Sea-Intelligence says container trades get more unbalanced
The Container News website reports on the latest analysis by Danish maritime data analysis firm Sea-Intelligence, which dives into developments in trade imbalances and back-haul utilisation in the post-Covid period.
With our comprehensive portfolio of international container shipping services for both LCL and FCL import and export cargoes, this made interesting reading for Davies Turner.
The Container News item reports that according to Sea-Intelligence data, the back-haul vessel utilisation was hovering around the 50% mark pre-Covid but has been declining since then and dropped below 40% in August 2024 for the first time.
Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, explains: “It is very clear that the trade imbalances, from a global perspective, have worsened sharply since before the pandemic. This is especially true for the five largest deep-sea trades in terms of volumes shipped, which have all seen a significant worsening in trade imbalance, compared to the situation pre-pandemic.”
According to the analysis, this means that either the head-haul trades will increasingly have to “pay” more for the repositioning of empty boxes, as there are fewer back-haul containers “paying their own way”, or back-haul shippers will have to pay higher freight rates, as there are fewer paying back-haul containers, as a share of the vessel space.
“Whether a carrier will try to push this added cost imbalance onto the head-haul or the back-haul, will depend entirely on their strategy for serving either market,” concludes Murphy.
The full article can be read here:
https://container-news.com/sea-intelligence-reports-significant-deterioration-in-trade-imbalances/
For more information about Davies Turner’s ocean freight forwarding and logistics services, please contact ocean@daviesturner.co.uk or visit the relevant pages of this website.
Sea-Intelligence says container trades get more unbalanced
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