Market Pulse 2024 Week 52

The Red Sea shipping crisis has entered its second year with container vessel traffic on the Bab al-Mandab Strait down 70% by vessel count and 91% by TEU capacity since November last year. Although Red Sea traffic has risen since October due to an increase in new Red Sea connections by carriers such as X-Press Feeders, Emirates Shipping and Safeen built around the Middle East Gulf and Indian subcontinent hubs, the mainstream carriers are still shunning the Red Sea route with CMA CGM the only main carrier that continues to send its ships through the Red Sea. The situation is likely to continue in 2025 as the market settles down to the new network.

Carriers are still holding on to their recent freight rate gains with both the SCFI and CCFI recording small weekly gains but rates remain volatile with several carriers still offering price discounts to secure additional cargo volumes.

Containership traffic on the Red Sea down by 70% since Houthi attacks began
The number of containership transits via the Red Sea has dropped by 70% since November 2023 when the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping started. The average number of monthly transits dropped from 606 in the first 11 months of 2023 to just 174 in 2024. When measured by total TEU capacity, the drop is even more severe at 91% as the average monthly capacity of containerships on the Red Sea has fallen from 5.9m teu last year to just 544,000 teu in 2024.

Several carriers have retained their Red Sea transits, including CMA CGM who has kept part its fleet on the route while all of the other Top 10 carriers have ceased all of their Red Sea transits since January this year. Since August, there has also been a rise in new services connecting the Indian Subcontinent and Middle East Gulf to the Red Sea by smaller carriers including X-Press Feeders, Emirates Shipping and Safeen while niche carriers on the Black Sea and Baltic Sea trades such as SeaLead and Safetrans have retained their Red Sea passage over the last 12 months.