Evergreen Marine Corp (
The 11-member Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement is seeking to raise its rates by US$50 for a standard 40-foot container and US$40 for standard 20-foot boxes beginning Oct. 1, the group said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The shipping lines may make "further rate adjustments" as they try to recover costs from customers, the statement said.
Hapag-Lloyd, Japan's Nippon Yusen K.K. and other shipping
lines have reported smaller profits this year because record oil prices are increasing costs and an oversupply of vessels is causing freight rates to weaken.
"The rate increase is needed for these commodities to help recover rising costs," the group said in the statement.
"Shipments are heavy and at times require special chassis equipment, routing and stowage aboard the ship. Equipment often requires special cleaning and maintenance in Asia," it said.
In Singapore, the price of 380 Centistoke Bunker Fuel used by ships rose to a record US$365 per tonne on May 3, 27 percent more than the price of US$287.50 at the end of last year. Costs have also increased for shipping lines to move cargo on land because truckers and railways are charging more to reflect higher fuel prices.
China Shipping Group (
Other members include Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, Nippon Yusen,
Orient Overseas Container Line Inc and Yang Ming Marine Corp (
Shares of Hanjin Shipping, South Korea's largest shipping line, rose 1.4 percent to 21,300 won in Seoul. Shares of Nippon Yusen, Japan's biggest, gained 0.3 percent to ?726 in Tokyo.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day