The last major dry dock built in Japan was completed by Imabari Shipbuilding in 2017, a 600-metre facility at its Marugame headquarters designed for ultra-large container ships, which was the country’s first new dock in 17 years at the time.

No comparable large-scale dock has been built anywhere in Japan since, even as rivals in China and South Korea continued expanding capacity through the following decade.

That is now set to change under the “Shipbuilding Industry Revitalisation Roadmap”, released by Tokyo at the end of 2025, which sets a target of doubling domestic shipbuilding volume to 18 million gross tonnes by 2035, compared with 2024 levels.

The plan is divided into three parts: the first part, until 2028, will focus on using automation and technology that saves labour, like welding robots; the second part, from 2029 to 2031, will concentrate on building and expanding facilities, including new docks; and the final part, from around 2032 to 2034, will help operate the new capacity and equipment that takes a long time to get, like large cranes.

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The Afungi Shuttle, announced on July 22, links the Afungi peninsula in northern Mozambique with dedicated feeder connections from Nacala and Maputo, giving contractors a scheduled sea route into a site that has spent most of the past five years cut off from normal commercial traffic.

The service is built around two rotations, Nacala to Afungi and back, and Maputo to Afungi and back. MSC says it will carry construction materials, machinery, industrial equipment, spare parts and other cargo needed for the development of the liquefied natural gas project at Afungi.

Customers get access through connections from trade lanes serving Europe, the Mediterranean, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa, with a single booking and one commercial point of contact rather than a chain of separate arrangements.

That last detail matters more than it sounds. By folding the coastal feeder leg into the main booking, MSC is removing a handover point that has historically been where project cargo goes wrong, and where costs quietly multiply.

Why Afungi needs its own shipping line
Afungi sits on a peninsula in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northernmost coastal province, a long way from the country’s established logistics corridors. Road links are thin, the nearest sizeable port at Pemba has limited capacity for heavy project cargo, and the region carries a security history that has kept commercial operators cautious.

The project the shuttle is designed to serve is among the largest energy investments ever attempted in Africa. TotalEnergies and its partners declared force majeure in 2021 after an insurgent assault on the nearby town of Palma, and the half built site sat idle for four years.

The consortium voted to lift force majeure on November 7 2025, clearing the way for full mobilisation at the onshore Afungi site and the offshore installation areas.

A full restart was announced jointly at Afungi on January 29 2026 by TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanne and Mozambican president Daniel Chapo.

Construction has since resumed onshore and offshore, with more than 4,000 workers mobilised, of whom over 3,000 are Mozambican nationals, and the project standing at roughly 40% complete after most engineering and equipment procurement was finished during the pause.

First gas is expected in 2029 from a development designed to produce more than 13 million tonnes of LNG a year, with the government projecting as much as USD 35 billion in lifetime revenue from taxes, profit oil and other contributions.

A project of that scale consumes an extraordinary volume of imported material. Steel, modular units, cranes, generators, camp infrastructure, pipe, valves and a constant flow of replacement parts all have to arrive by sea.

Without a reliable liner service, contractors are left chartering vessels individually, which is expensive, slow to arrange and difficult to plan against a construction schedule.

Nacala as the northern anchor
The choice of Nacala as one of the two feeder ports is telling. The port currently has capacity of 10 million tonnes a year and handled 3.5 million tonnes in 2024, running at about 35% of what it can take. Its container terminal is rated at 252,000 boxes a year, and its navigable channel runs deeper than 18 metres, removing the need for constant dredging.

In other words, Nacala has spare room and deep water, two things that are rare on this coastline. Maputo has also moved to concession an integrated expansion and development project at Nacala through an international tender, aimed at maximising capacity along the wider Nacala corridor.

That corridor, operational since 2016 after a USD 4.5 billion investment involving Vale, Mitsui and state operator CFM, connects the deep water port to a 912 kilometre railway.

Maputo, at the opposite end of the country, provides a second feeder point closer to South African industrial suppliers and to the established southern African logistics base. Between them, the two rotations give shippers a northern and a southern entry into the same destination.

A commercial bet with visible risks
For MSC, the shuttle is a low cost way to attach itself to a decade of project demand. The carrier operates a network of 675 offices, planning around 300 routes to 520 ports across more than 155 countries, and a short feeder loop is a modest addition to that footprint. If the LNG build runs to schedule, the return is a steady, predictable flow of high value project cargo through 2029 and beyond.

