Blank sailings significantly down, says eeSea
The latest data from the Danish maritime and supply chain intelligence company eeSea’s ‘Blank Sailings Tracker’ shows that 1.7% (for February) and 0.6% (for March) of head-haul sailings have been cancelled on three main east/west trades at this stage of the year.
This is a major change compared to the 19.9% and 9.4% of sailings cancelled in the same two months last year. According to the report very few sailings have been cancelled so far for Q2, compared to Q2 cancellations of 14.7% in 2020.
The CEO of eeSea, Simon Sundboell, pointed out that “in H1 last year, blank sailings were considered a way of managing capacity in the Covid-19 downturn. This is now being blamed for increasing freight rates and delays. We don’t see that carriers have deliberately held back capacities to push up freight rates.”
On top of this, eeSea’s ‘Trade Capacity Index’ indicates increasing trade capacities compared to 2020. On the three main east/west head hauls, January’s effective capacity was up by 7.6% vis-à-vis 2020. The February and March figures are up by a massive 34% and 17%, which is partially due to fewer cancellations.
“There is no idle capacity left, carriers are delaying scrapping, and the first new tonnage orders have even been placed,” says Sundboell.
The analyst has made a version of its real-time tracker freely available. (cd)