Total 288 Posts
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
Carriers continue to slash Asia-Europe rates with the SCFI slipping by 4.6% to North Europe and 2.6% to the Med. Maersk’s announcement on 26 August that it will slash its Peak Season Surcharge for cargo to North Europe from $4,000/feu to $3,000/feu from 15 September is a further negative signal for the market as capacity utilization continues to come off its early peak season high. The weaker market sentiment has driven some capacity withdrawals but these moves are insufficient to check the dr
EC freight futures will come under further pressure this week after the SCFIS was published after market close on 26 August with a sharp 7.3% WoW drop, against the 2.3% WoW decline last week. The drop was worse than traders’ expectations as futures prices had rallied last week on stalled Gaza peace talks and the relatively mild drop in the SCFIS on 19 Aug of just 2.3%. Carriers continue to slash rates last week, with average rate quotations from Shanghai to North Europe falling from $8,500/FEU
Container freight rates are poised to fall by over 70% by June next year, based on the latest CoFIF EC contracts traded on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE). Although the drop is not as severe as the freight rate collapse seen at the end of 2022, current freight futures prices anticipate continuous declines over the coming 12 months, with no rebound expected at the end of this year and no repeat of this year’s post Chinese New Year rate rally in 2025. Carriers have failed to che
Asia-Europe rates are faltering with the capacity overhang in play while demand has started to slow. Port congestion along the Asia-Europe corridor is still keeping capacity growth in check. Although capacity utilization remains healthy and is still running at 3% higher compared to a year ago, the earlier space pressure has eased with average utilization for the week before falling to 92% as opposed to the preliminary reading of 96% reported last week as a few late sailings departed from the las
Continued spot rate weakness and renewed Gaza ceasefire talks brought the longer dated EC futures contracts down to their daily limit on 19 August. EC2408 contracts held up with the SCFIS falling by less than expected, down by 2.3% WoW after market close. EC2410 also largely held its ground as the October contracts are already trading at a 48% discount to current spot rates. The latest EC2410 closing price has built in weekly drops of 7% each week over the next 2 months against the SCFIS’ 1-2%
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
Freight futures to North Europe dropped across the board last week, with US recession concerns weighing negatively on market sentiment. The emergence of some sub-$8,000/feu quotations for shipments departing in second half of August for Asia-North Europe route triggered a fresh round of sell-offs for the EC2410 contracts last Thursday, as the rate erosion appears to be accelerating even though capacity to North Europe remains tight. Preliminary vessel utilization for the Asia-North Europe route
MSC’s planned newbuilding orders will bring its overall fleet to 7.5m TEU by the end of 2028 as it continues to widen the gap with their main rivals. The latest MSC orders is expected to include 10 units of 21,000 teu at Hantong, as well as a series of 12,000 teu units at Rongsheng and 11,000 teu units at Penglai Jinglu to be delivered from 2027. Although CMA CGM’s new vessel delivery pipeline will allow it to surpass Maersk by 2027, it will still trail MSC by more than 2m teu by the end of 2028
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