The number of blanked sailings is peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic

According to Sea Intelligence analyst, the field of container shipping has now reached its peak affected by the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

SeaIntel said: last week - week 17 - saw the peak of the number of canceled sailings on its Asia-North Europe trade, with about 38% of its transport capacity being cut. In week 19, the transport from the Mediterranean to the East Coast of North America had 33% capacity cut and the route from Asia to the East Coast of South America was cut 59% capacity by week 20. However, While the weeks in late April - May may see the peak of shipping services being canceled, it will continue to impact the market.

"For Asia-North Europe the market will experience more than 20% capacity withdrawal for 7 consecutive weeks, hereof three weeks in excess of 35%. For both Asia-Mediterranean and Asia-East Coast South America the shippers will have to navigate around 4 weeks where the cancelled capacity exceeds 30%" Alan Murphy - CEO of SeaIntel - said.

The large-scale blanking of sailings is also set to cause problems on the backhaul for export volumes and empty container repositioning.

"In the coming 6-8 weeks we could very well see a period where the export cargo and empty flow combined exceeds the total capacity available in the market. Historically this has led the carriers to favour empty container evacuation and curb booking intake with rising freight rates as a result" Murphy said.

Phaata (Source Seatrade Maritime News)

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