The risks are equally visible. The service is heavily exposed to a single customer base, and if the construction programme slows, so does the cargo.

Security in Cabo Delgado remains contingent on the continued presence of Rwandan and regional forces, and analysts have warned that a fortified project enclave does little for the communities outside its perimeter. There are also unresolved questions about resettlement and environmental impact in a sensitive coastal zone.

What to watch
The immediate test is utilisation. Feeder services into single project destinations either fill quickly or struggle, and the first few months of sailings will show which way this one goes. The second test is whether other carriers follow.

If MSC proves the route commercially, competitors will look at Pemba and Nacala with fresh interest, and northern Mozambique starts to acquire something it has never had, which is routine liner connectivity rather than one off charters.

The longer term prize is that a shipping lane built for gas construction does not have to stay that way. Ports serve whoever turns up.

Should the Afungi Shuttle survive past the construction phase, Cabo Delgado would gain a permanent maritime link, and a province better known for conflict would have a piece of infrastructure pointing in a different direction.

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The signing came during the first official presidential visit by a Montenegrin head of state to Egypt since the two countries established diplomatic relations, and was witnessed by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Montenegro President Jakov Milatovic.

Rear Admiral Ehab Salah, Chairperson of the Alexandria Port Authority, and Stanko Dretic, Chairperson of the Montenegro Ports Authority, signed the agreement in front of senior officials from both delegations.

The MoU itself is a framework document rather than a shipping contract. It commits both sides to cooperation on port management and operations, expertise exchange, digital transformation, capacity building, and environmental sustainability.

It also commits both authorities to study the establishment of a direct maritime link connecting their ports, a step both governments describe as necessary to support supply chains and expand trade and investment between the two economies.

Egypt and Montenegro sit on opposite ends of a logistics corridor that has, until now, gone largely unused. Alexandria faces the eastern Mediterranean, while Bar, Montenegro’s principal port, opens onto the Adriatic.

Officials on both sides framed this geography as the commercial logic behind the agreement, arguing it gives the two countries a natural role linking European markets with the Middle East and North Africa.

Speaking after the signing, Madbouly went further than the MoU’s own language, confirming that the Egyptian government wants to establish a direct shipping line specifically between Alexandria and Bar.

He described the route as a strategic project that would connect Egypt to the Western Balkans and Central Europe, while giving Montenegro a maritime gateway into Africa and the Middle East.

That characterisation reflects Cairo’s ambition for where the cooperation should lead, though the MoU’s own text commits the two port authorities only to studying the link, not to launching it on a set timeline.

The agreement fits into a broader push by Egypt to build out its port infrastructure and position itself as a regional hub for transport, logistics, and transit trade, a strategy that has run alongside investment in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and other maritime assets over recent years.

Wider talks beyond the ports deal
The maritime MoU was one output of a broader meeting between Madbouly and Milatovic, who arrived with a delegation that included Nikola Camaj, Vice-President of Montenegro’s Parliament, and Tamara Vujovic, Minister of Culture and Media.

The Egyptian side included Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Mohamed Farid Saleh, Higher Education Minister Abdelaziz Konsowa, and Industry Minister Khaled Hashem.

Madbouly welcomed Montenegro’s plan to open an embassy in Cairo, calling it a critical step toward a new phase of cooperation, and pressed for full activation of a political consultation mechanism the two countries agreed in 2025, this time with a defined timetable covering infrastructure, ports, trade, investment, culture, religion, and tourism.

On trade, Madbouly acknowledged that commercial exchange between the two countries remains modest relative to the strength of their political ties, despite recent growth, and called for institutional efforts to set concrete targets.

He singled out energy as a promising area, proposing a joint action plan spanning electricity transmission, energy storage, market development, electrical interconnection, renewable energy, and green hydrogen. Tourism also featured prominently, with Madbouly pointing to existing Egyptian investment in Montenegro’s tourism sector as a base to build on.

Milatovic, for his part, said his delegation wants to explore cooperation across parliamentary, investment, commercial, cultural, and educational fields, and described the port MoU as a vital step supporting logistical and commercial ties.

He also raised civil aviation as an area for closer cooperation, aimed at easing travel, trade, and investment flows between the two countries, alongside university exchange programmes in education. He praised Egypt’s role in regional peace and stability efforts in the Middle East.

