The container throughput of global ports continued to increase in October, with a total volume of 15.2 million TEUs that month. So far in 2020, the container throughput has reached 137.7 million TEUs, which is only 2.7% lower than in 2019.
The off-season is not "light"
The latest data from Container Trades Statistics (CTS) shows that the traditional freight off-season in 2020 will not be "light", and the performance will exceed expectations, and the market demand will continue until the fourth quarter . In October, the trans-Pacific shipping volume dropped by 4% from September to 2 million TEUs, but it was still a quarter higher than the same period in 2019. The demand is so great that although operators have been increasing capacity, there is still a gap.
Demand on the Asia-Europe route has also recovered, although its performance is not as strong as the Pacific route. In October, the shipping volume of the Asia-Europe route was 1.4 million TEUs, an increase of 7% over 2019. However, from the perspective of the whole year, the 13.9 million TEUs so far in 2020 is still 7% lower than 2019.
Equipment gap is nearly 1 million TEU
The Asia-Europe route is currently facing the same problem as the Pacific route, that is, the shortage of container equipment and capacity keeps the freight rate at a high level. Sea-Intelligence analysts said that the problem of container shortages is very difficult. The imbalance of east-west traffic on the Pacific route has made the shortage of equipment worse . The current North American imports account for most of the global increase in shipping containers, while North American exports have Weakening. Under normal circumstances, the imbalance of east-west shipping volume will usually cause a monthly deficit of about 2.5 million TEUs in Asia. This gap is filled by empty containers from other regions . But in October 2020, this number soared to 3.4 million TEUs, which means that the equipment gap has reached nearly 1 million TEUs.
Sea intelligence believes that the lack of empty containers is the primary problem faced by shippers. However, this problem is currently difficult to solve, and there is no way to quickly mobilize 1 million additional empty containers, especially when many ports are currently facing congestion. Analysts predict that this situation will continue until at least early February 2021.
