Taiwanese container shipping line Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) has declared force majeure on a shipment to the Israeli port of Ashdod, with its Ever Cozy vessel diverted to Haifa due to safety concerns, a customer note said.
This is one of the first force majeures declared since Hamas launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and amid preparations by Israel’s military to launch ground operations into Gaza in retaliation.
The Ever Cozy on Tuesday was sailing toward Haifa, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic showed.
Photo: AFP
While the smaller Ashkelon port, which is the closest terminal to Gaza, has shut, Ashdod has remained opened with restrictions on the transport of hazardous goods, including flammable and explosive materials.
In a note to customers dated Monday, Evergreen said that it was informed about the “persisting unsafe situation” at Ashdod port since Oct. 7.
“As the situation is beyond Evergreen Line’s control, we are formally declaring force majeure,” the advisory said. “All cargoes which were originally destined for Ashdod, Israel, will be discharged at Port of Haifa, Israel. Thereafter, the subject contract of carriage is treated as terminated and all carrier’s responsibilities shall cease.”
In the latest update, Ashdod port said on its Web site that employees continued to work “at a time when the port is operating with constant siren alerts for incoming missiles.”
On Tuesday, three ships, including an oil tanker, remained at anchor waiting to enter Ashdod, while 16 ships were anchored near Haifa, the MarineTraffic data showed.
Ashdod and Haifa are vital goods gateways for Israel.
War risk insurance rates have soared more than 10-fold in the past few days to Israeli ports with growing concerns over an escalation in hostilities.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured