Andrew Couper

Container capacity on all major trade lanes has been severely reduced, with the deepest cut planned for Asia – Red Sea at 14%. The world’s most active trade lane has taken a 10% haircut, while Asia – US West Coast has been dialed back 8%. The cuts extend well into June, and in some cases […]

Container ship visits to Chinese ports, measured both in number of vessels scheduled to call and their cumulative capacity in twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) plunged in late January and early February – largely due to the normal seasonal downturn associated with Chinese New Year being exacerbated by the onset of the coronavirus. At the same time, […]

The signing of the Phase One trade deal between China and the US is welcomed, as the latest trade flow volumes highlight the negative impact that the trade war has had on container trade between the two countries. Figure 1: Top country to country flows between US and Asia. Bars display the level of TEU […]

The effect of the coronavirus outbreak on world trade is yet to become clearly visible in shipping data, but there are already signs of a slowdown. The number of missed port calls – scheduled port visits that are skipped by the vessel – is one way to measure the immediate impact of a slowdown in […]

Exports of Group II base oils from the United States to Brazil grew for the third consecutive year in 2019 as Brazil’s demand for more advanced lubricant formulations continues to grow. US exports of Group II products to Brazil hit a record 274,897 tons in 2019, up from 228,342 tons in 2018 and 123,788 tons […]

US base oil exporters are facing significant demand changes because of higher Group II availability in Europe and the continued global switch from Group I to Group II base oils. Higher availability, more competitive prices and a wider range of applications compared to Group I make Group II the dominant global base oil. US Group […]

Khalifa Port has seen its volumes jump on the back of concession agreements with COSCO Shipping Ports and Mediterranean Shipping Company. This growth will continue and undoubtedly grow stronger when COSCO’s and MSC’s terminals open properly for business at the port. Growth in China’s Belt and Road strategy, along with Khalifa owner Abu Dhabi Ports’ […]

Following challenges with the implementation of a new terminal operating system (TOS) on June 2018, container vessels calling at Felixstowe faced serious delays. This resulted in sharp declines in deployed capacity and a diversion of deep-sea services away from Felixstowe. At ClipperData, we have invested significantly in our data coverage, which allows us to provide […]