News / With demand on the increase, intra-Asia is liner shipping's star performer

Intra-Asian trades continue to offer something of a bright spot in an otherwise downbeat liner shipping market, with indications of heightened demand over the remainder of the year.

Reporting on a slew of first-half regional container line results, The Loadstar yesterday noted that the intra-Asian trade had proved most resilient to the Trump-driven tariff chaos that has already defined the global economic landscape for 2025.

Some 22 services have been added in the region since January, with ONE the only liner to have axed a service in the first eight months.

Now, Linerlytica reports that newcomer Brunei-based Warisan Shipping Line (WSL) has launched its 23rd offering, the Singapore Express Service, running 12-day Singapore-Muara-Kota Kinabalu-Singapore rotations using vessels in the 1,100 teu ballpark.

The carrier said it had been founded in March “to support Asean’s growing demand for reliable and flexible maritime logistics”.

It added: “Focused on enhancing regional integration, WSL delivers shortsea container services that improve transhipment connectivity, reduce turnaround times, and strengthen cargo movement across key Asean corridors.”

If DHL’s latest Ocean Freight Market Update is anything to go by, those adding capacity into the region look set to be on for something of a sure thing. Per the report, demand has exceeded capacity in four out of the first eight months of the year, with demand and capacity balanced during the first three months of President Trump’s return to office and during August, as the new tariff regime took effect.

But, with expectations of an upcoming seasonally driven spike in demand, the report expects intra-Asian capacity to be hard to come by this month and next.

Nor does it appear that this volume growth will be short-lived, with DHL expecting intra-Asian volumes to hit 42.7m teu annually by 2028, representing an uptick of 3.8% over the next three years, ahead of the 3.3% global growth rate.

Compared with last year, however, that upturn looks less impressive, with Dimerco’s Asia-Pacific Freight Report pointing to a year-on-year decline of 9%.

Even so, excluding Singapore and Vietnam, Dimerco claims intra-Asian trades are either in the process of picking up – albeit with current capacity meeting demand – or, in the case of Malaysia’s intra-Asia activity, is in need of additional capacity to meet demand.

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