News / Red Sea jitters drive demand in an already stressed charter market

Photo: VesselFinder

Charter demand is soaring for containerships that can ply the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf as liner operators begin to plan for alternative routes to the Persian Gulf.

“We have seen a pick-up in fixtures of short period re-let tonnage, available Indian subcontinent/South-east Asia region,” MB Shipbrokers said.

Maersk Line and CMA CGM have been the most active charterers after shelving plans to resume Suez Canal transits.

“Maersk in particular is still critically short of tonnage since its planned return to the Suez route is on hold,” analysts at Linerlytica said.

The carrier’s decision to launch a new AE19 service on the extended Far East-Med-Red Sea route, via the Cape of Good Hope, will take up 16 ships, double the number used by other Far East-Red Sea operators that are sailing via the Bab-el-Mandeb Straits despite the risks of the Iran crisis.

As The Loadstar reported yesterday, Jeddah is quickly emerging as the preferred gateway with landbridge connections to the eastern Gulf region.

Linerlytica added: “Maersk’s tonnage requirements will keep the charter market busy in the coming weeks, with the demand spread across all sizes.”

Maersk has taken Medkon Lines’ 966 teu Medkon Fun, which is now in the Mediterranean, for $15,750 a day, for 10 to 13 months, and has also fixed Marlow Group’s 1,296 teu Varamo, which is now off Argentina, for $20,000 a day, for 18 to 20 months.

CMA CGM has fixed Greek owner Victoria Oceanway’s 1,620 teu Bangkok on private terms, for a year. The ship is now in Indonesian waters and was previously chartered by Samudera. The French line has also chartered Eastern Mediterranean’s 1,714 teu Santa Loukia, currently off Sri Lanka, for $30,000 a day for a year.

Alphaliner estimates that, as of 9 March, at least 73 containerships, or close to 400,000 teu, have diverted or sheltered due to the conflict.

Linerlytica stressed that surging marine fuel prices would heighten demand for modern, fuel-efficient vessels, as the very low-sulphur fuel oil price in the bunkering hub of Singapore passed $1,100 a tonne for the first time since 2023.

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