News / Containership owners still making money, despite the downturn

© Razvan Ionut Dragomirescu

There remains a significant disconnect between ocean freight rates and the containership charter market.

Although box ship owners are not achieving the sky-high hire rates and lengthy time charters of 18 months ago, demand for tonnage is healthy and daily rates continue to exceed vessel operating costs, thus extending ship working life cycles and deferring scrapping options.

While freight rates on many tradelanes have collapsed to record lows, daily hire rates for chartered tonnage have stabilised at above pre-pandemic levels – and ...