Western Europe

Iran's Foreign Minister said that the Strait of Hormuz was now open to all commercial vessels after a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. Quotes from world leaders and the shipping industry on the Iranian declaration. SHIPPING INDUSTRIES: HAPAG-LLOYD Insurance coverage, clear orders?of?the iranian government/military about the exact sea corridor to be used and the sequence of ships leaving) we would prefer to pass through as soon as possible. Insurance coverage, orders from the Iranian government/military regarding the exact sea route to be used, and the order of departure by ships) would make it easier for us to cross the strait. Our...

Iran's Foreign Minister said that the Strait of Hormuz was now open to all commercial vessels following an agreement in Lebanon on a ceasefire. The shipping industry and leaders from around the world have spoken out about the Iranian declaration. SHIPPING INDUSTRIES: MAERSK "We have?taken?note of the announcement. Our priority is the safety of our crews, vessels, and cargo. We have been following the advice of our regional security partners since the beginning of the conflict. The recommendation has so far been to avoid transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. "Any decision on whether to transit the strait is based...

Iran's Foreign Minister said that the Strait of Hormuz was now open to all commercial vessels after a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. The shipping industry and other world leaders have weighed in on the Iranian Declaration. SHIPPING INDUSTRIES: KNUT ARILD HARIDE, CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association "If this is a step in the right direction, then it is a positive development. The situation is still unresolved. There are many outstanding questions, such as those related to sea mines and the Iranian conditions. Before any transit can take place, these aspects must be clarified. SPOKESPERSON OF HAPAG-LLOYD SHIPMENT COMPANY "We're...

According to data from the shipping industry, copper exports in Democratic 'Republic of Congo dropped by 14.6% during the first quarter, after reaching a record high a year ago. Meanwhile, cobalt shipments recovered sharply following a long-term freeze. Congo is the largest cobalt producer in the world, accounting for 70% of the global reserves. It's also the second-largest copper supplier, which makes it an important pillar of the global supply chains of electric vehicles and clean energy transition. According to Access World data viewed by?Monday, it exported approximately 4.83 million metric tonnes of?copper in 2025 and 245,700 of cobalt. The...

MSC, the world's largest shipowner, announced on Monday that ownership of its company will be transferred to Gianluigi Aponte's two children by 2025. The Swiss-based firm said that the transfer of Diego and Alexa Apontes, respectively group president and chief finance officer, would provide 'continuity and stability over the long term in a major shift generational' at the privately-held company. The company announced that Italy-born Gianluigi Aponte will continue in his role as executive chair. He founded MSC in 1970 and turned it into a global shipping and logistics powerhouse. MSC will also focus on its core business, maritime freight...

Swisscom's Italian subsidiary Fastweb terminated a long-term contract on Wednesday with INWIT. This escalated a dispute with the top telecom towers provider in the country. Fastweb, who inherited the INWIT contract through its acquisition last year of Vodafone Italy, was pushing for a renegotiation, something that the tower company had refused to do. Fastweb announced last week that it would form a joint venture to build up 6,000 telecoms masts in Italy with Telecom Italia, INWIT's 'other main customer. Sources said that TIM will follow Fastweb in terminating its deal with INWIT. The decision is expected to be made at...

Data shows that air freight rates on some routes have risen up to 70% since the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran began. The conflict has caused flights to be restricted, ocean shipments blocked, and a rise in 'jet - fuel costs. Experts in the industry said that the Middle Eastern airspace restrictions and security concerns have had the greatest impact on the rates for routes between South Asia, and Europe. This is after more than 100 containers ships were stranded around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil export corridor. Swiss logistics group Kuehne+Nagel announced on Friday that global...

Data shows that air freight rates on some routes have risen up to 70% since the U.S./Israeli war against Iran began. The conflict has caused flights to be restricted, ocean shipments to be blocked, and jet fuel prices are on the rise. Experts say that the Middle Eastern airspace restrictions and security concerns have had the greatest impact on the rates for routes between South Asia and Europe. This is after more than 100 containers ships were stranded in the area surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil export corridor. Container ships are used to transport products like generic...