Other threads discussed included cooperation between Al-Azhar and Montenegro’s Islamic Community on promoting moderation and tolerance, with Egypt offering to expand imam training programmes and scholarships for Montenegrin students, and the formation of the first parliamentary friendship group between the two countries.

Madbouly closed the meeting by directing Abdelatty and Saleh to follow up on the talks with clear implementation timeframes, a signal that Cairo wants the port MoU, and the wider set of commitments made alongside it, to move from framework to concrete action rather than sit as a diplomatic gesture.

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The Panama Canal is cutting how deep ships can sit in the water, even though its lakes are full. The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that handles a fifth of the world’s oil, has just reopened after a war shut it down for months. Both events are pushing cargo owners towards the same overcrowded alternative, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, right as shippers rush to beat a tariff deadline.

The result is higher freight rates, longer waits, and a supply chain with very few easy options left.

Why is Panama cutting ship draft?
Normally, the Panama Canal only restricts how deep ships can load when water levels actually run low. This time is different. The Panama Canal Authority has ordered a phased cut in the maximum draft allowed through the wider Neopanamax locks, from 50 feet down to 49.5 feet on July 3, then 49 feet on July 24, then 48.5 feet from August 15. But Gatun Lake and Alhajuela Lake, the reservoirs that feed the canal, are sitting well above their historical averages thanks to heavy rain through 2025 and an unusually wet start to 2026.

The reason for the caution lies ahead, not behind. Weather agencies, including NOAA and the World Meteorological Organisation, are forecasting a strong El Nino pattern developing through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. El Nino tends to sharply cut rainfall across the canal’s watershed.

The authority remembers the last severe drought all too well. Between 2023 and 2024, water shortages forced drafts down to just 38.5 feet and daily transits down to 24 ships, causing a global backlog. This time, the authority would rather cut the draft early and gradually, by about a foot at a time with a month’s notice, than be caught out again.

The cost of this caution falls on shipping lines and, eventually, on cargo owners. Every half foot of draft lost means a large containership has to carry several hundred fewer containers per trip. Some carriers are already capping the weight of Caribbean-bound boxes at 10 tonnes per container to stay within the new limits.

On top of this, the canal authority has rolled out a new booking system called LoTSA 2.5, which sells guaranteed transit slots for between 200,000 and 800,000 dollars each, with bids for same-day slot during busy periods reportedly reaching as high as 4 million dollars.

“With all the bombings, the missiles, the drones … companies are saying it’s safer and less expensive to cross through the Panama Canal,” said Rodrigo Noriega, a lawyer and analyst in Panama City. “All of this is affecting global supply chains.”

Meanwhile, Panama’s government is ‘maximising what it can earn from the Panama Canal’, Noriega said.

Ricaurte Vasquez, the canal’s administrator, said one company – that he would not name – paid an extra USD 4 million when its fuel vessel had to change its destination because of ongoing geopolitical tensions. “It was a ship carrying fuel to Europe, and they redirected it to Singapore, and it needed to get there because Singapore is running out of fuel,” he said.

Hormuz keeps oil markets confused
While Panama has been quietly restricting supply, the Middle East has been going through a much louder crisis. The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes, was effectively shut on February 28, 2026, after fighting broke out between the United States, Israel and Iran.

That closure took roughly 10.8 million barrels a day of oil off the market and sent prices soaring, with Brent crude averaging around 103 dollars a barrel through the second quarter of the year.

In April, Panama’s foreign ministry accused Iran of illegally seizing a Panama-flagged vessel owned by Italian company MSC Francesca in the Strait of Hormuz. Panama, which has one of the world’s largest ship registries, said the ship was ‘forcibly taken’ by Iran.

Relief came on June 18, 2026, when the US and Iran signed the Islamabad memorandum of understanding (MoU). The deal ended the fighting, opened a 60-day negotiation window, and reopened the strait to commercial shipping without tolls. Oil forecasters reacted quickly.

The US Energy Information Administration now expects Brent to average around 74 dollars a barrel in the third quarter of 2026, a steep drop from earlier projections, easing further to about 65 dollars in 2027.

But the agreement did not instantly fix the fractured supply chain as war erupted again. Tankers take weeks to reroute, and by the end of June. Roughly 1.4 million barrels a day of Gulf production remained shut in.

