News / Containership charter market feels the ripples from trade tensions

Photo: VesselFinder

The charter market for containerships is diverging in response to the many pressures on supply chains, despite having shown surprising resilience to geopolitical events in the past.

Rates for ships larger than 5,000 teu are showing correction, due to uncertainty over US-China trade tensions.

Clarksons’ latest weekly report indicates current rates for a 6,500 teu vessel are averaging $72,000 a day, down from $73,438 last month.

“Easing rates have been seen in the larger sizes for short-period transactions, with reports of instability surrounding the confirmation of deals at board level,” the UK shipbroker said.

Brokers’ reports do not show any charters concluded for ships larger than 5,000 teu in the past week, although there has been talk of off-market transactions and re-lets.

MB Shipbrokers said: “We still note a general reluctance from the major liner operators to fix anything that is not deemed urgent or really needed.

“Tariffs are still to blame, and until the issues are solved, either by negotiations or through the US reversing its own unfortunate decisions, we expect most will focus on optimising their networks as best they can.”

The Danish brokerage reported no new fixtures in the post-panamax segment in the past week, but added: “There were rumours of a couple of additional vessels extended for shorter periods, although unconfirmed.

“Tonnage providers with vessels coming open in the second half of the year are still holding out for last-done/market level, and this appears not to be obtainable right now. We don’t expect much development in this segment in the coming weeks,” MB added.

However, charter rates for feeder vessels are holding up, as this segment is largely immune to the US-China tariff war, being propped up by healthy demand on intra-Asia and regional routes.

In addition, ships below 4,000 teu capacity are expected to be given an exemption to the US Trade Representative’s China ship fee, proposed under its 301 action.

And, according to Clarksons, ships of between 1,000 and 4,250 teu are achieving charter rates better than in the first four months of the year.

Indeed, Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have been actively fixing ships in this range to support their intra-Asia shuttle operations.

Maersk chartered Quanzhou Ansheng Shipping’s 4,395 teu Ren Jian 15 for $37,000 a day for 30-33 months and Leonhardt & Blumberg’s 3,534 teu Hansa Africa for $27,750 a day for two years.

And OOCL was reported to have chartered the 2,554 teu ALS Vesta and the 2,708 teu Buxmelody for $25,000 a day, for 30 months and two years, respectively.