The sentiment looks quite mixed on the small-tonnage shipping market this week. On the one hand, charterers have managed to stop the rate growth and even try to lower freights given a slight decline in activity ex Danube ports and decreased queues and delays at Sulina/Bystre (down to 78 dry cargo ships).
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) is expanding its portfolio in the environmentally friendly HHLA Pure segment, which offers customers the opportunity to use climate-neutral transport chains from ports to the hinterland of Europe.
Ukraine has started exporting grain through Croatian ports. This was stated by the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko during a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenkovic.
The Panama Canal Authority (Autoridad del Canal de Panama, ACP) is extending for at least ten months the restrictions on vessel passage and maximum draft that were introduced on July 30 this year. The measure was taken due to the record-breaking and prolonged drought in the country and the resulting shallowing of the water.
Vessels that were blocked in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports due to the war continue to use the temporary corridor. Two bulk carriers, the Liberian-flagged Anna-Theresa and the Marshall Islands-flagged Ocean Courtesy, have left Pivdennyi port and are heading toward the Bosphorus.
Due to the blockade of Ukrainian ports, Poland is preparing to increase the volume of grain cargo transshipment from Ukraine, in particular through the port of Gdansk. In the first six months of 2023, the port handled 1.4 million tons of grain cargo (mainly corn)
QTerminals, a joint venture of Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar – 51% stake) and Qatar Navigation (Milaha – 49% stake), has acquired a controlling stake in Kramer Holding BV (Kramer Group), which operates the Rotterdam Container Terminal.
On August 24, the act of acceptance and transfer of the Unified Property Complex of the State Enterprise “Commercial Sea Port of Ust-Dunaisk” was signed. Elixir Ukraine officially became the new owner of the port. This was reported by the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPF).