Weekly Ocean Operations Update: Asia to Europe, US and Australia 23/08/24

General overview: 

The FEWB ocean freight market has stabilised, and rates are slowly decreasing. Carriers are still concerned about vessels being routed via the cape and the fact that this involves more vessels to run the service, and the higher costs with longer routing.

Plans for the Gemini Cooperation are still ongoing and we will update you further when there’s more information to share. MSC may be preparing to blank the new service Britannia which was launched in early July due to the market situation, but there is no formal announcement on this yet.

MSC continues to grow capacity with higher percentage of new vessel deployments planned next year.

Meanwhile in the India Subcontinent pressure in the market is still problematic. Weather in Bangladesh severely impacted port operations this week as well as slowing traffic to and from the port significantly. In India, port workers have announced an indefinite strike starting on August 28. However the main ports for Ligentia sailings (Nhava Sheva, Chennai/ Kaatupalli and Mundra) are all privatised ports, which will not be effected by this industrial action. Calcutta is a unionised port, but we have contingency plans in place to truck effected shipments to Nhava Sheva. There’s a separate strike which may impact Nhava Sheva on September 9, but we don’t believe this will impact the port for longer than a day or two.

Overview by trade lane

FEWB summary:

Rate and capacity update as of August 23, 2024:

Oceania summary:

Rate and capacity update as of August 23, 2024:

Transpacific summary:

Rate and capacity update as of August 23, 2024:

Equipment update by carrier

Correct at time of publication on August 23, 2024:

Click here to download equipment spreadsheet

 Asia port updates

Market intel: EU

• Hapag Lloyd confirms it is ‘slightly ahead of schedule’ in preparation for the Gemini cooperation. The transition from THE Alliance to Gemini is expected to take around 3 months, beginning ahead of the 1 February official start date and ending towards the end of the first quarter. (Source: Alphaliner)
• The Far East – North Europe ‘FE4’ loop of THE Alliance will in October resume calls at Colombo on the westbound leg. The port in Sri Lanka was added to the rotation in November 2023, but was systematically skipped as from May 2024. (Source: Alphaliner)

Market intel: Oceania

• Port of Melbourne reports July throughput surge to 282,000 TEUs
• 2.8% increase for full container imports compared to the previous years with higher volumes of furniture, domestic appliances and clothing
• 14.1% increase for full container exports also, with timber, hay, chaff & fodder, cotton, and meats exceeding last year’s volumes
• Bass Strait with 7.8% increase as well, but Empty container movement and full container transshipment has dropped 1.6% & 29.8% separately compared to last year’s volumes

(Source: Container News)

Market intel: USA

• Canadian Railway traffic expected to resume Canadian National workers are expected to return to work on Friday following intervention by Canada’s government. (Sources: CBC / Reuters)
• Extra loader: CMA implement extra loader for USWC MH PEGASUS 0WF0XE1MA, 7000teus vessel and ETD 9-SEPT Routing Ningbo > Shanghai > Yantian > Los Angeles (Sources: CMA)