox.
‘China remains the manufacturing floor of the world. There are problems that are real and need to be dealt with, but it doesn’t change the fact that China has built a very capable network that in the short run people will find very difficult to replace,’ said Mr Cox.
Another US$1.9 trillion in US fiscal stimulus may keep the increase in demand going in 2021. Maersk CEO Soren Skou declared that some of that money is expected to purchase goods that need to be transported.
‘We have to expect that some of that money will be used to buy goods that need to be transported,’ said Mr Skou. For six decades before the Covid crisis, US household spending on goods declined proportionately as Americans spent more on services. That trend flipped in 2020, with a $523 billion increase in merchandise purchases.
Photo: Rihardzz / Shutterstock.com
