Hapag-Lloyd has announced rate increases of 21% to 23% for North Europe to South America East Coast (SAEC) routes. That comes against the backdrop of wider rate increases across the industry as the container-lines seek to recover higher costs. Hapag-Lloyd’s pricing power on lanes into Brazil may also be helped by the high degree of consolidation following its tie up with CSAV and Maersk’s purchase of Hamburg Sud. The top three shippers (including Maersk’s 2M Partner MSC) accounted for 86% of Europe-Brazil containerized traffic in the past 12 months, up from 66% in the same period three y...