There is also a hidden cost from the months the strait was closed. Asian buyers, desperate to replace Middle Eastern oil and gas, ramped up the purchase of American crude and LNG, and much of that cargo travelled through the Panama Canal. Canal traffic rose 8% in the first half of 2026, adding even more strain to Gatun Lake just as the authority was trying to protect it. Southbound ships without a booked slot have faced waiting periods stretching up to 10.6 days.

As per the latest announcement from President Donald Trump, Uncle Sam has reinstated a naval blockade on Iran and will reimburse 20% on all cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. The declaration came after Tehran claimed it had closed the vital waterway.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN and will remain OPEN, ‌with or without Iran. We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE. The USA… will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

The number of tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to its lowest level since May 2026, as per Kpler’s latest shipping data. The heightened tensions have resulted in the emergence of a new normal: ships increasingly switching off their public AIS tracking transponders while ‌crossing the waterway.

And the volatility is going to hit the world really hard. As per the ship broker Gibson’s report, “Should the renewed escalation in the strait lead to another prolonged closure of Hormuz, the world will find itself in a much tougher spot. With global inventories rapidly depleted in recent months, this is a recipe for much tighter supply, higher prices and significant downside risk for tanker markets.”

As per the LSEG and MarineTraffic ship-tracking data available on July 14, the Sea Faith oil products tanker was among the few visible vessels sailing towards the entrance to the Strait near the Iranian side of the waterway. The Iranian-flagged products tanker Niki, on the other hand, separately sailed towards the Strait’s entrance from the Iranian side of the chokepoint later on the same day.

“Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued at reduced levels. Traffic patterns continued to reflect operator caution following recent attacks,” said the US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) in an advisory dated on July 13.

As per the July 11’s satellite imagery, at least three pairs of tankers were involved in ship-to-ship transfers (STS) outside Hormuz off Oman’s coast in the Gulf of Oman. The procedure involves the transfer of oil from one vessel to another. Since the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war on February 28, STS transfers have enabled faster deliveries of oil onto waiting ships that do not need to sail through Hormuz.

Only six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, ship-tracking data from ⁠Kpler showed, the lowest number in five weeks.

“Tankers that exited the strait included the Very Large Crude Carrier Humanity, laden with two million barrels of Iranian oil, and another tanker, Capetan Andreas, carrying about 500,000 barrels of Kuwaiti oil products, while three empty tankers entered the Gulf to load oil. Most of the tankers switched off ⁠their transponders when crossing the Strait,” Kpler data read.

“There were no liquefied natural gas tankers that entered the Strait over the weekend that were visible on ship-tracking data. One tanker controlled by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co exited the Strait between July 10 and July 12. The vessel was heading for Dahej Port in India,” it added further.

Rush of cargo driven by a tariff deadline
Double disruption at Panama and Hormuz has put global maritime trade activities under tremendous pressure. Add the separate story unfolding in Washington. A temporary 10% tariff on nearly all US imports, introduced under Section 122 in February 2026, was due to expire on July 24. Courts had ruled the tariff unlawful in May, but an appeals court allowed collection to continue until the scheduled expiry date. Fearing the Trump administration would simply replace it with a new tariff under different legal authority, importers rushed to bring goods in early. North American import volumes jumped 14.3% year-on-year in June alone, reaching 2.25 million containers, well ahead of the usual autumn peak season.

Carriers have used this surge to push rates upwards. Following a 2,000-dollar-per-container hike on July 1, several major carriers layered on further increases in the following weeks, alongside peak- season surcharges of up to 2,000 dollars per container. Spot rates to the US East Coast climbed to between 7,000 and 7,600 dollars per 40-foot container by late June, among the highest levels seen all year.

Why is everyone suddenly shipping via US West Coast?
Faced with Panama’s weight limits, expensive canal slots, and high East Coast rates, many shippers are switching to the US West Coast instead, unloading at Los Angeles or Long Beach, and sending goods inland by rail. Carriers have added extra sailings to meet the demand, which has eased the old-style congestion of ships queuing offshore. Anchorage waits are now under a tenth of a day.

The bottleneck has simply moved. Instead of ships waiting at sea, they are now waiting once they reach the berth. Discharging a vessel at LA or Long Beach now takes 28 to 58 hours, two to four times longer than on the East Coast or Gulf ports, largely because the cranes cannot keep pace with today’s larger ships.

