Following this month’s Chinese Golden Week, there is still no sign that demand levels for container shipping from Asia to Europe are starting to rise, which has resulted in another bout of blanked sailings.
Carriers have recently been busy confirming a series of cancelled voyages through to the end of November, as they continue to align available capacity with the low demand levels to avoid ocean freight rate levels dropping.
The 2M alliance have announced the cancellation of a complete loop for seven weeks from the end of this month, effectively creating a ‘winter schedule’. Mitigating low demand with a winter schedule may prove to be a more effective means of reducing late blanked sailings and improving unreliable service schedules.
It looks likely that current market conditions will continue for the foreseeable future and at least until after Chinese New Year in February.
Meanwhile, carriers have continued to take delivery of new build vessels, including many Ultra Large Container Vessels (UCLV’s). An average of 190,000 teu per month of new build capacity has been delivered since the all-time record of 300,000 teu that entered the market in June.
Unique forwarding are monitoring developments. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.
