Charter rates are seeing sharper drops with the start of the winter slack season further pushing down market sentiment while charter periods are also significantly shortened with more flexible delivery periods of 1-6 months being reported. Idle tonnage is starting to build up again but the pace of idling is still slower than last year, with most of the larger ships due to return to service by November. However, the build up of surplus tonnage is starting to bite with even MSC forced to idle
Charters rates are falling steadily with further declines expected over the coming weeks with vessel availability rising faster than the market can absorb. There are more than a dozen newbuildings of up to 3,000 teu scheduled for delivery in the coming 3 months that remain open for charter, putting further pressure on an already over-supplied market. Charter rates have slipped across all sizes including the larger sectors of over 4,000 teu where there is an increasing build up of surplus ships.
With the number of idle ships starting to rise and fresh demand failing to match the rapid build up of the surplus fleet, charter rates are increasingly under pressure across all size segments. There remains limited activity in the larger sizes, but demand is also similarly muted with most of the main carriers’ requirements this year already fully covered. The most notable fixture was PIL’s charter for 4 units of 7,000 teu from TSL and RCL for delivery in 2024. The recent delivery of the 8,000
The erosion in charter rates continue, with further drops expected as the market slips into the traditional cargo slack season in October. Capacity utilisation on all key routes are trending lower and this could kill carriers appetite for further tonnage. SeaLead has chartered its largest ship taking over the 10,114 teu EXPRESS BERLIN from Danaos. COSCO has also received last week the first 7,092 teu newbuilding that it has chartered for 3 years from X-Press Feeders. Russian operators continue