News / Container shipping can see ‘green shoots’ of freight demand recovery

27/03/2023

Some liner services are reported to have full ships again, container spot rates have stabilised, the charter market is bullish and ocean carriers are back at shipyards ordering new tonnage.

It seems the week has started positively for carriers and shipowners, with ’green shoots’ of a recovery starting to emerge.

Today’s Ningbo Containerized Freight Index (NCFI) commentary reports that during the past week, container spot rates increased on 15 of the 21 export routes it tracks from the Chinese port.

For instance, on ...

Comment on this article

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Andy Dennis
March 28, 2023 at 7:03 am
Your article 5 days before referred to Maersk having 29 ships idle, MSC 13 etc. Not sure how we got from that to ‘a return in demand across all networks’ and needing to secure more tonnage so quickly?.

Surely full ships is due to a reduction in supply rather than increased demand.

Log in to Reply
- Mike Wackett
  March 28, 2023 at 9:44 am
  Hi Andy,
  Many thanks for your comment.
  For the past few weeks we have seen a bullish charter market which seemed to be a disconnect with the freight market.
  However, several pieces of data we received yesterday suggested that there was indeed a demand recovery – not necessarily on the major tradelanes but on the secondary trades.
  It really is a delicate balance for the carriers and the previous article also referred to the different strategies of the lines.
  Time will tell if those ‘green shoots’ blossom in the Spring!
  
  Best
  Mike
  
  Log in to Reply