Do spot rates show the trend?
Currently, about 10% of global vessel capacity remains effectively unavailable to the market due to vessel delays. In addition, there was an expectation that the Shanghai re-opening would lead to a significant boom in demand - which did not occur. Recent spot rates are also declining.
"There is a sign of weakness in the market," as Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, said, because the upcoming high season should cause spot rates to rise, at this point.
Jensen: "It is too early to assess the coming whole peak season as weak. Even if demand is weak the risk remains that bottleneck problems will further reduce the available capacity. Key examples of such risks have been clearly seen in recent weeks as there have been port strikes in Germany, rail strikes in UK and truck strikes in South Korea." The message is that capacity constraints might still lead to spot increases in the coming months. (sh)