Here are some company news and stories that could have a significant impact on Thursday's market in France and Benelux. ID LOGISTICS SAS French logistics company?ID Logistics announced it?booked revenue worth $3.74?billion ($4.32?billion), slightly higher than the average estimate of 3.73 billion euro. Its operating income grew 12%, to 165.2 millions euros. The net profit grew 20%, to 63million euros. Manitou BF SA Manitou BF, a French manufacturer of material handling equipment, reported a full-year revenue of 2,56 billion euros in 2025 and 68?million euro net profit. The company proposed to pay a dividend per share of 0.75 euro. Due...

Ninety one increased its aluminium exposure in its Global Natural Resources Fund after Middle East?conflict caused the Strait of Hormuz to be closed, threatening the global supply of the metal. Around seven million metric tonnes of aluminium is smelted in the Middle East, which represents 9% of global production. George Cheveley who manages this fund with Paul Gooden and Dawid Heyl said, "We could lose an important amount of supply in a market which is already quite tight." "We were over-weight aluminum a week ago, and now we are even more so," said George Cheveley. Cheveley said in an interview...

Shipping company MSC announced on Saturday that it would implement a fuel surcharge for all cargo from the Mediterranean (including West Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea, East Mediterranean and Greece) and Black Sea, to the Indian Subcontinent, the Red Sea and East Africa. This will be effective March 16, 2019. The surcharge was set at $30 per twenty-foot equivalent unit for dry containers and $50 per TEU refrigerated containers from the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Red Sea. The world's largest ocean container carrier said that dry containers traveling from the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and East Africa would be charged at $60...

According to three manufacturers, shipments of clothing for Zara and Inditex, the owners of Inditex, and other major retailers, are stuck at airports in Bangladesh and India as the Middle East conflict forces airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways, to cancel flights. South Asia is the clothing manufacturing capital of the world. Fast fashion brands from around to world depend on Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan factories for their constant supply of T-shirts and dresses. "Some of my clothing consignments are stuck at Dhaka Airport," Shovon Islam, the managing director of Sparrow Group's manufacturer, said. Inditex, M&S Next, and Primark, among...

The Economy Ministry of Slovakia announced that Slovakia began receiving crude oil via the Druzhba Pipeline early on Thursday. This confirmed the end of the outage, which lasted for months after a Russian attack on the pipeline, according to Ukraine. The Economy Ministry announced that at 2 am (0000 GMT), the reception of oil into Slovakia via the Druzhba pipe was resumed. Since the halt of Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia, in January, the Druzhba?pipeline is one of Europe's most political pieces of?infrastructure. The oil flowing through the Ukrainian portion of the pipeline began on Wednesday. This prompted...

Two industry sources said that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium plans to export 1.8 million barrels of CPC Blend crude per day in May, up from 1.65 million barrels expected in April. This is because Kazakhstan will divert oil from Russia's Druzhba Pipeline Oil previously scheduled for Germany. Calculations show that May loadings will rise daily by?9% compared to April and reach a record for a number of months. Alexander Novak, Russia's deputy prime minister, said that from May 1, the Druzhba Pipeline will be diverted onto other routes. According to two sources, volumes rerouted out of?Druzhba are expected to enter...

In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian energy installations as the peace talks failed to progress. Here is a brief summary of the recent attacks and their impact. Two industry sources have confirmed that Rosneft’s Syzran refinery, owned by Rosneft, has suspended oil refining following drone attacks on 18 April which damaged processing equipment. The Syzran refinery can process around 170,000 barrels of oil per day, or 8.5 million tons per annum. According to industry sources, it processed 4.3 millions tons of crude oil in 2024 and produced 800,000 tonnes of gasoline, 1,5 million?tons diesel, and 700,000...

Norway announced on Wednesday that it will halt the 'allocation of power grid connections' to major industrial plants located in its Arctic region due to a 'capacity constraint caused by a burgeoning plan for new consumption from industries like data centres. Statnett, the national transmission grid operator, said that the temporary stop on processing new requests over a threshold of 5 megawatts (MW) applies to the area north of Svartisen near the city Bodoe. Statnett's Head of System Planning, Gunnar Lovaas said that "the electricity demand from Svartisen to the north will grow so rapidly in the coming years, the...

