China's Xiamen port has begun double-berthing feeder ships to speed up the movement of containers along inland waterways in Fujian province.

Double-berthing involves parking one feeder vessel outside another feeder ship that is already berthed, and having the gantry cranes load containers on both ships concurrently.

Early this week, the exercise saw the 210 TEU Haibangda 318 parked next to the 215 TEU Haibangda 328, which was docked along berth No. 12 at Xiamen Haitian Container Terminal. A gantry crane then offloaded containers from Hai Bang Da 318, right across the adjacent ship. Both ships are owned by Shenzhen Haibangda Shipping, a local feeder operator.

Port officials said that double-berthing will boost Xiamen’s status as a shipping centre in southeastern China.

For Xiamen Port, which is becoming increasingly busy, double-berthing improves the utilisation of a single berth and terminal equipment, while shortening the time needed for ships to berth.

Containers are quickly loaded and unloaded from one ship to another, reducing the secondary loading and unloading operations, boosting operational efficiency."

Port officials added that this will facilitate the fast turnover of goods in the hinterland and have a positive effect on the development of hinterland enterprises.

Shippers told Container News that double-berthing is possible because Xiamen has long berths.

This is an emulation of Shanghai's Yangshan Deepwater Port, which implemented double-berthing on all its terminals last week.

Double-berthing is not common in ports elsewhere due to wharf length limits.

Yangshan tested double-berthing in September 2019, as port officials felt there was a need to speed up the handling of containers from so many feeder vessels. Many of the feeder ships collecting goods from Shanghai do so at Yangshan and around 90% of the ships calling at Yangshan come from the Yangtze River Delta.

French ocean carrier CMA CGM has revised its EURONAF service, which will now consist of four loops instead of two.

In Loop 1, CMA CGM will deploy three 1,700 TEU container vessels on the following 21-day rotation:

Malta (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Bejaia (Algeria) - Malta

Loop 2 will run between the ports of Barcelona and Oran with one vessel of 850 TEUs and one vessel of 1,700 TEUs. The frequency of the loop will be weekly on a 14-day cycle. The port rotation will be Barcelona (Spain) - Oran (Algeria) - Barcelona.

Two 1,300 TEU boxhsips will be used on the Loop 3, sailing under the following 14-day port rotation:

Genoa (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Alger (Algeria)

Finally, the Loop 4 will be operated by a fleet of three vessels each carrying 1,100 TEUs. The frequency will be weekly on a 21-day cycle and the rotation will be as follows:

Livorno (Italy) - Genoa (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Barcelona (Spain) - Tanger (Morroco) - Oran (Algeria) - Mostaganem (Algeria) - Livorno

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) is starting new China Indonesia Service 2 (CIS2) today (20 June) to enhance its service network between the two countries.

The port rotation of the new service will be Shanghai (China) - Ningbo (China) - Shekou (China) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Surabaya (Indonesia) - Davao (Philippines) - Kaohsiung (Taiwan) - Shanghai​.

With the new service, OOCL aims to supplement China Indonesia Service (CIS) strengthening the connection between China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"CIS2 directly connects multiple ports in China with Indonesia and the Philippines to cater to the increasing demand in the market," said the COSCO-owned box line in a statement.

Chinese container ports have handled 95.4 million TEUs in the first four months of the year, translating to a year-on-year increase of 4.8%.

The ports in China have also reported over 5.2 billion tonnes of cargo between January and April of 2023, representing a rise of 7.6% compared with the same period last year.

The data for the twelve major Chinese ports' cargo throughput and container throughput are displayed in the following table.

According to data from China's Ministry of Transport, the port of Shanghai remains the busiest box port in the country exceeding 15 million TEUs in the first four months of 2023. Ports of Ningbo & Zhoushan and Qingdao follow with 11.3 million and 900,000 TEUs respectively.

In the same period, ports with lower container traffic have shown the largest percentage increases, with the ports of Yinkou, Dalian and Lianyungang standing out, reporting container growth of 24.3%, 22.2% and 18% respectively.

It is important to note that all the twelve major container hubs in China have boosted their container throughput in the first months of the year.

Ocean connections between India and Russia are growing at a brisk pace, as Moscow looks to long-time natural allies to lessen the impact of Western sanctions it has had to face over the Ukraine conflict.

FESCO, Russia's largest container carrier, last week had its first call at Mundra Port on a service that connects India, China and North-West Russia.

The port rotation is Rizhao (China), Lianyungang (China), Ningbo (China), Shanghai (China), Yantian (China), Mundra (India), St Petersburg (Russia) and Rizhao.

The current itinerary calls for a monthly call, but plans are already in the works to improve the frequency to fortnightly.

The service is being operated under the FESCO Baltorient Line (FBOL) brand, using three ships of 2,500-3,000 TEU capacity each.

The move comes on the heels of Ruscon, another leading container transport company in Russia, significantly expanding its network from the Black Sea port of Novorossysk to Nhava Sheva and Mundra.

Ruscon has boosted its tonnage deployments from one vessel to four vessels in order to provide a weekly sailing frequency. In addition, a new stop has been introduced at Jeddah Port in Saudi Arabia.

Those moves complement a string of "inducement" calls recently seen on the resurgent trade lane, mostly by non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) looking to capitalise on lucrative cargo opportunities.

Mumbai-based Econship is one such new entrant into this market.

The NVO has already held a few inducement vessel deployments from Nhava Sheva (JNPT) and Mundra to Novorossiysk, with extended inland reach for St. Petersburg and Moscow. The company has announced a monthly sailing frequency once sufficient demand builds up.

Econship boasts a transit time of 16 to 18 days from Nhava Sheva to Novorossiyk.

In parallel, more efforts are under way to maximise the use of the alternative Central Asia corridor, known as the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), by improving the rail access from Russia to Iran.

Russia and Iran have now agreed to speed up construction on the missing rail links, particularly some 100-mile stretch that has been designed to connect the Iranian city of Rasht, near the Caspian Sea, to Astara on the border with Azerbaijan.

INSTC has also been a major talking point between India and Iran as stakeholders weigh various options to scale up freight flows amid the sanctions-related challenges.

In another step, Moscow has agreed to lease its Vladivostok free port as a transit point for moving intra-country Chinese cargo.

According to reports, by this transloading method, the land transportation distance from China’s northeast Jilin province to its eastern parts is expected to shorten by some 800 kilometers. As a result, there will be significant logistics cost advantages, which local authorities believe will drum up shipper interest. The arrangement is due to take effect next month.