#Ports&Shipping –The latest IMDO Weekly Shipping Market Review includes the following stories as detailed below.

Container Market: Reliability improves for first time this year - The reliability of container carrier lines improved for the first time this year in March, according to the latest Global Schedule Reliability report from SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. The report found that 72.3% of vessels arrived on time, up from February's 68.4%. Whilst March saw improvements, reliability is still considerably lower than last year's level of 82.8% for March.

Tanker Market: LNG fleet surpasses 400 mark - The Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) carrier fleet surpassed the 400 vessel mark for the first time mid-April. The global LNG carrier fleet has experienced a remarkable growth path since the first commercial cargo of LNG was delivered from Algeria to the UK almost 50 years ago, in October 1964.

Freight Modes: Air freight loses out to sea transportation - Sea transportation has been annually taking 100,000 TEU away from air freight for the last 10 years, according to a report published by transportation consultancy Seabury. The study found that 5.4m tonnes of cargo had shifted from air to sea transportation since 2000, with much of the shift attributable to the increasing standards of refrigeration technology aboard ships.

Regulation: IMO closes in on mandatory container weighting – The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) are said to be very close to amending the SOLAS convention to make it a mandatory requirement to verify the gross weight of containers before loading aboard a ship. The mis-declaration of container weights has been a concern to the maritime industry for some years, potentially contributing to a number of incidents.

For more on each of the above and other stories click the PDF downloadable of the IMDO Weekly Markets Review (Week 19).

In addition to coverage on Afloat.ie's dedicated Ports & Shipping News section.