News / Overcapacity fears evaporate as carriers hunt available tonnage

Photo: VesselFinder

Container carriers are scrambling to secure tonnage of various sizes, according to Braemar, as the escalating tension in the Middle East tightens global capacity in a market widely expected to slip into oversupply this year. 

The market consultancy’s analysts reported a noticeable acceleration in chartering activity over the past two weeks, driven largely by two major European carriers chasing tonnage across all segments, “trying to secure what little availability remains in the larger sizes”. 

“Which by now is extremely limited,” added Braemar, explaining that the surge in activity reflected both recovering seasonal demand and mounting geopolitical uncertainty. 

“Global container freight rates moved slightly higher this week, as Asian export activity slowly picks up again after the lunar new year break. At the same time, the rapidly escalating situation in the Middle East is adding a new layer of uncertainty and potential volatility to the market,” its report today says.  

“With the past two weeks already showing a clear pick-up in activity, this week seems to have moved another step higher.” 

According to Braemar, the 4,400 teu SCI Chennai was secured on a four-to-five-month charter by CMA CGM at $45,000 a day, while Maersk extended its charter on the Gulf Barakah from late 2026 for three years at a reported $36,000 a day. 

The 3,534 teu Wadi Duka has been fixed by CMA CGM for 30–33 months at $30,250 a day, with sister Spil Caya on a 30-34-month charter with Maersk at the same price. Braemar sources indicated that “a slightly higher benchmark may be tested”, though details remain unclear for now. 

Maersk has also extended the 1,577 teu Marina Sapphire for 22–24 months at $22,000 a day for its Far East service, while CMA CGM extended the 966 teu Medkon Sun for a further nine-12 months at $15,000 a day, “broadly in line with the previous fixture”.  

The tightening conditions mark a sharp shift from expectations early in the year that the delivery of newbuild vessels would begin to push the container sector into overcapacity. Instead, renewed disruption in the Middle East is again squeezing effective supply, as longer voyage routings remove ships from the market for extended periods. 

Braemar underscored: “If Asian export volumes keep recovering while energy prices move higher, the recent uptick in freight rates may well be the first signal of another volatile phase for global shipping.” 

Stephen Dyke, director of strategic solutions at FourKites, said the impact would be felt across global tradelanes, even for cargo that never passes through the affected region. 

“Even if none of a shipper’s freight touches the Strait of Hormuz, they’re competing for space on a global vessel network that just got significantly tighter,” he explained. 

“Ships spending an extra two weeks rounding the Cape of Good Hope are ships that aren’t available for shippers’ next bookings out of Shanghai or Ho Chi Minh City. We expect transit times on transpacific and Asia-to-Europe lanes to start creeping up within the next week or two, and we’ll be watching our platform data closely to see how fast that shows up.” 

He noted that this had left shippers “absorbing a second shock before the first one fully healed”, explaining: “The global container network never fully recovered from the Red Sea diversions. Carriers had just started moving services back through Suez, and that capacity was about to come back into the market. Now it’s gone again, and you’ve added Hormuz on top of it.” 

And he warned that for US importers, booking availability and lead times on Asia-origin lanes over the next two to four weeks could be impacted.  

He explained: “A lot of US east coast-bound cargo from Asia routes through Suez. If that option stays offline, some of that freight shifts to transpacific routings through west coast ports, and you start to see congestion build in ports like LA/Long Beach that have nothing to do with the Middle East.”