Written by Jérôme de Ricqlès

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

    Tags

    Tags

    Most Popular

    Check out our news
    New call-to-action
    Jérôme de Ricqlès

    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).

    Pros and cons of sail-powered container ships

    France is one of the countries pioneering sail-powered container shipping projects. The global energy crisis is generating increased interest in what seemed at first to be just a romantic dream. Photo credit: © Zephyr et Boree
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    September 29 2022
    6 min

    What if the container consortium block exemption was removed?

    Bruxelles has started consultations on the future of the exemption from EU competition laws enjoyed by the regular line shipping companies. Here, we want to try an exercise in political fiction, based on four different hypotheses. Customers of regular line shipping companies are up in arms. Over the...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    September 15 2022
    9 min
    Subscribers

    The shipping companies prepare for market turnabout

    BAROMETER. August results have confirmed the fall in Western demand and the drop in spot rates for goods from China. The trends seen in July on the container shipping market were confirmed in August. Demand slowed, reducing spot freight rates, particularly for goods from China. The climate is morose...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    September 06 2022
    2 min

    Taiwan: Tensions have not triggered a rebound in freight rates

    FAK maritime freight rates between Asia and Europe continued to drop in August, despite renewed tension between China and the United States over the Taiwan issue. Tensions between China and Taiwan are not new. This is a factor to be closely monitored, as this situation which is smouldering beneath t...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    August 30 2022
    3 min
    Subscribers

    Container shipping: a controlled lull

    BAROMETER. The beginning of summer has been marked by a moderate erosion of sea freight rates leaving Asia, despite low demand, while the East-West transatlantic corridor remains bullish. In most of the major Western economies, the focus during the summer is on the fight on inflation, as evidenced b...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    August 16 2022
    2 min
    Subscribers

    Container transport: prices and volumes down

    BAROMETER. FAK rates have fallen below the psychological bar of 5 digits for imports from Asia to Northern Europe for some shipping companies. At the same time, aggressive blank sailings are continuing to be used by companies, much to the discontent of shippers. June marked a shift from 5-digit to 4...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    July 19 2022
    2 min

    Our second half container shipping scenarios

    The slowdown in demand is starting to affect freight rates. The shipping companies are still very much in charge but the party lights have started to fade. The slowdown in economic growth was expected after the exceptional progression seen in 2021. We knew that the catch-up effect, which boosted con...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    July 05 2022
    8 min
    Subscribers

    Shipping companies' gambit pays off  

    BAROMETER. Despite weakening demand, the shipping companies kept control of the market in May. The gambit was a risky, one but it worked. Even the most experience supply chain managers must be succumbing to a form of fatalism at the moment, so little meaning has the term management in the internatio...
    Jérôme de Ricqlès
    June 15 2022
    2 min

    Check out our news