Growth of container volumes less buoyant this year
Despite all political turbulences, global container volumes will continue to grow this year. The maritime analyst Alphaliner predicts that container port throughput for the full year will increase by 2.5% in 2019 - a downwards revision from its 3.5% growth estimate in January. Container throughput growth remained resilient in the second quarter of 2019, with Alphaliner’s survey of global ports recording a 2.8% growth in period from April to June.
The preliminary growth rate was slightly above the first quarter’s rate of 2.7%, as the ongoing Sino-US trade war failed to bring down over-all container volumes. Coming to volumes and shipping rates, Bimco’s chief shipping analyst Peter Sand commented a 5% rise in exports from the Far East into Europe as “good news for the shipping industry as the large distances lead to a more than proportional increase in tonne-mile demand.” Nevertheless, there is not only less growth of volumes, but also of rates.
Sand: "Spot freight rates on the trade between the Far East and Europe have continued to fall. On 30 August 2019, spot rates were down 24% from the start of the year and 18.8% from the same week in 2018.” Contract rates, though more stable, experienced a drop of more than 4%. (fd)