The income gap between the trans-Pacific and Asia-Europe route is the highest in history

On the trans-Pacific route, spot rates hit a new high of USD 3,758 / FEU on September 4. However, for the Asia-Europe service, spot rates ranked the lowest in terms of revenue per nautical miles compared to all long distance shipping routes.

Alphaliner synthesized the numbers to highlight the large income gap.

A spot freight from Shanghai to a base port in Northern Europe such as Antwerp (10,624 nautical miles based on Alphaliner's distance calculation) would result in a turnover of USD 2,084 (including surcharges) last week, according to the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), equals USD 0.19 per nautical mile.

In contrast, carriers currently earn USD 0.64 per nautical mile if the same container is transported within 5,818 nautical miles from Shanghai to Los Angeles.

“The fact that earnings per nautical mile are more than three times as high on the Asia – USWC trade is remarkable as carriers need less resources (ships and equipment) on a shorter trade. A typical Far East-North Europe service requires the deployment of some twelve ships, whereas six ships are sufficient for a Transpacific Southwest loop” Alphaliner noted in its most recent weekly report.

Andy Lane from CTI - a Singapore-based consulting firm - conducted his own investigations of the significant disparity in income for the two major shipping lines. "The differences are quite huge" he told Splash today.

"As push comes to shove for empty equipment in Asia, a lot of North European importers are likely to miss out if the lines play the yield priority game", Lane warned European shippers.

Container shipping patterns have been very difficult to deal with during this year's pandemic with most analysts believing the carriers of course suffered huge losses in April, and only reversed their predictions in the last month when most of the carriers have successfully implemented a cancellation strategy.

Phaata (Adapted from Splash247)

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