Container lines and their clients are engaging in their annual pre-contract rate dance, aided, to a certain degree, by analysts’ forecasts on the state of the industry.
Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, but few observers would describe the widening chasm that has opened between western and some Middle Eastern interests in the Red Sea as objectively attractive.
Container rate levels are seeing the expected levelling out prior to Chinese New Year as the initial shock of the Red Sea crisis wanes and new vessels are deployed to meet the challenge of maintaining weekly services.
Spot container freight rates from Asia – Europe have more than doubled over the last two weeks as lines divert via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid attacks in the Red Sea.
Container shipping is under pressure from large amounts of new capacity coming into the fleet, however, events in the Red Sea are boosting spot rates at least in the short-term.
A series of analyst reports over the last week from Xeneta, HSBC Global Research, and Sea-Intelligence present a downbeat picture ahead for container shipping with overcapacity leaving carriers subsidising shippers on key routes.
