Charter activity is slowing down as the end of 2024 approaches with no signs of charter rates abating after their strong run up over the past 12 months. Activity is focused entirely on the smaller sizes of below 5,000 teu with no fresh deals in the over-5,000 teu segment due to the acute shortage of open tonnage with increasing numbers of forward fixtures done for 2nd half 2025 deliveries. Activity in the smaller sizes remain brisk, with the 1,700 teu/2,700 teu/4,200 teu segments still registe
The containership charter rates remain firm with limited availability in all segments. Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are still scrambling to assemble sufficient ships for the launch of their new joint services starting in February 2025 with more than 20 open vessel slots still to be filled. The published schedules for February shows a large number of blanked sailings that will coincide with the port Chinese New Year slack period, but also reflects the partners’ tonnage short
Carriers appetite for new tonnage continues to push charter rates higher. Apart from raiding the depleted charter market for additional tonnage, carriers have returned to the newbuilding market in droves with Maersk confirming a 20 ship order on top of additional charter deals as it tries to narrow the self-created gap with MSC. The orderbook ratio has rebounded to 27% from 20% in June on the back of more than 3.8m teu of new capacity that has been ordered in the last 6 months alone. The contai
MSC’s sweep of second-hand containership tonnage since 2020 has brought its total resale vessel acquisitions in the last 4 years to more than 420 ships. MSC’s unprecedented acquisition spree has removed more than 17% of the total fleet that are available for charter in the 800 to 15,000 teu size segment and has been a key driver behind the sharp rebound in charter rates this year. The shortage of charter market ships have forced carriers to fix forward for their favoured tonnage with deliveries
Charter rates continue to firm across all size segments, with the lack of supply of fresh tonnage pushing charterers to commit to not just higher rates but also forward deliveries into 2025. All of the laycans registered in the past week was in the smaller size segments of 2,800 teu and below, with the lack of tonnage in the larger sizes continuing to limit the number of transactions recorded. Interest from Russia related carriers remain firm with Uniglobal and OVP taking on smaller feeder ship
Charter rates have picked up in the past week with the smaller sizes also enjoying a revival as larger ships are mostly all sold out. Availability of the larger sizes above 3,000 teu are scarce, with open candidates snapped up quickly and periods extended to 2-3 years, while charterers seeking shorter periods will need to pay higher premiums. Forward fixtures have extended beyond the first half of 2025, with several charters done for 2nd half 2025 positions. The strong gains have extended to t
Charter rates continue to move on 2 different tracks with the larger sizes of over 4,000 teu continuing to power ahead while the rates for the smaller sizes are easing gradually. Carriers are still scrambling to secure all available tonnage in the larger segments with forward deliveries now stretching into 2Q 2025. CMA CGM, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk were the most active carriers with various extensions and forward fixtures concluded in the last 2 weeks. Hapag-Lloyd has taken 4 units of the
Charter rates remain broadly flat in the past week, with supply in the larger segments above 4,000 teu still very tight while more open candidates are available in the 1,700-3,000 teu segments. Maersk has been particularly active in the last month, including forward fixtures extending into 1Q 2025 as it tries to secure ships to cover its tonnage requirements for next year when the new Gemini Cooperation is scheduled to start from February. Sinotrans has taken the first 3 units of 4 ships that i
MSC has continued its ship acquisition spree with the 2nd of 4 Panamax ships taken from Chinese operator Safetrans delivered last week. The 4,173 teu SFT EGYPT has joined MSC as the MSC BANJUL IV on 21 August, following the SFT CHINA (renamed MSC TIA V) that had joined earlies on 3 July. 2 more ships (SFT TURKEY and SFT SAUDI) will follow in September, bringing the total number of ships it acquired in 2024 to 36 units. Safetrans has opted to cash out on the 4 ships that it bought at attractive
Market attention has shifted to newbuilding orders, with MSC confirming a new order for 12 ships of 19,000 teu at Zhoushan Changhong while Seaspan has announced a 23 ship order made earlier in June comprising of 9,000 teu, 16,000 teu and 17,000 teu units with charters to ONE and Maersk. A further order for 4 units of 9,000 teu ships were novated to an undisclosed carrier. Charter rates have stabilized in the past week, ending an 8-month run that has seen average rates rising by over 150% since