Meanwhile, East Coast ports like Norfolk have their own problem, with containers sitting in the yard for more than 73 hours before leaving. And from August 1, the fee charged on containers moving through LA and Long Beach during peak hours rises nearly 5%, to just over 40 dollars per container.

Where is all this heading?
There is no clean way around this squeeze. Shippers can accept Panama’s shrinking draft limits, high slot prices, and weight restrictions, or move to the US West Coast and absorb slower berth times and rising fees.

Maritime players need to contend with the fact that disruption will likely persist through the rest of 2026. For now, the safest strategy for logistics teams is to lock in longer contracts with capped rate increases, spread bookings across more than one gateway, and keep alternative routeing options ready.

The post Panama’s water crisis, Hormuz’s instability squeeze global shipping appeared first on International Finance.

Mwani Qatar, the integrated logistics services provider responsible for managing the Gulf nation’s seaports and shipping terminals, stated, “Qatar ports welcomed 121 vessels in June 2026, marking a 21% growth compared to last May. Additionally, the ports handled over 78,000 TEUs, up 13%, nearly 23,000 tons of general cargo, and over 67,000 tons of bulk cargo, a 40% increase from the previous month.”

“The three ports handled 78,002 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) containers, 23,092 tonnes of general cargo, 67,371 tonnes of bulk cargo, and 7,264 heads of livestock. Positioned strategically and supported by a rapidly expanding shipping network, the ports enable seamless and secure cargo flow and transshipment operations,” it added further.

The latest figures augur well for Qatar’s economy, which took a solid hit from the recently concluded Iran war, with the facilities producing LNG, the Gulf major’s key economic driver, receiving severe hits from Iranian missiles and drones. By boosting customer experience, Mwani Qatar is consolidating its role as the main growth engine of the nation’s integrated logistics sector.

“Advanced technology and modern operational capabilities have enabled Mwani Qatar to further strengthen marine safety and streamline port operations, with the organization delivering a comprehensive range of services designed to ensure the safe and efficient movement of vessels throughout Qatar’s maritime network,” the organization remarked.

Until the lead-up to the Iran war, Mwani Qatar had solidified its position as a fundamental pillar of economic diversification in Qatar and a vital link in the global supply chain. The year 2025 was characterized by the organization as the one where it showed steadfast commitment to operational efficiency, digital innovation, and sustainable growth, in alignment with the goals of the “Qatar National Vision 2030.”

“By achieving record handling rates and increasing Hamad Port’s share of regional trade, Mwani continues to fulfill the Ministry of Transport’s strategic plan to transform Qatar into a vital commercial and logistical hub in the region. By providing world-class competitive services, it supports the non-oil sector and contributes to turning the country’s national vision into a tangible reality,” the authority reiterated.

Recently, in a strong validation of Mwani’s industry-defining leadership, Hamad Port, Qatar’s main gateway to world trade, climbed three spots to rank eighth globally and second in the Gulf region in the 2025 Container Port Performance Index (CPPI), developed by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence.

This achievement reflects the port’s high operational efficiency and its capacity to maintain superior performance and resilience despite geopolitical disruptions and shifts in global trade and supply chains. The upbeat ranking also validates Qatar’s position as the Gulf region’s principal maritime gateway, with the country’s ports quickly emerging as upcoming integrated trade and logistical hubs.

“The CPPI is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive assessments of container port performance worldwide. Developed using extensive operational data, the index evaluates ports primarily on vessel turnaround times, the time required for ships to complete loading and unloading operations. The metric serves as a key indicator of efficiency, reliability, and the overall quality of port services. Hamad Port’s improved standing demonstrates its capacity to sustain superior operational performance in an increasingly challenging global environment. The ranking also underscores the port’s emergence as a major regional logistics hub,” Mwani said.

While Qatar’s key trade hubs and integrated logistics ecosystem remain resilient against the fallouts of the Iran war, the country is looking to resume its usual levels of LNG production “within a few weeks,” said Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani while interacting with the Financial Times (FT).

For the government, restoring output has emerged as a top priority following months of disruption caused by the volatile geopolitics. The blast at QatarEnergy’s Barzan gas processing facility, which happened due to a technical malfunction and ended up killing 13 people and injuring 66, has raised fresh questions over both the pace of the country’s energy sector recovery and safety.

