Port congestion continues to hold up 8.5% of the global fleet at the end of last week, with European and Southeast Asian ports experiencing worsening delays ahead of the new alliance reshuffle that will take place in early February. Very high yard utilization is reported across all main European ports, with Rotterdam under particular scrutiny as the ECT labour dispute threatens to spiral into strikes although no confirmed dates have been announced. Although market attention has shifted to the e

The US Trade Representative (USTR) concluded its investigation of China’s shipbuilding industry on 16 January 2025 and warned of further action to address what it deemed as unfair dominance of the sector. Based on Linerlytica’s analysis of all containerships currently trading in the US, Chinese built ships account for 225 units out of the 1,045 ships currently deployed in the US (excluding Jones Act trades) compared to just 10 ships that were built in the US. In TEU capacity terms, Chinese ship

EC freight futures slid further following the Gaza ceasefire agreement, pushing the forward curve further into backwardation. The SCFIS spot index fell by 14.5% week-on-week, but forward rates are expected to drop by a further 55%-65% over the next 12 months. Average daily trading volume rebounded by 36% week-on-week, exceeding 75,000 lots per day, while open interest rose by 11%, approaching 2024 highs. The EC2502 contract held its ground with a relatively small 2% drop but trading volumes dro

Freight rates to North Europe continued to slip with the SCFI falling by 6.6% while the SCFIS dropped by 14.5%. Although most carriers are holding their rate quotations through mid-February with Far East offices to be shut for the Lunar New Year holidays, rates are still under pressure with vessel utilization already dipping ahead of the holidays and carriers are reported to be unsuccessful in building up any significant roll pool before the holidays. Further rate deterioration is expected with

Register Free Trial The spectre of the Red Sea reopening following the ceasefire in Gaza weighs heavily on the containership sector, with up to 7% of the global fleet potentially coming back to market within the next 3 months. Freight rates have continued to tumble ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays with carriers still slashing rates while the SCFI recorded its first YoY drop last week, marking a tipping point for the market. EC freight futures continue to tumble with rates expected to drop

The 11,388 teu CMA CGM COLUMBA is scheduled to make an eastbound Suez transit on 23 January 2025 after having passed through Suez once in its westbound leg last month, marking a potential return to the Red Sea route for the Europe Pakistan India Consortium (EPIC) service that CMA CGM jointly operates with COSCO and OOCL. The service has been re-routed to the Cape route since 2024 and currently operates on a 13 week rotation using up to 13 ships of 10,000 to 14,000 teu. The round trip rotation wo

RCL has added a new RCL North China Straits India (RNI6) service by joining Wan Hai and Interasia Lines (IAL) on their existing China-India 2 (CI2) / Interasia China-India (ICI) service that calls at Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Port Klang(WP), Port Klang(NP), Nhava Sheva, Cochin, Port Klang(NP), Qingdao. RCL will add the 5,888 teu AKA BHUM to the service which turns in 42 days using 6 ships of 4,200 to 5,900 teu.

HMM and ONE will launch a new Far East-East Coast South America service from April 2025 to connect Busan, Chiwan, Singapore, Rio Grande, Santos, Santa Catarina, Singapore, Hong Kong, Busan. The service will be branded as the Far East-Latin America 2 (FL2) by HMM and East Coast South America Express 2 (SX2) by ONE. In conjunction to the launch, the 2 partners will also offer a new dedicated River Plate feeder service to connect Rio Grande with Buenos Aires and Montevideo to cater for Argentina a

Amu Shipping has launched a new feeder service connecting Mogadishu, Mombasa, Kismayo, Mogadishu from 13 January 2025 using the newly acquired geared 1,083 teu AMU JAMEEL (ex BOSTON TRADER build 2002) that has just completed its positioning trip from China carrying cargo from Qingdao, Ningbo and Nansha to Kenya and Somalia.

The EC experienced a sell-off this morning following the ceasefire deal in Gaza. While it remains uncertain when the liners will return to the Suez/Red Sea, most EC contracts are already trading at levels not seen since mid-December 2023. There has been no new utilization data since yesterday, and the liner's FAK online quotations have decreased.

EC contracts continued to decline as traders anticipated a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas before the end of March. The near-term fundamentals in the physical market are also weak, as the pre-Lunar New Year cargo rush has been insufficient to counter the highest capacity deployment on the Far East to North Europe route in two years, resulting in falling head haul vessel utilization. Liners have continued to slash their online quotations. Traders expressed their bearish outlook, primari

OOIL's fourth-quarter report and the December revenue reports from Taiwanese liners indicate that many liners could experience a quarter-over-quarter revenue drop of between 18% and 25%, potentially resulting in earnings declines of up to 50%. COSCO’s full year profit alert shows a 50% qoq drop in earnings in the 4th quarter.