The bullish container freight and charter markets continue to gain ground with carriers pushing for further rate hikes through May while demand for ships remain unabated. Over-capacity concerns are on the backburner with containership diversions to the Cape route effectively removing more than 7% of the total fleet. New tonnage requirements have shifted to the Mexico and Middle-East/Indian subcontinent markets, with 3 new services to Mexico launched in May alone by COSCO, CMA CGM and MSC while M
The charter market went into overdrive last week, with fixture activity, rates and periods all rising in tandem. Carriers’ tonnage demand is still not fully covered despite the high level of new ship deliveries as the surging freight market is supporting the rise in charter rates in all segments except for the 1,100 teu and smaller sizes. The composite charter index is up 10% YoY, with the larger sizes enjoying much higher increases. CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk and SeaLead were the most activ
The easter holidays and Ching Ming holidays has not dampened charterer interest, with charter rates are still rising over the past week. Open interest for prompt deliveries remain high especially for the larger sizes where availability is limited. Hede Shipping completed the charter of the 4 ships it needed for the newly launched Hede Direct Service connecting Shanghai and Los Angeles – the 3,426 BFAD ATLANTIC ($22,000 for 12 months), 1,809 teu ANDROKLIS ($15,750 for 6 months), 4,298 teu REN JI
Zim has confirmed the purchase of 5 ships of 8,400-10,000 teu ships in February that were previously chartered from NSC Schiffahrt by exercising a purchase option for a total consideration of $129m. It brings Zim’s total owned fleet to 14 units, compared to just one ship in 2020. Zim’s owned fleet comprises just 11% of its current operated fleet – still the lowest ratio of owned ships amongst the Top 12 carriers. The charter market continue to trend upwards with demand still strong across all s
Containership charter rates continued their rise with the Red Sea crisis still pushing up demand. Rates for larger ship are edging up at a faster pace with demand remaining high while supply is limited. Rates are 15-30% in the larger segments above 4,000 teu are 15-30% higher compared to a year ago, with charter periods lengthening to up to 3 years. Carriers are taking advantage of increased demand and high freight rates to the Red Sea region (including Aden, Jeddah and Djibouti) to add new ser
Charter rates have continued to firm, Linerlytica’s charter rate index has risen by 27% since the Red Sea diversions started in mid-December and current rates are 65% higher than the 2019 average. Despite of bearish earning guidance in its annual report, Maersk has been particularly active in the charter market over the last 4 weeks and have accounted for up to 1/3 of recent fixtures as charter rates continued to firm up with activity continuing to be high heading into the Chinese New Year. Cha
Demand for vessels remain strong ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays with charter rates continuing to firm up across all size sectors. COSCO has been particularly active in recent weeks, with renewals on existing charters while taking on additional fixtures including a few deals for delivery taking place only in the 2nd half of 2024. COSCO renewed 2 sets of 8,000 teu and 9,000 teu units from Seamax and Costamare respectively on firm rates for 2 years and have been linked to 2 more deals for 6
Charter rates continue to rally as carriers raise their tonnage demand in tandem with the rising freight rates on Red Sea and Suez routes which has also spilled over into the Transpacific routes last week. Activity is high across all size segments with clear rate gains across the board apart from the smaller ships below 1,300 teu that continued to weaken. Maersk took the 15,258 teu newbuilding ONE FOCUS, in a private deal with ONE for an unspecified period for deployment on the FE-USWC for its
Charter rates are seeing sharper drops with the start of the winter slack season further pushing down market sentiment while charter periods are also significantly shortened with more flexible delivery periods of 1-6 months being reported. Idle tonnage is starting to build up again but the pace of idling is still slower than last year, with most of the larger ships due to return to service by November. However, the build up of surplus tonnage is starting to bite with even MSC forced to idle
Charters rates are falling steadily with further declines expected over the coming weeks with vessel availability rising faster than the market can absorb. There are more than a dozen newbuildings of up to 3,000 teu scheduled for delivery in the coming 3 months that remain open for charter, putting further pressure on an already over-supplied market. Charter rates have slipped across all sizes including the larger sectors of over 4,000 teu where there is an increasing build up of surplus ships.