Low Carbon Shipping Outlook Suggests Industry Will Need to Do More to Meet GHG Targets — ABS has published the latest trends and projections on carbon-reduction strategies for shipping as the industry looks to meet decarbonization ambitions. Read more here
Containership
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
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
India, China, S.Korea are taking unusual steps to tackle their container shortages
Indian Railways is discussing if its current 25% discount for moving empty containers inland along some routes needs to be extended beyond March. Read more
Exporters Take Unusual Steps to Ease Container Shortage
“Exporters and their industry groups are noisier and more active lobbyists on these types of issues,” said Daniel Richards, a senior analyst at Maritime Strategies International Ltd., a shipping consultancy. “When you add to that the importance of the export sector to most Asian economies you can see why these governments have at least made efforts to be seen to be proactive. Read more in Bloomberg
Market efficiency could rain on the parade despite comparisons to supercycle
The ability to separate exuberance from inefficiency is key to understanding how long higher earnings are likely to be maintained. Read more, written by MSI’s Managing Director, Adam Kent, in TradeWinds
World boxship fleet update: New orders emerge at end of extraordinary year
“A flurry of large containership order at the end of 2020 has increased the industry orderbook back to just over 10% of the fleet, although almost all were orders we already had anticipated would take place in either 2020 or 2021,” said analysts at Maritime Strategies International. Read more in Lloyd’s List
No end in sight for container shipping dysfunction
For anyone who might have thought the arrival of the new year would bring relief from the crushing port congestion and global deceleration of container flows, disappointment arrived promptly and will likely linger for months to come. Read more here in JOC
Which sectors will fare best and worst in 2021?
“Perhaps the most spectacular and at first glance counterintuitive, given the headline macroeconomic backdrop, has been the levels to which the containership charter market has been able to reach in Q4 2020,” Kent said. Read more in Splash!
Boxship market on fire as owners cash-in on rising asset values
Today, the Maersk Semarang has a fair market value of around $26.3m, according to forecasting platform MSI Horizon, which suggests that Zodiac will making a handsome profit on the sale…’ Read more in TradeWinds