Container volumes from Asia to Europe continued their strong growth in April, with the sub-routes to the Western Mediterranean and North Africa showing the largest volume increases of 6%.

The latest Container Trade Statistics figures as reported by Lloyds List show that overall Asia- Europe volumes increased in April 5.2% year-on-year to 1.2m teu, meaning that for the first four months of the year, volumes have increase 5.8% year-on-year to reach 4.7m teu, the Review reads.

The dry bulk market continues to struggle with its overall lackluster performance. The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) remained hovering below the 1,000 point mark last week, as the index declined 96 points across the week to finish at 906. All sub-segments saw declines, with the Capesize market losing part of the momentum it had developed over the previous week. Despite this, according to Fearnley’s latest weekly report, it was a positive week for large vessels, mainly due to increased Atlantic volumes, a major miner taking several ships for front hauls and iron ore deliveries defying worries over record high inventories.

The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change has approved the development of East Anglia ONE Offshore wind farm off 43km from the Suffolk Coast.

With an installed capacity of 1,200MW, the offshore wind farm will feature 240 wind turbine generators and associated infrastructure. The project is a 50-50 joint venture between Sweden's state-owned utility Vattenfall and Scottish Power Renewables, a unit of Spanish energy firm Iberdrola.

Expected to provide almost 2,900 jobs, the wind farm is likely to cost £10m a year to the East Anglian economy and generate enough electricity to power approximately 820,000 homes. Scheduled to commence construction in 2017, the project is slated to begin generating electricity from 2019.

Greece and China have signed multiple trade and investment agreements in areas including shipping and energy worth approximately $4.6 billion, according to the Greek Development Ministry.

The deals, among others, include multi-billion-dollar Chinese bank loans to build at least ten Greek-owned ships in Chinese shipyards.These investments might herald a new era for the Greek slumping economy, and blaze the path for future investors.

China is said to have already set sights on a few potential investment opportunities, namely a 67% stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, which is to be privatized as part of Greek government’s shipping revitalization plan. Chinese shipping company COSCO, already a familiar name in the Greek shipping market, is rumoured to be favoured for this deal.

A number of other Greek ports, including the second largest Port of Thessaloniki, await privatization under a state asset programme mandated under the country’s EU-IMF debt rescue.