Iranian missile and drone attacks knocked out 17% of Qatar’s LNG export capacity in March. Two of the country’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities were severely damaged. QatarEnergy had already suspended LNG production at Ras Laffan on 28th February after the outbreak of hostilities between the US, Israel, and Iran, following a drone attack on the industrial complex.

The disruption tightened helium markets after LNG production was halted at Ras Laffan, a key source of crude helium supply. The Gulf major accounts for around 30% of the world’s helium production capacity, with more than 80% of its output recovered as a by-product of LNG processing at the Helium 1 and Helium 2 facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that accounts for around 20% of global LNG trade and serves as the export route for almost all of Qatar’s LNG shipments, hurt the country’s economy further.

While LNG tankers have begun transiting the strait again following an interim US-Iran peace agreement, reached on 15th June, shipping activity has remained below pre-conflict levels.

The post Qatar’s logistics activities remain strong as Gulf major eyes comeback at LNG front appeared first on International Finance.

The deal also includes a deepened stake in the Xiamen Port Intermodal Logistics Hub (XPLH), a facility designed to link port operations with inland freight and supply chain infrastructure across Fujian province. Taken together, the two investments represent PSA’s most significant expansion in China to date and build on existing positions in both Xiamen and Fuzhou.

PSA Group CEO Ong Kim Pong said the Fujian investments were conceived as part of a broader effort to build what the company describes as a “total ecosystem” combining port handling, logistics and intermodal connectivity. Ong framed the move within PSA’s “Node-to-Network Strategy,” an approach that treats individual port investments not as standalone assets but as nodes in an integrated global trading system. The goal, he said, is to generate resilience and long-term value for customers engaged in sustainable global trade.

For Xiamen Port Group, the partnership signals a commitment to scaling the city’s competitiveness as a regional shipping hub. Chairman Cai Li Qun cited alignment between the two organisations on the “Fujian Silk Road Maritime Strategy,” a regional initiative promoting Fujian’s role in international trade and shipping. Cai said combining local operational strengths with PSA’s global network would deepen integrated port and logistics development across the province.

Fujian’s geographic position on China’s southeast coast makes it a natural gateway for trade flows into and out of the country, particularly with the Global South. The province is well placed to facilitate efficient cargo access into China’s import, distribution and supply chain networks, a function that is growing in commercial importance as trade routes continue to diversify.

The investment also reflects a wider industry trend among major port operators. Rather than simply adding terminal capacity, leading players are increasingly building integrated logistics ecosystems that span customs, warehousing, rail links and last-mile distribution. PSA’s simultaneous investment in XCTG and XPLH fits squarely within this model, tying new port capacity to the intermodal infrastructure needed to make that capacity commercially viable.

PSA currently operates more than 70 deep-sea, rail and inland terminals across more than 180 locations in 45 countries. Its flagship operations are in Singapore and Antwerp, Belgium. The Fujian expansion adds significant scale on China’s coast and brings PSA closer to the trade lanes serving Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, where demand for Chinese exports and inbound commodities continues to grow.

Completion of the transaction is contingent on regulatory clearances, with no timetable yet confirmed.

The post PSA International expands China footprint with Xiamen Terminal investment appeared first on International Finance.

The war, which began in the last week of February 2026, brought the strategically important maritime chokehold to a near-halt kind of situation. The important shipping lane sees the transportation of around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, along with ⁠products such as aluminium and urea.

“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks, if not a month,” Tamura told the Financial Times (FT), just before US President Donald Trump announced the peace deal. And as per the media outlet, Tamura’s stance hasn’t changed yet, despite Trump announcing on his Truth Social post, “Ships loaded ⁠with oil are starting to move out of the strait, going along the southern ‘highway’, which is totally safe, secure, and pristine.”

“We ‌recognise ⁠that there are signs of movement towards a ceasefire. However, operations will not be resumed until safety has been sufficiently confirmed. The resumption of transit will require close coordination ⁠with the governments of the relevant countries, insurers, and other stakeholders,” Mitsui OSK told Reuters.

Mitsui, one of Japan’s three biggest shipping firms, has a ⁠fleet of more than 900 vessels, including bulk carriers, tankers and ferries.

Denmark’s Maersk, another logistics and container shipping biggie, said that it was too early to assess the peace deal’s impact. As of now, the Danish group has maintained its Middle East operations.

