Peak of blank sailings reached?
Copenhagen (Denmark)-based maritime analyst Sea-Intelligence reports that, as of 11 April, the number of blank sailings due to the pandemic now amounts to 384. Over the last week, the carriers announced an additional 83 blank sailings on various deep-sea trades.
The count of blank sailings now includes both the early blank sailings in China and the newer blank sailings from the global spread. On Asia-Europe and Transpacific combined, the carriers have removed 3 million teu of capacity.
Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea Intelligence, said: "To put this into perspective, this equals 2.4 times the normal removal seen during the Chinese New Year. We are currently facing a demand decline of roughly 6.4 million teu globally. If the world returns fully to normal after the second quarter and the carriers do not cancel any further sailings – which appears quite unlikely - this would still lead to a demand decline for full year 2020 of 4%." (mw)