In our Twitter account, we asked you about the hottest shipping trend this year. Here the results:
Question: Which was the most important shipping trend in 2016?
The options to choose were:
-Shipping Consolidation
-Mega-vessels
-VGM regulation
-Environmental regulations
The results:
With a dramatic victory and 80% of the votes, shipping consolidation was the main topic for our followers in 2016.
The hard market conditions have pushed the top shipping lines to create alliances as a protection mechanism against the threat of a possible bankruptcy. This year we all witnessed how Hanjin Shipping, the largest South Korean carrier fell apart when the creditor said no to a recovery plan.
In 2017 we will we the opportunity to see how these new alliances will affect the shipping landscape as we know it. Three of the major partnerships are The Alliance (Hapag-Lloyd, K-Line, MOL, NYK Line and Yang Ming), the Ocean Alliance (CMA-CGM, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line, Orient Overseas Container Line) and the 2M (Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Line).
Together, these three alliances will dominate the North Asia, South Asia, South East Asia- North America trade with 90% market share. All of them will provide competitive services and rates in order to keep on the top of the list.
With the other 20% of the votes, the new regulations for the container weight verification were the second favourite topic of our followers. The SOLAS requirement was effective from 1 July 2016 and according to this rule, every packed export container should have its weight verified before being loaded onto a ship.
The shipper is responsible for providing the information to the carrier and the terminal operator. The penalty for not providing the VGM is not to load the shipping container abroad the ship, additional costs such as repacking cost, demurrage charges, and administration fees.
The other two topics: Mega- vessels and environmental regulations had 0% of the votes.
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