Santa’s News in Brief

HERE IS a short summary of news Santa’s helpers delivered ahead of his Big Night and Day.

Freo industrial action called off

Threatened industrial action that would have affected a wide range of services in the port of Fremantle from Boxing Day onwards, has been called off. The MUA earlier this week said it was tired of Fremantle Ports’ reluctance to reach new enterprise agreements after nine months of negotiations and would introduce various bans and protest actions. However, last evening [23 December] Fremantle Ports said that following discussions the pending industrial action had been withdrawn.

COSCO Shipping upgrades CAP service

COSCO Shipping will deploy a third vessel, the 1,730 TEU X-Press Dhaulagiri, on its CAP service, to provide increased capacity and enhanced fortnightly frequency covering South China, Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. The first upgraded voyage commences 4 January 2026, on the rotation of Yangpu (Xiao Chan Tan)- Hong Kong – Nansha- Ningbo -Townsville – Brisbane – Lae – Port Moresby – Darwin. X-Press Dhaulagiri joins the similar-sized Celandine and ESL Winner.

PoM releases final future plan

The Port of Melbourne has now published its Final 2055 Port Development Strategy, now published on the website. The PDS is the port’s 30-year roadmap for its future development to cater to Victoria’s growing needs, and endeavours to balance the many different views on how the port should be developed. The final Stakeholder Engagement Summary is now also available on the PoM website. “We will formally evaluate our 2055 PDS engagement program in 2026. However, if you participated in our engagement activities and wish to provide feedback before then, please email pds@portofmelbourne.com, PoM head of planning, Andrew Varga, said.

Lines fighting rates collapse

With Asia-Australia rates in the market showing a perhaps-unexpected decline in the post-Christmas period and lead-up to Chinese NewYear, carriers are announcing a series of GRIs, PSSs and rate recovery efforts after recent announcements failed to take hold, sources say. ANL, MSC, COSCO, OOCL and more have posted advisories of increases, variously applying 1 January, 15 January and 1 February and covering shipments from N&E Asia, SE Asia, the ISC and Middle East to Australia and NZ. Most increases are in the quantum of USD 300-500/TEU and 600-1,000/FEU for dry and reefer shipments. A number of surcharge revisions have also been announced. Shippers should consult carrier websites.

NZ authority halts Buffalo sackings

New Zealand’s Employment Relations Authority has granted an interim injunction preventing cement company Holcim from making six seafarers on the to-be-retired coastal carrier Buffalo redundant this week. The ERA responded to a multi-union application claiming Holcim failed to properly consult over the redundancy of 32 Kiwi seafarers after the NZ Government refused Holcim and NACC permission to introduce a foreign-crewed replacement vessel. The ERA determined the six representative redundancies be halted “until further order of the Authority”. Holcim NZ said it will shift cement distribution to road transport. Unions have welcomed the ERA decision.

Another extension for Wallenius Wilhelmsen

Wallenius Wilhelmsen has extended its supply chain solutions contract with a leading heavy equipment manufacturer for an additional five years. As part of this contract, Wallenius Wilhelmsen will deliver supply chain management and freight forwarding services in several countries in Europe. The contract extension is valued at approximately USD 150 million and commenced this quarter.

DHL, CMA CGM in new green pact

DHL Global Forwarding and CMA CGM have agreed to jointly use 8,990 metric tons of UCOME second-generation biofuel, enabling an estimated 25,000 metric tons of CO₂e well-to-wake emission reduction for ocean freight transported under DHL’s GoGreen Plus service. This meshes with CMA CGM’s ACT+, its range of low-carbon transport solutions that enables customers to reduce the carbon footprint of their shipments by 10%, 25%, 50% or up to 83%, through the use of low-carbon fuels such as second-generation biofuels, and to complement these reductions through carbon offsetting solutions.