Thanks to their chemical makeup, lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries release oxygen when they heat up and, should they catch fire, it is impossible to smother the flames with water or foam. Worse, however, is that while some are taught to fight battery fires using CO2 foam, spraying CO2 onto a battery fi...

Sources say the charges, made public last month, are a response from port operators looking to recoup “millions of pounds” ploughed into preparing phytosanitary facilities, the need for which was removed after a government u-turn and the abandoning of new Brexit checks. This position, however, h...

Negotiations between German port employers and dockworkers trade union ver.di ended without a result on Saturday after 10 hours. The union described a revised offer from the Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) as “inadequate”. “This offer is far below the real wage prote...

But this has happened before; and many believe the rage and upset ultimately turn into apathy. The tragedies in Tianjin in 2015 and Beirut in 2020 were very similar in many ways; there is certainly a sense of deja vu, suggesting little has changed. It’s too easy for the industry to let the narrati...

A new whitepaper from Maersk has highlighted the extent of Asia Pacific’s trade growth, noting the region’s “meteoric rise as a consumption market” has prompted 50% growth in intra-Asia exports since 2019. “This includes a quadrupling of e-commerce during the past three years, which is fur...

The German united services trade union Verdi called out its 12,000 dockworker members at Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony in the first of what could be several “warning strikes”, designed to increase the pressure on its ongoing wage dispute with the employers, the Central Association of German S...

KFTC handed down its decision on 9 June, after a two-month probe that focused on the liner operators’ actions between February 2003 and May 2019. Those penalised included: Heung-A Line, fined $12.5m; KMTC Line, fined $11.6m; Sinokor Merchant Marine, fined $9.6m; HMM was fined $39,060 and SM Line w...

“Following the recent fatal explosion on 4 June 2022 at one of the container facilities in Bangladesh, we have observed a significant spike in the number of containers containing hydrogen peroxide being discharged in PSA Terminals,” the operator said in an advisory on Thursday. It...

According to the Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) commentary, freight rates from Asia to Europe reflected “stable supply and demand fundamentals in the market” and were therefore virtually unchanged on the week. Readings for North Europe from the FBX, WCI and XSI indices were $10,692, $...

This insightful article in The Intercept explains what is being considered by US lawmakers to stem the powers of the box lines, which will be voted on next week. Well worth a read. Read more... ...