The Strait of Hormuz blockade has severely disrupted travel and cargo across the wider Middle East, with many ‌vessels, ⁠including those belonging to Maersk, reportedly being unable to enter or leave the Gulf.

As per Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer of shipping association BIMCO, the maritime body still considers transit through the strait highly risky, with mines a key concern.

“The news of an agreement is clearly positive. However, in recent months there have been several announcements of a halt to the conflict, or at least ‌of a ⁠truce, and unfortunately they have never been followed by concrete action,” said Stefano Messina, head of Italian shipowners’ association Assarmatori.

While the German shipowners’ association VDR expressed “cautious optimism” about the deal’s prospects of normalising the maritime activities along the Strait of Hormuz, the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association said details of the agreement and ⁠the framework for any transit remained unclear, as does the extent of mines laid in the key shipping lane.

Norway-headquartered shipping group Wallenius Wilhelmsen said it was “too early to comment on operational implications”, while Oslo-listed Frontline, one of the world’s largest tanker companies, viewed the development “positively”.

Current scenario at Hormuz

As per the latest data from Kpler, three ADNOC-linked LNG tankers have signalled movement towards the 5.8 mtpa Das Island LNG facility in the UAE, in the first signs of what seems to be a pickup in shipping activity along the Strait of Hormuz.

“Kpler data show the vessels – Umm Al Ashtan, Mraweh, and Al Hamra – all in ballast and heading east, with Al Hamra being the closest to the Strait of Hormuz. Umm Al Ashtan is signalling Das Island with an expected arrival date of Apr. 28, while both Mraweh and Al Hamra are indicating Fujairah as their latest destinations today, on April 17,” commented the trade intelligence platform in its latest bulletin.

“The coordinated movement comes shortly after a spike in flaring at the Das Island LNG complex on April 15, as observed in satellite data, suggesting a potential resumption or adjustment in operations at the facility,” it stated further.

“Of the three tankers, Al Hamra and Mraweh appear as the most likely candidates to attempt a transit in the coming days, should the Strait of Hormuz remain open. This would make them the first LNG tankers to cross the strait from the Gulf of Oman. The Sohar LNG – the first LNG vessel to cross the strait since the start of the war – was still idling offshore Muscat, has not updated its AIS signal in two weeks and remains idle,” said Charles Costerousse, senior analyst at Kpler Insight.

As per the agency, an estimated 155 ⁠tankers, carrying oil and chemicals, were in the Gulf area as of June 15, down from 201 at the end of May.

The post US-Iran peace deal: Shipping industry remains cautious on Hormuz front appeared first on International Finance.

From June 15, Maersk will be charging USD 1,000 for every 20-foot container, up from USD 900. The surcharge for a 40-foot container, on the other hand, will now stand at USD 2,000, from the previous rate of USD 1,100. And last but not least, 45-foot high-cube dry containers will now attract a surcharge of USD 2,000, increasing costs for businesses that rely on larger shipments.

As per the industry players, given the fact that East African economies heavily depend upon Chinese imports for hardware like industrial equipment, electronics, construction materials, vehicles, and consumer goods, higher freight costs will increase the final prices of imported products, placing more pressure on businesses already struggling with rising operational expenses.

As per the reports, for cargo destined for the Port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the surcharge for a 20-foot container has increased from USD 750 to USD 1,000, while the charge for a 40-foot container has risen from USD 1,050 to USD 1,400. However, analysts see cargo routed through Dar es Salaam becoming more expensive in some categories due to congestion challenges and growing demand for cargo-handling services at Tanzanian ports.

“We expect more shipping lines to follow suit; the charges for Tanzania will continue to rise further compared to Kenya due to port congestion being experienced in Dar es Salaam Port. The surcharge applies strictly to non-spot bookings and is charged according to freight-paid terms, affecting pre-arranged shipping contracts. For non-FMC bookings, pricing is now tied to the scheduled departure date of the first water leg at the time of booking confirmation,” said John Mwasingo, a Mombasa-based clearing and forwarding agent, while interacting with The East African.

Noting that increased freight charges inevitably translate into higher landed costs, economist James Mwangi sees importers paying up more to bring goods into the region, following which the additional costs will be passed on to wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and ultimately consumers.

“Shipping costs are a critical component of the total cost of imports. Any increase in freight charges has a direct impact on product prices across multiple sectors,” Mwangi said.

