Where will the freighters go as capacity shifts from tariff-hit China-US lane?
Cargo airlines are scrabbling to find new markets as capacity becomes available following the end ...
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By Mike Wackett
Ocean carriers should have cancelled more Asia-North Europe voyages in February to compensate for the post-Chinese New Year lull, according to the latest research from shipping consultant Drewry.
In its weekly Container Insight, Drewry says that after the “exceptional cargo boom” of the final month of 2013 and the first few weeks of 2014 – ahead of the earlier-than-usual holiday shutdown from 31 January – carriers serving the overcapacity-plagued trade ought to have blanked more sailings to underpin the high utilisation-induced ...
Comment on this article
Jonathan Paul Roach
March 18, 2014 at 4:13 pmWith the Chinese New Year falling at beginning of February this year, the expected February container liftings dip in China produced a month on month decline of about 25 per cent compared to January. On the plus side, February 2013 saw Chinese container liftings increase approximately 4 per cent year on year.
Considering the fact that nearly 50 container newbuilding vessels of 10,000TEU capacity or more have been delivered since Jan 1 2013, adding 652,000TEU to this sector of the fleet, increasing the fleet sector by 30% in terms of TEU capacity. The ocean carriers have done reasonably well to keep spot rates at an average of US$1,100/TEU since the beginning of 2013.
It is a pretty good performance as we approach the April 1 GRIs.
Mike Wackett
March 19, 2014 at 8:44 amHi Jonathan,
There is general agreement that the carriers did a good job [from their perspective] in December & January in squeezing capacity prior to the CNY.
However, they should have done more in February to reduce supply, especially with March GRIs on the horizon.
Easier said than done I know, especially given the flood of newbuilds!
They now need to keep their nerve, and particularly their discipline, if the April rate restorations are to hold.
Ricky Forman
March 20, 2014 at 1:53 pmHi Jonathan,
Are you aware that Carriers can mitigate this spot rate risk by selling Container Forward Freight Agreements?