Germany's economy ministry said on Wednesday that it has been informed by the country's oil company that no crude oil from Kazakhstan will be able to reach the PCK Schwedt Refinery in the northeastern part of the country after May. It added that the production and sale of petroleum products would not be affected. On Tuesday, three industry sources told us that Russia will stop oil exports from Kazakhstan via the Druzhba Pipeline starting May 1. This would affect PCK directly as it is one of Germany's largest refineries and also supplies Berlin. The Ministry, which controls Schwedt through a?trusteeship,...

The 'energy minister' of Kazakhstan said that no Kazakh oil would be flowing via the 'Russian Druzhba Pipeline' to Germany in 'May'. He said this disruption was likely caused by Ukrainian drone attacks. Erlan Akkenzhenov, Minister of Erlan's Erlan, said that Russia has informally informed Kazakhstan that they do not have the technical capability to ship Kazakh oil into Germany and that exports will resume "once the capacity is restored." He didn't provide any more specific details. He said that the transit of Kazakh oil would resume as soon as the technical feasibility issue was resolved. Most likely, it is...

The European Commission revealed on Tuesday that a Chinese company, which was among those selected to build a new subway line in Lisbon, had received unfair foreign subsidies. This forced consortium leader Mota-Engil, to hire a Polish firm instead. The Commission issued a statement saying that the Metropolitano de Lisboa - which commissioned the Violet Line - was authorized to hire a consortium led by?Mota - Engil, provided the Chinese rolling stock maker Portugal CRRC - Tangshan is replaced with the Polish rival PESA. In late 2025, the Commission?began a thorough investigation that?found that the unit CRRC of the Chinese...

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that a Chinese company, which was chosen to build a new Lisbon metro line, received 'unfair' foreign subsidies. This forced the consortium leader Mota-Engil, to hire a Polish firm instead. In a statement, the European Commission stated that the Metropolitano de Lisboa commissioned the 'Violet Line' and was authorized to hire Mota-Engil led consortium provided they replaced the Chinese rolling stock maker CRRC Tangshan by the Polish competitor PESA. In a statement, the Commission said that it began an 'in-depth' investigation in?late 2025. It found that the unit of Chinese state owned CRRC had...

Spain's energy regulator and competition authority?said? on Friday that it had opened formal investigations into the country's biggest energy companies and power grid operator in relation to the unprecedented blackout last year which occurred in Spain and Portugal. Evidence was found of long-term violations of certain power sector regulations. The watchdog has opened investigations into the grid operator Red Electrica (a unit of Redeia) as well as the energy companies Iberdrola Naturgy Endesa Repsol. The watchdog also stated that it was investigating individual power stations. Iberdrola declined to make a comment. The other companies named did not immediately respond to...

Authorities?said?that all eight people aboard a helicopter died?when it crashed?in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province?as they tried to recover the bodies and wreckage. Mohammad Syafii said that the Airbus H130 helicopter had lost contact five minutes after it took off from a plantation in Melawi. The location of the crash, or the loss of contact, is in an area of dense?forested terrain with steep hills," Syafii stated. He added that'rescuers found debris believed to be the tail from the helicopter about 3 km (2 miles), west of the point where contact was lost. The cause of the crash is still unknown....

Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said that Germany would be willing to help secure transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities ended, provided they had a mandate from the United Nations and German parliament approval. Merz, speaking to reporters the day before the talks in Paris, said that they would also discuss whether U.S. forces could participate in a missions. It has led to a halt in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries about 20% of world oil and liquefied natural gas flows. The war has caused a halt to traffic through the Strait of...

Insurers told a London 'court' on Thursday that the Nord Stream pipelines in Ukraine were targeted by Russia as a 'direct result' of its invasion. They are trying to avoid paying nearly 580 millions euros ($684million) for blasts which hit the pipelines. Nord Stream has filed a lawsuit against Lloyd's and Arch Insurance for explosions that occurred in September 2022, which ruptured the pipelines transporting Russian gas from under the Baltic Sea into Germany. The explosions, for which no one has claimed responsibility, have largely cut off Russian gas supplies in Europe. This marks a significant escalation of the conflict....