News / Weak demand and overcapacity adding to carrier Red Sea stress

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Despite the considerable disruption to container shipping caused by the Red Sea crisis, consumer demand remains weak and, at the same time, the liner industry is heavily oversupplied with capacity.

Indeed, analysts believe the huge spikes in east-west spot rates since December have been driven, for the most part, by fears there could be a return to the pandemic supply chain crunch that choked the liner industry in 2021 and early 2022.

“There is ample room to cover disruption such as this,” ...