Freight Market Update: August 09, 2024

OCEAN FREIGHT​

Big capacity boost for Latin American-related services

• The global container fleet grew 10.6% between 1 June 2023 and 1 June 2024. This huge capacity injection of 2.85 Mteu slots has helped carriers to deploy more ships in liner services between Asia or the Indian Subcontinent and Europe, where more units are needed for the re-routings via the Cape of Good Hope due to the Red Sea crisis.

• As consequence of this, capacity increases on all other trades were well below 10.6%, with the Latin American region the only exception.

• The total capacity of vessels deployed in deep sea and regional liner services to and from Latin America increased from 3.5 Mteu on 1 June 2023 to 4.1 Mteu (+17.4%). The chart shows the far-reaching impact of the Red Sea crisis on the deployment of the overall container fleet. Carriers operating weekly services between Asia and Europe had to add between 25% and 30% more ships to their loops to keep them fully staffed.

• Many carriers including Wan Hai Lines, COSCO SHIPPING Lines & OOCL, SeaLead, MSC and ZIM have announced the start of new Asia - West Coast of North America loops in June or July. This requires the deployment of at least 35 additional ships with capacities ranging from 3,000 to 16,600 teu.

Global fleet deployment by trade and yearly comparison

Source: Alpahliner 2024-27