News / Capacity shortage on intra-Asia pushing up rates and manufacturing costs

Reduced container shipping capacity on intra-Asia tradelanes has led to fewer sailings, higher rates and increased manufacturing costs.

As The Loadstar reported yesterday, shipping lines have deployed as much capacity as possible on the more-lucrative transpacific and Asia-Europe trades, leaving intra-Asia capacity down 11% and with 331,000 fewer slots than in 2020.

Naturally, this has had an impact on freight rates. According to Xeneta, in the first half of January, spot rates from the main Chinese ports to the main Japanese and ...