News / Charterers take back market control as containership hire rates collapse

© Valeriy Kachaev

The containership charter market bubble appears to have burst, according to MSI’s Horizon report for September.

“Container markets have finally ceased to walk on air, as both freight and time-charter markets have seen steep declines over the past month,” it notes.

It says the significant declines in spot freight rates had “started to be mirrored in time-charter rates in quite spectacular fashion”, with benchmark rates for some vessel sizes collapsing by 60% last month.

“We anticipate charter rates to keep declining as spot rates ...