New Ocean Freight Data Suggests a Continuing Recovery
Transpacific shipping may be staging a comeback in the third quarter. New data released from shipping analyst, Sea-Intelligence shows volumes and rates coming back.
Ocean freight is still down on a year over year basis, but it’s…less bad than it was in the springtime. Laden imports (or imports that have been loaded, but not yet handled) contracted by 7.3% annually, while total handled volumes are down by 9.8%. In comparison, laden imports fell by 17.9% yearly in March.
‘The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak in March as laden imports contracted by 17.9% year-on-year and total throughput contracted by 18.7% year-on-year,’ announced Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence.
Declines of 7.3% might sound pretty bad at any other time, but this year it’s a marked improvement. It’s also an indication that this trade route could be in recovery mode. ‘Given these volume developments, it appears as if the transpacific trade is over the coronavirus hump, and perhaps is the indication which prompted the carriers to increase capacity in Q3, which, for Asia-North America West Coast stands at 13.1% year-on-year and 16.6% year-on-year on Asia-North America East Coast. This is the strongest capacity growth in a decade,’ Murphy said.
Blank sailings continue their downward trend, as well. Back in May, we reported that blank sailings were starting to fall, though not enough for a definitive turnaround. Last week the supply chain consultancy Drewry announced that only five out of 117 sailings are cancelled for the first week of September.
