MSC Containership fleet to hit 5mn TEU capacity this month : Alphaliner

Cont’d. from Pg. 4

Putting the size and growth of MSC’s fleet in perspective at 5 mn TEU it would be roughly equal to the entire Global Container shipping fleet at the turn of the millennium.

With a hefty newbuilding orderbook of 127 vessels with a combined capacity of 1.66 mn TEU the 6 mn TEU mark for MSC’s fleet is not much more than a year away. Alphaliner estimated it could reach a fleet size of 6 mn TEU by mid-2024, although the exact timing depends on vesselacquisitionsandsales.

Visakha Container Terminal creates new Milestone

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Visakha Container Terminal recently welcomed the longest and biggest vessel they have handled to date. On 7th of May 2023 vessel M.V. Prague Express, with LOA 336 meters and Beam 43 meters (width), GRT (weight) 93,750 ton having a carrying capacity of 8,750 TEU was handled efficiently. A parcel size of 2,094 TEU was handled with a Gross Crane rate of 34 moves per hour which is testimony to the terminal's excellent operational efficiency and world-class infrastructure.

The 2M Alliance with Maersk officially expires in early 2025 and MSC is seen as having the scale to go it alone outside of major alliances, as it has previously indicateditplanstodo.

“Unlikemostothershippinglineswithinthetop-ten, MSC’s sheer scale will allow the carrier to offer attractive port pairs on all key trade lanes without joining another alliance set-up. Alphaliner nevertheless expects MSC to maintain selected smaller-scale partnerships on a number of trades,” theweeklyreportsaid.

ZIM announces investment in Spinframe, a provider of an Innovative Vehicle Monitoring Platform for Maritime and Land Supply Chains Checkpoints

HAIFA: ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE: ZIM), along with other investors, announced the initial closing of an $8 million financing round in Spinframe. ZIMledthisinvestmentaspartofitsstrategy to invest in early-stage companies involved in the digitalization of supply chains who offer novel cuttingedgeserviceswithhighgrowthpotential.

Spinframe develops vehicle-inspection systems basedonartificialintelligence(AI),computervision,and machine-learning technologies, that create “Digital Twins” for vehicles throughout the supply chain and detect anomalies from the assembly line throughout thevehiclejourneytothedealershipandendcustomer.

Spinframe’s innovative system exhaustively documents vehicles and uses AI to quickly identify defects and external damage. The platform is capable of overseeing a large number of vehicles without human intervention in various locations, such as seaports, transportation and logistics hubs, parking lots, agencies, rentalbranches,andservicecenters.Thecombinationof advanced image processing, damage classification, and data cloud storage allows for immediate vehicle visualizationandstatussharingatanystage,viaaunified interface.

Spinframe’s monitoring platform has already been implemented at a wide range of customers within the automotive industry, including prominent automotive OEMs, such as Volkswagen, car rental companies and dealerships.

The investment funds will be utilized by Spinframe to develop new and unique capabilities of Spinframe’s platform, as well as to deliver a robust pipeline to implement solutions with new customers globally. In particular, the company aims to expand its activities throughout the vehicle maritime transport segment. Recently, Spinframe won an Ashdod Port tender, which will now use its offering to monitor vehicle disembarkmentattheport.

Eli Glickman, ZIM President & CEO, said: “AfterconductingsuccessfulPoCs,wehaveidentifiedthe immense potential of Spinframe’s technology and its applicability to our industry. As part of our overall approach and strategy, we actively seek out and invest in promising young companies as growth engines. This investment represents another successful partnership with a startup that specializes in digital automation solutions for the benefit of our customers. We take pride in supporting and enabling promising companiestoflourishandachievetheirfullpotential.”

Ori Dangur, Spinframe’s CEO, said:“Thispastyear, Spinframe has grown significantly, and we are happy to see customers’ conviction in our technology. We believe that our unique all-encompassing solutions have the potential to significantly improve the automotive supply chainandthroughourcollaborationwithZIM,ourability to execute our strategy has been greatly enhanced. We are confident that with our investors’ trust and ZIM’s cooperation, we will continue to grow and deliver onthepotentialourtechnologyholds.”