Total 194 Posts
The soft freight market is starting to drag down charter rates but a major correction is not on the cards given the limited availability of open tonnage until early next year. Carriers remain very keen to lock in ships especially in the panamax and larger segments, with several fixtures for charters commencing only in 2023 have already been signed with periods stretching for up to 5 years. Second hand transactions remain brisk, with purchaser interest remaining very strong with asking prices c
Projected throughput growth for Linerlytica’s global port sample that accounts for over 75% of global container handling volumes is expected to show a marginal increase of just 0.3% during the first half of 2022. Chinese ports remain largely resilient despite the COVID related lockdowns, with first half growth estimated at 2.4%. A more detailed analysis of the Chinese volumes will be added next week when the final port numbers for June are confirmed. North American ports also performed strong
Freight rates remain under pressure with the SCFI falling to a 12 month low. The Transpacific rates continue to soften with spot rates to the US West Coast expected to breach the $6,000/teu level within the next few weeks while rates from Asia to North Europe has dropped below the $9,000/feu level. Demand has failed to pick up with the summer peak season demand turning out to be much weaker than expected. Although port congestion is creeping up in Europe and North America, overall capacity dep
Average FE-WCNA capacity over the last 13 weeks stands at 314,332 teu, which is 4.9% lower than the same period last year while the average FE-ECNA capacity during the same period was up 18% YoY.
Charter rates are still holding up well due to the lack of open tonnage driven in no small part by MSC’s raid on the resale market.
MSC is pulling further ahead from Maersk. CMA CGM and Evergreen also gaining market share.
Freight rates remain under pressure with peak season volumes yet to materialise. Rates are expected to remain soft until the end of July when carriers will try to push for a new round of rate increases.
Capacity utilization has not collapsed as suggested by Freightwaves but the average utilization has trended lower than usual seasonal patterns, partly due to the increased capacity available.
overall capacity on transpacific routes have increased materially in the past week and has outpaced demand as some carriers are offering rates below $7,000/feu to the West Coast
The alarmist reports of catastrophic demand drop are unwarranted. The recent weakness in smaller transpacific NVOCC bookings only reflect volume shifts as BCOs are able to book directly. Anyhow, demand has not picked up sufficiently...