World News
Box Lines Keep a Handle on Capacity Management
Capacity management by box shipping lines has been holding up well, a shipping analyst has said.
"The carriers are exhibiting a high degree of capacity management," Sea-Intelligence said in its latest Sunday Spotlight publication.
435 sailings have been cancelled on various deepsea trades, a demand decline of 7 million twenty foot equivalents in 2020.
"Seen over the past 6 weeks, the CCFI contract rate index is 11% higher than at the same period last year – despite the drop in both demand and oil prices. The decline in the overall index since Chinese New Year can be shown to be in line with normal seasonality."
The analyst noted some differences in the way the container lines approach the coronavirus capacity issue.
By way of illustration, on the transpacific route, "the three alliances have each blanked some 17-24% in weeks 15-21".
"However, for weeks 22-27, 2M and the Alliance have blanked 19-21% whereas Ocean Alliance at this point has blanked only 6%."
Further blank sailings could be expected from Ocean Alliance in the second quarter, the analyst concluded.