Shippers breathe sigh of relief as strike threats fade while Africa gets new visibility

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Shippers on both sides of the Atlantic were delivered heartening new year news as 2013 got underway. Not only was the imminent threat of a dockers’ strike on the US east and Gulf coasts put into abeyance, but in Europe striking dockers in Portugal finally and fully returned to work.

Shipping lines serving Portugal’s largest container gateway of Lisbon have resumed services to the port. Hapag Lloyd will re-launch an eastbound call at Lisbon next week on its Med-Canada service, which ...