Demand for cargo continues to be well above supply for container ships operated by the world’s main liners.
This is demonstrated by the record freight of 150,000 dollars per day that Maersk agreed to pay to rent the 7,000 Teu Kota Valparaiso newbuilding of the Taiwanese regional company TS Lines for three months.
Just two weeks ago, CMA CGM had chartered its sister ship, Kota Callao, for 100,000 dollars a day, already a record in those days. After the brief passage under the banners of CMA CGM and Maersk, the two ships will begin a long-term charter with Pacific International Lines. Last month CMA CGM secured another of TS Lines’ 7,000 TEU ships, TS Dubai, for 80,000 dollars a day for three or four months.
Maersk and CMA CGM may assign ships to their Asia-South America services, where rates have reached two-year highs.
Meanwhile, a report from Linerlytica revealed that the 1.62 million TEU of newbuildings delivered this year have already been completely absorbed by the market, after the Red Sea crisis forced operators to prefer the Cape roundabout Good Hope.
“There remains a shortage of vessels globally, with freight and charter rates continuing to increase as the market enters the traditional summer peak season. Overall, rental rates continue to set new benchmark highs across all size segments, with rental periods lengthening in parallel. Carriers are in fact forced to pay significant premiums on short-term rentals,” explained the consultancy firm.
Logistics bottlenecks are another factor in the low availability of ships. Linerlytica estimates that the recent increase in port congestion has taken another 500,000 TEUs out of circulation, as the active fleet currently stands at just over 25 million TEUs, down from the December peak of 25.5 million TEUs.
Global port congestion remains high and the situation in Southeast Asia hubs, particularly Singapore and Port Klang, remains challenging. Last week, there were 2.5 million TEUs of ships queuing for berths worldwide, accounting for 8.4% of the global fleet. And the buildup of ships arriving from Asia has caused further delays in docking in northern Europe, particularly in Rotterdam.
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