Demand for cargo continues to far exceed supply for containerships operated by the world’s major 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 global shortage of vessels, with freight and rental rates continuing to rise as the market enters its traditional summer peak season. Overall, charter rates continue to set new record highs across all size segments, with charter periods lengthening in tandem, with carriers forced to pay significant premiums on short-term charters,” the consultancy explained.
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 Asian hubs, particularly Singapore and Port Klang, remains challenging. Last week, there were 2.5 million TEU of ships queuing for berths worldwide, or 8.4% of the global fleet. And the backlog of ships arriving from Asia has caused further delays at berths in Northern Europe, particularly Rotterdam.
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