Market sentiment remains bearish with freight rates still slipping. The SCFI declined further in the holiday-shortened week in China, led by the rapid drop in Transpacific rates. Although carriers are pushing for another transpacific GRI on 1 July, the failure of the last 4 attempts will hurt their credibility with lines putting little effort to remove capacity while utilisation rates remain well below the level required to support the rate increases.
The weakness has spilled over to the charter markets as excess tonnage is building up rapidly. Zim has sought the early termination of several chartered ships, with the rising availability of open tonnage up to the panamax size limiting sublet opportunities.
Linerlytica
Evergreen Marine Corp. (‘EMC’), the Taiwan listed arm of the Evergreen Group, has announced the acquisition of the privately owned Evergreen Marine (Singapore) (’EMS’) for $780m on 19 June 2023, in a landmark deal that will pave the way for the eventual consolidation of the Evergreen Group’s container shipping assets into EMC.
The acquisition is part of the Chang family’s moves to dissolve the Evergreen Group as the 4 sons of the late YF Chang battle for control of the group’s assets. The publicly listed EMC’s funds are being used to pay for the EMS assets that comprise primarily of 19 containerships built between 1996 and 2015 with a total capacity of 137,180 teu. Another EMC subsidiary, Evergreen Marine Asia (‘EMA’) had earlier acquired 9 ships from EMS for $798.7m.
The Evergreen Group’s current owned fleet comprise of 127 ships for 953,786 teu, excluding newbuildings on order, with another 88 ships for 715,757 teu that are chartered or finance leased.
Weekly/Monthly Market Pulse: US$1,500/US$1,800 per year