Page 44: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2023)

Shipping & Ports Annual 2023 CONTAINER SHIPPING OUTLOOK

Container Shipping 2023:

Post-Covid Turmoil Continues ©eyewave/AdobeStock

While container shipping thrived during Covid, the thrill is gone as rapidly changing trade patterns premised on geopolitical turmoil and logistic chain snarls have sent container rates racing to the abyss on certain routes. While most shipowners are ? ush with cash, a massive in? ux of new ships and capacity entering the market in 2023 and 2024 projects to unprecedented turmoil.

Maritime Reporter TV recently talked to Xeneta’s Chief Analyst Peter Sand for its Container Shipping Outlook segment, for his insights on what’s next.

By Greg Trauthwein than ever before] and there's literally no room for anything but

I noted a dramatic headline on Xeneta’s loss making right now. Long-term contracts only sit $500 above weekly container rate update: where they used to do in the range of $1,800 to $1,900 per FEU.

"Transatlantic Spot Meltdown Puts

Shippers Back in Charge as Carriers

Dramatic headlines aside, this seems to be

Squeal." What are the numbers and a particularly eventful time in the history of context behind the headline?

container shipping. What do you see?

I can de? nitely tell you why it's dramatic: it's because the de-

Nothing will ever be the same, and that is not a dramatic, velopment in the Transatlantic front haul from North Europe into the U.S. East Coast have seen demand coming down by catchy headline, that's just a fact of life. I tend to talk about double-digits and capacity deployed by carriers on that trade the ‘next normal’ instead of ‘getting back to normal’ because growing by double-digits, [resulting in] a complete meltdown of there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ market, not in container shipping, not in the maritime business. Global supply chains rates. The Transatlantic fronthaul was the one that de? ed grav- ity for an extended period of time, but now it's catching up with are still struggling from the problems during the Covid years a vengeance. Carriers operating only in the spot market on the [and on top of that there is a] water shortage in the Panama

Transatlantic route are bleeding, as they ? nd spot [rates lower Canal. But if we put the entirety of the market into perspec- 44 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • September 2023

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