Market Pulse 2026 Week 17

Container freight rates have stabilized since the initial Iran war rate surge, with current gains largely coming higher bunker surcharges. Vessel capacity has adjusted rapidly with no space shortages reported and port congestion have been largely limited to Indian subcontinent and Arabian Sea ports. MSC only managed to evacuate 4 ships from the Gulf on 18 April with 2 more ships detained by Iran. Although the Hormuz remains effectively shut, 3 non-Iranian containerships made their passage out over the past week, including Hapag-Lloyd’s 4,253 teu TEMA EXPRESS, along with the 4,350 teu GFS GENESIS and 1,831 teu CSTAR VOYAGER.

CMA CGM has ratcheted up their Suez deployment, with its new Asia-North Europe OCR service and ISC-North Europe EPIC service returning to the Suez this week, in addition to 2 existing Asia-Med services that were already using the shorter route. With bunker costs and charter rates remaining elevated, the cost savings as well as the lucrative Red Sea cargo opportunities could trigger some of its rivals to reconsider an earlier return to the Suez, setting the stage for a fresh rate war.

Global container cargo volumes remain resilient in 1st Quarter
Containerised cargo volumes weathered the Middle East storm relatively unscathed in the 1st quarter of 2026, with total throughput at the Top 20 ports growing by 4%, led by strong growth at Chinese ports which account for half of the ports in the list. Ningbo overtook Singapore to rise to 2nd place for the first time, with volumes growing by 14.7% during the first 3 months of 2026. Dubai suffered a 30.5% fall in container volumes as vessel traffic was effectively halted in March due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while Los Angeles/Long Beach volumes also declined by 5.2% due to the negative impact of the Trump tariffs. Port Klang rose by 1 spot to reach number 10, while Tanjung Pelepas rose by 2 spots to follow at number 11 as the 2 Malaysian ports rode on strong regional cargo demand to hit new handling records.