SINGAPORE’s APL, the world’s sixth largest carrier, has announced it will increase the freight rates US$50 per TEU and $100 per FEU for sailings from India to Mediterranean with effect from February 1. This follows some other carriers’ moves to increase rates on the India-Europe trade, which includes CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Zim and Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). Also, APL will levy a peak-season surcharge of $100 per TEU and…

The consortium of the Singapore-based terminal operator PSA and India’s ABG Ports, awarded contracts to build a fourth terminal in Mumbai last August, have refused to pay a INR500 million (US$9.9 million) provincial state stamp duty insisting that the port authority, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust JNPT pay it instead. “We were not informed in advance and not communicated clearly that we have to bear the stamp duty expenses,” a…