Porti & ambiente — le notizie raccolte

The acquisition of Icelandic carrier Samskip’s UK-continental Europe container shipping services by ro-ro and multimodal operator CLdN has halved the seller’s intra-North Europe market share. According to new analysis from Alphaliner, the June transaction meant Luxembourg-based CLdN, which moved its shipping operations HQ to London in May, “made the biggest jump in the league of North Europe’s largest operators” over the past year. “Fuelled by the acquisition of Samskip’s Northwest Continent-UK business, CLdN climbed four positions, propelling it from 17th to 13th. “As a consequence, Samskip’s own capacity nearly halved, down 40% from 9,600 teu to 5,800 teu, and its rank fell from 7th to 14th – the steepest drop of any operator,” Alphaliner writes today. Source: Alphaliner Operated container capacity at CLdN – its con-ro vessels can carry containers on deck – jumped from 2,750 teu in July 2025 to 6,300 teu today, and said the purchase “aligned with CLdN’s strategy of providing complementary ro-ro services for mixed cargo and lo-lo services specifically for containers”. It added: “These services carry out more than 1,000 port calls every year, transporting cargo for a broad customer base, including blue-chip consumer goods manufacturers… and the transfer of the lease agreements for more than 5,000 multimodal cargo units.” Over the past 12 months, total capacity on the intra-North Europe trade grew 20,000 teu, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.8%, with 243 vessels with an average capacity of 1,294 teu deployed, compared with 235 averaging 1,253 teu a year earlier. In terms of the ten biggest carriers, Maersk saw the largest growth rate, its offering to market now 50,800 teu, compared with 39,800 teu this time last year. Its intra-North Europe market share thus increased from 13.5% to 16.2%, while market leader MSC’s marginally contracted, from 21.3% to 21.2%, its capacity increasing 4,000 teu during the period – this represented a 6.2% increase, slightly below the market average. Source: Alphaliner “Maersk’s disproportionately high growth in capacity and market share again stems from the ‘hub and spoke’ concept that the carrier implemented last year with its Gemini partner Hapag-Lloyd,” Alphaliner writes. “Its newest additions are two Maersk-operated Baltic feeder services connecting Germany with Poland, with a total of four ships of between 2,100 and 4,800 teu accounting for 14,300 teu of extra capacity,” it adds. One of these is Maersk’s eco-flagship, the 2,100 teu methanol-poweredLaura Maersk(pictured above). Third-placed DP World Shipping Services – operating as Unifeeder until earlier this year – saw its market share decline, from 12.2% to 11%, with the reduction of two vessels, while CMA CGM also saw declines in both capacity and market share, the former down 14.4%, to 30,200 teu, while market share “slipped from 12% to 9.6%, leaving it in fourth spot”, according to Alphaliner. While it continues to operate six standalone North Europe feeder services, the French carrier appears to have plugged the gap with a series of slot-charter agreements with non-mainline feeder operators – according to Xeneta’s eeSea liner database, CMA CGM is a slot charterer on eight BG Freight Line strings between continental Europe and the UK and Ireland, as well as EUCON’s Antwerp-Belfast shuttle. According to eeSea, 20% of the slots are estimated to be reserved for the French carrier on the 1,400 teuBG Orange, which last week was hit by the multipurposeWind Orcawhile alongside the quay in the UK port of Tyne. The force of the collision prompted a quay crane to collapse onto the deck of theBG Orange, and salvage operations are currently under way. The vessel is deployed on the Peel Ports-owned carrier’s Butterfly 1 service (marketed as ECUK56 by CMA CGM), which has a triangular port rotation of Rotterdam-Tyne-London Gateway.

The waters of the Rhine have hit perilously low levels, reducing barge activity on the river almost to a complete halt, and forecasts indicate minimal chances of rain this week and another temperature spike next week. Barge operator Contargo is reporting water levels at all four gauges of the north European river as between 10% and 64% below the point at which movement is only possible on a case-by-case negotiated basis. Nonetheless, it added that “inland navigation had not come to a complete standstill”, even with water levels of just 13cm and 29cm on the Emmerich and Kaub gauges – 57% and 64% below where the maximum low-water surcharge applies. The spokesperson toldThe Loadstarit was “ultimately up to the barge operators to decide when operating their vessels is no longer economically viable, or becomes unsafe”, adding: “This also depends on the type of vessel. Some of those operating for Contargo are specifically designed for low-water conditions and are therefore able to continue.” Even so, sources toldThe Loadstar,with all four gauges well below what are considered safely navigable levels, and little improvement seen in the near-term, the situation for shippers was looking perilous. One barge owner noted that shippers had been paying low-water surcharges for several weeks and were now having to prepare for significant disruption resulting from traffic along the Rhine “comingto a standstill”, at least on the Emmerich and Kaub gauges. They reiterated the views they gave toThe Loadstarearlier in the month, after negotiations with barge operators willing to work below the usual navigable levels resulted in rates that “were not worth considering”, stressing that “all modalities will suffer” as capacity is sought. Contargo’s spokesperson noted that the company was “working closely with transport service providers to develop and establish suitable alternative transport services”, adding: “Our primary focus remains on maintaining connections between the seaports of Rotterdam and Antwerp and the Rhine hinterland, either by increasing the frequency of existing rail services or by introducing so-called bypass services. “These rail bypass services bridge the Upper and Middle Rhine sections, but securing capacity remains extremely challenging. The standard diversion corridors (the left-bank Rhine line and the Siegerland route) are already operating full.” This is a consequence of those corridors already handling excess traffic generated by ongoing major refurbishment of the right-bank Rhine railway line, with remaining alternative routes some 200km longer and requiring substantially more resources. “These include locomotive crews, locomotives, and wagons, meaning that the result is that our rail service providers are reaching the limits of their available resources, and train rotation concepts have to be redesigned accordingly,” the spokesperson noted.