Sea-Intelligence Reports Worsening Global Trade Imbalance

In its latest analysis, Danish maritime data analytics firm Sea-Intelligence has shown that the trade imbalance is worsening on the back-haul utilisation in the post-Covid period.

According to Sea-Intelligence data, pre-Covid, the back-haul vessel utilisation was hovering around the 50% but has been falling steadily since then, dropping below 40% for the first time in August 2024.

“If we also factor in the distance travelled by the container vessels, measured as TEU*Miles, we see back-haul utilisation drop below 40% for three consecutive months, with a record-low number of 36.6% in August 2024,” Sea-Intelligence points out.

Back-haul vessel utilisation ( Source: Sea-Intelligence)

“It is therefore very clear that the trade imbalances, from a global perspective, have worsened sharply since before the pandemic. This is especially true for the five largest deep-sea trades in terms of volumes shipped, which have all seen a significant worsening in trade imbalance, compared to the situation pre-pandemic,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, explained.

According to the analysis, this means that outbound trade lanes will increasingly “pay” to reposition empty containers, or back-haul shippers will have to pay higher freight rates.

“Whether a carrier will try to push this added cost imbalance onto the head-haul or the back-haul, will depend entirely on their strategy for serving either market,” Murphy concluded.

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Source: Phaata.com (via Sea-Intelligence)

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