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
Charter market activity has slowed down with very no new fixtures in the large sizes of above 4,000 teu in the past 2 weeks, with all of the recent charter deliveries in the past week concluded several weeks in advance. CMA CGM took the 7,092 teu KOTA CALLAO on 4 August on a short term fixture for a China-Panama trip at a reported rate of around $105,000 in a deal concluded in early June. Demand has cooled noticeably since then, but with very limited vessel availability the charter rate indices
MSC has taken 2 more secondhand purchases last week, as its total capacity operated edges closer to the 6m teu mark. The vintage 25 year old 5,364 teu EVER UNITY has joined MSC last week as the MSC UNITY VI for deployment on its South Africa Ingwe service while the 2,867 teu AS CLARITA will join MSC after its current drydocking as the MSC CLARITA III for deployment on the Upper Gulf Express service in the Middle East. MSC’s aggressive vessel acquisition drive has allowed it to avoid the charter
With the rest of its main rivals pushing ahead with their capacity expansion plans, Maersk has been stagnant with its capacity operated capped at 4.3m TEU since 2017 as the Group pursued its logistics integrator strategy. This is set to change as Maersk stated last week that it will be “doing whatever it reasonably can to bring supply in line with businesses’ demand for capacity”, as it hints to an imminent reversal of its self-imposed capacity cap. The move follows Maersk’s withdrawal from it
Charter rates continue to set new benchmarks with sharp gains across all size segments on dwindling numbers of prompt tonnageCarriers are increasingly reluctant to commit to forward positions in late 2024 and early 2025 given the current elevated charter rate levels, while the number spot fixtures are decreasing noticeably due to the lack of available ships. The focus has shifted to the smaller sizes of below 2,000 teu where there are still a limited number of ships still open. Second hand tran