Carriers set to benefit well into next year

Depleted inventories and ecommerce demand will continue to support containerised freight demand. Box shipping is benefiting from high demand and constrained supply. But even if consumer spending patterns revert to type, the sector can expect the new normal of higher rates to remain in place. “We expect healthy trade volumes to persist over the rest of the year. Overall, we’re expecting containerised trade to grow by around 7% this year and that growth story will continue in to 2022.” says MSI Read more in Lloyd’s List

Tanker market fundamentals remain weak

As vaccination programmes bring some hope, the pace of recovery in the tanker freight market is likely to remain slow as new coronavirus outbreaks in some countries present a significant risk. Any near-term recovery will likely to be hampered by the reduction in extraordinary factors influencing fleet availability, such as floating storage demand seen last year. Read more in Lloyd’s List

Demand boom drives box spot rates to yet new highs

Disruption from the Suez blockage has done little to aid supply chain bottlenecks in Europe, while transpacific trade marches on abundantly amid the ‘greatest re-stocking cycle on US record’. Market fundamentals continue to drive freight rates to unprecedented levels, with a return to so-called ‘trade normalisation’ taking longer than anticipated. Analysts do not expect rate relief to come any sooner than the third quarter in light of sustained supply-demand tightness Read more in Lloyd’s List