Capacities flowing back
The Copenhagen-based maritime intelligence provider Sea-Intelligence recently leveraged the capacities deployed by the carriers with the rates in the market.
In the weeks following Golden Week (weeks 41-43), carriers are taking out significant levels of capacity per week on a higher scale than in 2019. These levels are also higher than those that were scheduled three weeks ago.
Yet, even with an average (over weeks 41-43) 26%-31% capacity reduction on the Transpacific and a 19%-27% capacity reduction on Asia-Europe, freight rates on these trades continue to fall considerably.
CEO Alan Murphy gives the answer to the paradox: "It is because carriers added so much capacity during last year that even with these levels of capacity reductions, the underlying capacity has still only been brought in line with 2019."
While capacity growth for the weeks 41-43 ranged from 1.9% to 5.1% on all trade lanes - just Asia-Mediterranean is contracting by -1.3% - the question is whether carriers can really blank more capacity to keep freight rates up, given the current supply chain problems and the demands of cargo owners. Murphy: "There is a very delicate balancing act for the carriers to follow from here on." (sh)