Stand by… The future of shipping is coming! A bold statement on the homepage of the short-lived Focus Container Line, which has become the latest new entrant into container shipping to run into financial difficulties.
Liquidators in Brisbane have been appointed this week to oversee the demise of the trans-Tasman liner, which launched a service connecting Ningbo in China with Australia and New Zealand just four months ago.
Its bankruptcy has left many containers stranded at ports in Australia and New Zealand. The company had two ships on charter and had leased 3,000 containers. The ships are the multipurpose BBC Denmark, currently at anchorage in Auckland, and the 1,700 teu San Giorgio, which is near Papua New Guinea en route to China.
The dramatic drop in earnings – combined with high charter costs – has seen a number of smaller liner operators pull back with the first financial casualty registered in the UK where an administrator was appointed in December to oversee the bankruptcy of Allseas Global Project Logistics, which had entered the Asia-Europe trades in the middle of 2021
Many new container entrants are hurting. China United Lines (CU Lines) gave notice two months ago for the early termination of the charter of 12 panamax ships that it deployed on routes to the US and Europe. CU Lines has slashed its capacity by more than a third over the past 12 months, according to data from Alphaliner.
