Port congestion is reaching serious levels with over 50% of vessels delayed at Asia’s busiest container ports according to analysts Sea Intelligence. Looking at the region’s largest ports in July just 21% of vessels berthed on time in Shanghai, schedule reliability in Ningbo dropped to 34.6%, and in Singapore it sat at 43.2%.    The battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz between the Iran and the US continues to escalate with the Iranians striking multiple tankers in the waterway including a Bahri VLCC Sidr resulting in the death of two Filipino crew and a Sinokor VLCC Senegal Prosperity being abandoned.

Meanwhile US forces retaliated on attacks against two of its warships by disabling two Iranian tankers and completely destroying a third. In the US electronics giant Samsung is seeking at least $186 million from CMA CGM over inland delivery failures between 2020 and 2023.    The compliant filed with the Federal Maritime Commission alleges widespread violations of the US Shipping Act including unjust and unreasonable practices regarding inland transportation, demurrage and detention billing, and cargo release policies.