The timing of Maersk’s surcharge increase couldn’t come at a bad time, with many East African firms still recovering from disruptions experienced during the global supply chain crisis and fluctuating exchange rates that have made imports more expensive.

Kenya, whose broader economic and industrial activities rely heavily on Chinese imports, will start paying more in surcharges. In 2025, Nairobi imported goods worth USD 4.3 billion from China, which included machinery and industrial equipment, telecommunications devices, electronics, motor vehicles, construction materials, iron and steel products, as well as various manufactured consumer goods.

In contrast, exports to China remain comparatively small, ranging between USD 200 million and USD 310 million annually. The East African country mainly exports tea, coffee, titanium ore, leather products and a limited range of agricultural commodities to the world’s second-largest economy. The substantial trade imbalance, accompanied by the raised surcharges, will now put pressure on existing trade arrangements between the nations.

“While Kenya provides duty-free entry for used personal effects and selected personal goods brought in by travellers, commercial imports do not enjoy blanket duty exemptions. Most imported goods remain subject to the East African Community’s Common External Tariff and other applicable taxes. Some products, including solar energy equipment, agricultural inputs, and selected industrial machinery, may qualify for tax exemptions or reduced rates under specific government policies. However, analysts argue that higher freight charges could erode some of the benefits associated with these incentives,” The East African reported.

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“We are living in turbulent times. All of you working in or with ports are experiencing firsthand how rapidly the world around us is changing. Supply chains are under pressure, geopolitical realities are shifting, and energy transition is confronting the industry with major investment decisions and infrastructure adaptations,” said Jens Meier, president of the International Association of Ports and Harbours, during the opening ceremony of the forum.

The three-day forum, which happened from May 26 to 28, gathered over 1,000 delegates from more than 70 countries and regions to discuss and tackle the myriad challenges facing the maritime sector and the broader world trade and economy.

“Sustained resilience is far from guaranteed. If we are not careful, we may wake up one morning and realise we have lost it,” cautioned Tim Power, managing director of Drewry Shipping Consultants, while adding that risks to resilience, including the erosion of freedom of navigation, the fragmentation of global regulatory structure, and the weaponisation of trade, among others, should be better understood and urgently addressed.

Jin Jingdong, chief planner of China’s Ministry of Transport, called for stronger cross-border cooperation.

“We must deepen coordination in port operations, route networks, and logistics services to build a more open, inclusive, and efficient global shipping network. No single country or port can face the challenges alone,” Jin said.

The latest statistics from the ministry show that China’s ports maintained steady growth from January to April 2026, with container throughput increasing faster than overall cargo volume. During the first half of this year, ports across the world’s second-largest economy handled 5.93 billion metric tonnes of cargo, up 3.1% year-on-year. Container throughput reached 120 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), an increase of 7.2%.

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While announcing the news, AD Ports Group also said that the agreement to acquire MBS Logistics stood at an enterprise value of AED 300 million (70 million euros).

The transaction covers MBS Logistics’ freight forwarding and logistics operations across Germany, Switzerland, Asia Pacific and the United States and excludes its joint ventures.

MBS Logistics, that has close to forty years of industry experience, has a global network of 26 offices, along with a team of over 450 professionals. The venture’s core freight forwarding services span air, ocean, road and rail transport, complemented by contract logistics, project cargo, customs and compliance, and time-critical multimodal solutions.

The company also serves a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, e‑commerce, engineering, technology, FMCG and healthcare.

While most of MBS Logistics’ core freight forwarding operations are based in Germany and Central Europe, it also maintains networks across China, Vietnam and the United States.

The completion of the transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions, will see MBS Logistics joining Noatum Logistics, AD Ports Group’s globally integrated platform that leads its logistics cluster.

Jochen Thewes, the recently appointed CEO of the logistics cluster, AD Ports Group, said, “Bringing MBS Logistics into our ecosystem is the right move at the right time, especially as markets seek greater connectivity and resilience in an evolving global trade and logistics landscape.” It provides us with an established operating platform with deep expertise and immediate access to key Central European and global logistics corridors.”

Joerg Roehl, Group CEO and shareholder of MBS Logistics, added, “Joining AD Ports Group and Noatum Logistics marks an important milestone for MBS Logistics. Their global reach, robust infrastructure and clear long-term vision for integrated logistics will enable us to further strengthen our service offering, expand our network and unlock new opportunities for our customers and our teams.”

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