Red Sea crisis dictates container fleet capacity trends

Photo: VesselFinder

As anticipated, containership deployment trends in the first half of 2024 have been dictated by the situation in the Red Sea. The initial increase in deployment on main lane routes ex-East Asia that started in January has continued unabated through the middle of June. Unsurprisingly, the Far East-Europe trades, especially the Far East-Mediterranean route, have seen by far the most significant net capacity injections since the crisis started in November 2023.

Since the end of November 2023, a little over 1.7m ...