Container carriers that belong to the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association trade group and six ports have announced the first united approach to meeting new international freight weight requirements that take effect July 1.

COPENHAGEN — Container shipping firms' annual costs have risen by a total $500 million due to new sulfur emissions regulations that have forced vessels to use higher-cost fuel, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in a May 19 report.

Truckers and shipper groups said they fear that a lack of awareness about new mandatory international container weighing rules could create havoc in the supply chain when they take effect July 1.

Triton Container International and TAL International Group have agreed to a merger, creating the world’s largest lessor of intermodal shipping containers with a combined fleet of nearly 5 million 20-foot equivalent units and revenue earning assets of $8.7 billion.

There is nothing glamorous about shipping containers. Their existence generally is one of sheer duty, hauling cargo from one point to another.

Container traffic at the Port of Long Beach, California, rose to the highest level on record in July but declined at the nearby Port of Los Angeles.

U.S. equipment manufacturer Stoughton Trailers said it has filed an unfair trade petition that charges Chinese manufacturers of 53-foot domestic containers with dumping their equipment at unreasonably low prices in the U.S. market.

Cia. Sud Americana de Vapores SA shareholders approved a proposed combination of its container shipping operations with Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd AG to create the world’s fourth-largest container line.

Container lessors spent $4 billion during 2010 to renew the box fleet and are expected to further increase spending the next two years, according to a new report from the Institute of International Container Lessors.