Week 38. Ocean Freight Update

Q4 2020 is shaping up to be a challenging period for ocean freight; the industry is facing three major issues

Space

Alphaliner is reporting utilisation is +100% and carriers are taking a cautious approach to capacity management, blank sailings are to be expected in October and 2M and THE alliance have withdrawn capacity.

According to eeSea data, at the peak of the Covid lockdown demand slump in May, carriers withdrew 19% of sailings from Asia on the transpacific and cancelled 28% of their scheduled departures to Europe. Over booking in North China is resulting in short notice reductions on space availability in the South.

Equipment

Many carriers are suffering equipment shortages, we expect this to continue for the rest of the year as containers are re positioned from US to EU back to Asia. 

Bad weather in Asia is affecting schedules with carriers omitting port calls and exacerbating the shortage by not dropping off empties

Congestion

Consecutive Typhoons across North Asia have forced port closures and resulted in vessel rotations