Written by Jerome de Ricqles

Exclusive analysis on freight transport, supply chain and international trade topics

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Jerome de Ricqles

Expert in Ocean shipping for 25 years, Jerome puts all his knowledge of the industry to contribution for Upply. Ship captain at heart, he has written the English-French Lexicon of Containerized Shipping (Paris: CELSE, 2001).

Shipping: the price of ''clean'' fuel is rising

The price of low sulphur marine fuel currently stands at over $500 per tonne. This should reassure the many shipping companies which installed scrubbers two years ago. In early 2020, when the new International Maritime Organisation rules on sulphur oxide emissions had just come into force, everyone ...
Jerome de Ricqles
February 22 2021
2 min

Ocean freight rates: should commodity box rates be revived?

The sharp rise in container shipping freight rates is particularly penalising for low-value cargo. The introduction of freight rates which vary according to the nature of the cargo transported, along the lines of the old "commodity box rates", could offer a solution, at least temporarily. The level ...
Jerome de Ricqles
February 02 2021
4 min

''Greening'' shipping:  the technical options

Speeding up container shipping's transition to clean energy has become a priority. In this article, we review the different fuel and propulsion options which will enable the sector to attain the objectives set by the International Maritime Organisation. The transition to cleaner energy is under way ...
Jerome de Ricqles
January 26 2021
5 min

Container shipping prospects in 2021

The year 2020 showed how dangerous it is to make forecasts…We are going to take the plunge nevertheless and put forward three possible scenarios for the container shipping business. Following the sharp rise in freight rates seen in 2020, it seems to us most likely that the balance of power in the se...
Jerome de Ricqles
January 12 2021
7 min

Seaborne container transport in 2020

New balance of power between shippers and carriers, unprecedented freight rates levels, destabilised supply chains: you can read here our analysis of the main trends which have marked seaborne container transport in 2020. 2020 will remain in the annals as an exceptional year which has been full of s...
Jerome de Ricqles
December 17 2020
2 min

Antwerp-Norfolk: a stable even slightly downward trend

Ocean freight rates on east-west transatlantic routes are relatively stable and even showing a slightly downward trend. This makes them an exception on a shipping market which is currently marked by rate overheating in all departments. We could almost doubt the fact, given the highs reached by freig...
Jerome de Ricqles
December 11 2020
2 min

Containers needed urgently…

European, American and Chinese exporters have reported recurrent difficulties in recent weeks in obtaining containers from the shipping companies. The problem is less due to a shortage than to the inability of the shipping companies to reposition containers quickly to the places where they are neede...
Jerome de Ricqles
December 04 2020
5 min

The regulation of container shipping in Europe

Unlike their Chinese and American counterparts, the European competition authorities generally keep out of the commercial problems of the container shipping business. It is time no doubt to change this for the benefit of European Union trade. In China and the United States, the authorities responsib...
Jerome de Ricqles
October 29 2020
4 min

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