Busy Ocean Freight Market Continues With No Predicted End In Sight
The unpredictable levels of containerized cargo movement that have driven freight rates sky-high will not likely end soon, according to a top Maersk executive. The carrier expects high levels of capacity to continue into February, reducing the number of expected blanked sailings.
All of the major trunk routes, Transatlantic, Transpacific and Asia-Europe, only two percent of head haul sailings have been canceled for next month, and less than one percent in the month after.
Typically about one out of five sailings are blanked in February, or the low-traffic season of the fiscal year.
This past week, AIS data showed about 30 container ships anchored off the ports of Los Angeles / Long Beach alone. The ports have been working to handle record volume for months, and the demand is not letting up.
Los Angeles' volume forecast predicts a traffic spike of at least 50 percent year-on-year in the first three weeks of January. They also predict 70 percent in the first week alone.
The recent surge of cargo from Asia has pinched the world's container supply as well, prompting carriers to return more empty boxes to China in order to meet demand on the highest-revenue routes.
According to Maersk, there are not enough containers in the world to cope with current demand. Carriers are experiencing their highest demand in the height of one of the world’s worst pandemic in modern times.
Experts predict that there will not be much slowdown in demand in the near term, even though much of Europe is moving into lockdown. It is expected that consumers who are now stuck at home will likely continue to buy durable goods, keeping up demand for Asia-Europe shipping.
