Global maritime capacities coming back
The idle fleet worldwide is shrinking while the carriers add further capacities to the global maritime market. The trades between Asia and North America West Coast are particularly strong, capacities being up 15% compared to the same weeks last year, as the Copenhagen (Denmark)-based maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence discovered. Several weeks saw a 25% capacity injection. The trend is also apparent in Asia-North Europe, yet weaker and delayed.
Imaad Assad, shipping analyst of Sea-Intelligence, said: "While the capacity injection on Asia-North Europe is currently on a par with last year, the coming few weeks’ capacity injection will increase to 10% per week, and then further spike to 20% per week, unless we start to see Golden Week blank sailings."
Since the Transatlantic trade is less dynamic, the consultancy sees signs that consumers in the USA are buying Asian produced consumer goods at a much faster pace than they are being replenished - a driver for strong volume development on the Transpacific. (mw)