BDP Trendwatch: CN confirms IBEW members are on strike; Airline industry predicts profit in 2023, defying slowdown; China ports handled 116.5 million TEU from January to May

CN confirms IBEW members are on strike

Canadian railway CN says operations are continuing after members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) went on strike Saturday.

CN (NYSE: CNI) has deployed a contingency plan that allows it to maintain a normal level of safe rail operations across Canada and serve its customers for as long as required, the railway said Monday.

“While the company is disappointed with the current situation, CN remains committed to finding a resolution and it continues to encourage the IBEW to end its strike through an agreement or through binding arbitration,” CN said in a release.

FreightWaves

Airline industry predicts profit in 2023, defying slowdown

The airline industry will return to profit next year as pent-up demand for travel sustains bookings even as the global economy tightens, the International Air Transport Association trade group predicted.

Losses this year are likely to total $9.7 billion as air travel begins its recovery from the coronavirus crisis, IATA said Monday in an update at its annual meeting in Doha, an improvement on the $11.6 billion deficit predicted at the previous gathering last October.

AJOT, Bloomberg

China ports handled 116.5 million TEU from January to May

Chinese ports moved 116.5 million TEU from January to May of 2022, achieving a growth of 2.3% compared to the same period last year.

Additionally, the cargo volume of Chinese ports in the first five months of the year was 6251.0 million tons, representing a year-on-year decrease of 0.5%.

Container News

Half of LA port’s truck gates go unused ahead of peak season

Two years into the crisis that disrupted global supply chains and as US ports prepare for an earlier peak season, more than half of the truck gates at the busiest hub of Los Angeles are still going unused, its chief said.

During normal business hours, an average of 53% of gates are free, with truckers generally preferring to arrive in the middle of the day, resulting in less activity at other times, Executive Director Gene Seroka said at a conference in Tacoma, Washington.

AJOT, Bloomberg

MSC stretches newbuilding pipeline with 20-ship haul at New Times

Chinese shipyard New Times Shipbuilding has won 20 dual-fuelled boxship orders from MSC, which continues to expand its market-leading orderbook.

MSC has reportedly commissioned ten 8,100 TEU ships and ten 11,400 TEU ships at New Times, just a week after agreeing to long-term charters with three Japanese tonnage providers for four 23,000 TEU ships.

Container News

US study sees new Arctic trade routes opening up

A new in-depth study of Arctic shipping over the coming decades points to a massive opening up of traffic in the north of the globe and a waning of Russian influence in the region.

Carried out by researchers from Browne and Maine universities in the US, points towards climate models that show how parts of the Arctic that were once covered in ice year-round are warming so quickly that they will be reliably ice-free for months on end in as little as two decades.

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