News / Collapsing Russian market and weaker euro blamed for peak season blues

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A flat peak season combined with continued freight rate volatility is likely to make for difficult contract renewal negotiations for Asia-North Europe container lines this year, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

The consultant said that recent capacity reductions, including last week’s announcement of the merging of two Ocean Three alliances strings into one, “may have stopped the worst of the rate haemorrhaging”, but argued the foundations for agreeing new annual deals with shippers, which traditionally run from January to December, were ...