Capacity utilization of global container ships remains at low level

Utilization of global container ships is low

 
Sea-Intelligence noted in a recent analysis that "Global demand continues to decline, and whether we calculate the growth in TEU*Miles or as an annualised percentage over 2019, one thing is very clear: the supply/demand balance is under a lot of pressure."

"The latest demand data from Container Trade Statistics (CTS) shows that in August 2022, the annualised growth over 2019 was below the level seen in 2019, which means that unless carriers reduce capacity substantially, vessel utilisation will be low."

Sea-Intelligence further noted that "to maintain the ultra-high spot rate levels, a nominal utilisation in excess of 92%-93% needs to be sustained on the Transpacific, with the threshold on Asia-Europe being 85%." However, across the trans-Pacific, capacity utilization fell below 90% for most of 2022, and the price drop continued.

Capacity utilization of container ships on Asia-Europe route is low (Source: Sea-Intelligence)

On the Asia-Europe services, vessel utilization has decreased further. As we can see in Figure 1, the 2022 utilization on Asia-Europe has been consistently below the 85% threshold, which is unlikely to trigger a rate increase and although utilization has improved in August to 74% from 72% in July; the 2-month average continued to decrease from 76% to 73%.

This latest data simply reconfirms what has happened since the beginning of 2022. There is no fundamental support for rates to continue to soar across the trans-Pacific and Asia- Europe routes.

Read more:

• ONE forecasts profit lower as market demand and freight rates decrease
• World container freight rates fell for the 35th consecutive week
   

Source: Phaata.com

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