NEW ZIM SERVICE CONNECTS SOUTH AMERICA WEST COAST TO US EAST COAST
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services is launching the ZIM Colibri Xpress (ZCX) a service from South America West Coast to US East Coast, commencing on the coming weeks from Chile. ZIM said The ZCX will offer competitive service for refrigerated cargo from Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, with the fastest transit time to Philadelphia – as a first port of call in the US East coast – and competitive transit time to additional US ports.The service will be operated independently by ZIM, which will deploy 6 X 1700 teu vessels on a weekly service with increased capacity for reefers, with connection between the ports of West Coast of South America and the US East Coast as well as fast transhipments from US East Coast ports and direct service from Miami in Southern Florida to all Latin America trades. The new service will enable transhipment connecting ports in West Coast South America to and from East Coast South America and will also offer transhipment connection from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to Philadelphia’s port.
US WEST COAST PORTS GEAR UP FOR FLOATING WIND
Excitement is mounting over the potential for offshore floating wind in deep waters off the US west coast, but there is a lack of supporting landside infrastructure. A new report from Intelatus Global Partners, an energy consultancy, reveals that as yet there are no purpose-built port facilities to support floating wind farm development in California, a hot spot. A number of possible locations have been identified and the capital investment required is likely to run into billions of dollars.The floating wind sector is seen as a vital component in supporting California’s aim of transitioning to 90% clean energy by 2035.
FMC DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM MSC OVER CONGESTION SURCHARGES
Using its new found powers granted by president Joe Biden, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has taken aim at the world’s largest container line, Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC).The FMC is questioning a congestion fee MSC charged to a company in a first case of its kind since the passing last year of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).MSC has until the end of the month to explain why it should not pay a refund to the Company. The FMC said MSC never provided “justification” to Company stemming from a $1,000 “congestion surcharge” levied against Company in July. The FMC in Washington DC is sorting through a host of cases brought by irate shippers against global liners in recent months, including a few involving MSC.OSRA was signed into law last June on the back of exporters lobbying politicians to intervene during the supply chain crunch seen in the US during the pandemic. The law allows the FMC, the US shipping regulator, to launch probes of container lines’ business practices and to apply enforcement measures.
VANCOUVER PORT MOVES A STEP CLOSER TO GETTING NEW TERMINAL
Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change, informed the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority (VFPA) last week of his determination that information provided by the VFPA has satisfied a request for additional details regarding potential effects of the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project on fish and fish habitat, salinity, and Indigenous people. According to a press release from the VFPA, “the additional information provided by the port authority … further demonstrated the project could be completed in an environmentally responsible manner. “The project will now move, noted the VFPA, to the final stage of the federal environmental assessment process, which started in 2013.