Covid's heavy toll on container shipping
The global container market saw a subdued growth of only 1.5% from 2019 to 2023, reaching 173.5 million teu, which was 24.6 million teu below the potential without the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at Bimco.
The pandemic severely affected the expected growth trajectory, coinciding with an overall lower-than-expected global economic growth. During the 2020-2023 period, the container market expanded at a mere 0.4% annually, significantly below the prior GDP multiplier average of 1.06.
This underperformance resulted in 16.8 million teu not being realised with major losses in East & Southeast Asia and the Europe & Mediterranean regions. Despite North America's GDP exceeding predictions, global GDP growth was 28% lower than anticipated, which impacted a potential expansion of the container market.
Future recovery of this lost growth remains uncertain with current global economic forecasts not indicating a significant upturn, Bimco’s chief analyst said. (pb)