Below you’ll find 5 top news stories happening in international shipping right now. No, I’m not going to rank them or do a top ten countdown blog today. Instead, you can think of this as a choose your own adventure blog.

You can scroll through the headlines and get a gist of what’s happening from the summaries below them. Then you can choose links that expand on or are related to the stories, if you choose.

You can read the stories that interest or affect you most. If you’re very inquisitive, you can read everything. If you’re short on time, just scroll through and get an overview. Any way you choose to go, you’ll have a pretty good picture of the international shipping landscape.

Okay, your international shipping choose your own adventure (or headline) blog begins now.

K-Line Pleads Guilty to Price Fixing

Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line) pleaded guilty to price fixing on shipments to and from the U.S. K-Line will be fined 67.7 million dollars.

K-Line is not the only carrier who has been investigated for price fixing of late (or even the only one that has pleaded guilty). In fact, pretty much all of the major carriers have been under investigation.

For more, you can check out:

Holy Cargo Collusion, Batman–Shipping Companies Under Investigation!

Ebola Creates Shipping Delays

Ebola has not been spread through international shipping. To make sure it stays that way, preventative measures are being taken that include health screenings, quarantines, and schedule changes. That all adds up to shipping delays.
On top of delays, carriers have also implemented Ebola Inspection Fees on certain shipments that go through ports of countries dealing with breakouts of the virus.

Still, worse than any delays or fees caused by Ebola is the fact that more than four and a half thousand people have died worldwide from this breakout that has infected what is now approaching 10,000 people.

For details on how Ebola is affecting shipping, you can read this article from the Journal of Commerce (JOC):

Ebola impact: Shipping delays, health screenings, preventive measures

We also posted a blog on Ebola and international shipping a short time ago:

Ebola & International Shipping

Congestion Plagues the Ports of L.A. & Long Beach

This is a story we’ve been covering in depth. Congestion at the United States’ two largest ports by volume has been significantly delaying shipments and costing shippers money.

The Port of Long Beach made moves to acquire more chassis–the lack thereof being a major cause of the congestion–in an attempt to get the situation under control.

Read all about the port congestion problem in the below blogs/articles:

Congestion at Ports of L. A. & Long Beach Getting Worse, Not Better

5 Factors Causing Congestion at the Ports of L.A. and Long Beach

Port of Long Beach Getting Chassis to Alleviate Congestion

Ports of New York & New Jersey Prep “Winter Plan” to Prevent Gridlock Déjà Vu

Speaking of port congestion, last winter’s severe weather caused complete gridlock at ports. To keep that from happening again, the Ports of New York and New Jersey are trying to provide shippers with consistency and predictability no matter how bad winter gets this year.

The way the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is planning on doing that is by releasing a “winter plan” they’re working on.

Here’s a JOC article where you can read more about it:

NY-NJ port prepares ‘winter plan’ to avoid gridlock repeat.

IMO Sulphur Regulations Create Business Opportunity

The International Maritime Organization has decreed that by January 1st, sulphur content in fuels used on ships in Emission Control Areas (ECA) must be reduced by 90%.
This means an increase in shipping prices as the cost of sulphur reduced fuel is significantly higher than the fuel currently being used. However, this also presents a great deal of business opportunities.

As the international shipping industry moves toward getting greener, companies that specialize in clean shipping technology present opportunities for investors to make money during increasing M&A (mergers & acquisitions) activities.

Not only is technology moving toward greener fuels, but it’s also moving toward carbon neutral propulsion systems based on energy storage, solar power, and wind propulsion systems. Um, yeah, that last one is a really fancy way to say sails.

That’s right, sails are coming back and there’s a lot of money to be made in making the world of international shipping greener.

For more information, here’s a great Forbes article:

Greening Of The Maritime Shipping Industry Is Cultivating Growth, M&A Opportunities

Here’s one of our own articles on how sulphur regulations will be affecting shippers:

Sulphur Regulations to Increase Shipping Prices

And since sailing made its way in here, here are a couple of interesting blogs on international shipping and sailing:

Could Sailing Ships Come Back in the International Shipping Industry?

International Shipping & The Great Tea Race of 1866