Container lines are reinstating sailings on their transpacific and Asia-to-Mediterranean services after an unexpected pick-up in demand.
The development is raising hopes among tonnage providers for a bottoming-out of the charter market.
Strong demand on the Asia-to-US West Coast route has prompted carriers to reverse an earlier decision to blank a record number of transpacific sailings in May.
THE Alliance became the latest grouping of lines to reinstate sailings on the transpacific with the 8,566-teu Hyundai Courage (built 2008) scheduled to sail on service between Asia and the US West Coast on 20 June.
THE Alliance members of Hapag-Lloyd, Ocean Network Express, Yang Ming Marine Transport and HMM had earlier this month unveiled plans to reinstate four of their Asia-Mediterranean sailings to accommodate a rise in demand.
That has also led US operator Matson to deploy two extra loaders on the China-to-Long Beach route in May, while APL has added capacity on its EXX service from Asian ports to Los Angeles by replacing 3,500-teu ships with 5,000-teu ones, Alphaliner reports.
The advisory added that Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) will divert the 13,208-teu OOCL Singapore (built 2014) to call at Long Beach en route to the US East Coast to cater for cargo to the US West Coast.
False dawn?
The decision to "unblank" several services has raised the hopes of tonnage providers faced with falling charter rates and a record idle-fleet.
But Sea-Intelligence argues in its Sunday Spotlight report that the changes are so far too small to make any material difference.
"This is purely a very small change to the overall development in blank sailings. It cannot be seen as a rebound in demand, nor can it be construed as “strong” demand," the Danish analyst said.
"It can only be seen as another indication that the carriers’ approach is to blank sailings aggressively to ensure decent utilisation on the vessels that do indeed sail, and in the process avoid rate declines."
There are "no material blank sailings" scheduled for the third quarter of the year, but these are expected to rise in the next month, said Sea-Intelligence.
"As the booking uptake curve tends to start four-to-five weeks prior to loading, this means that we will likely begin to see carriers' blank sailings for July within the next couple of weeks," the advisory said.
Sea-Intelligence added that the median vessel size in Asia-North Europe trade has increased substantially from 16,000 teu at the time of Chinese New Year to 17,000 teu by the end of June.
"In this trade, the carriers therefore seem to favour the usage of their largest vessels and setting aside 'smaller' vessels," the firm said.
Doubts remain
The increase in demand is limited to a handful of trades and blanked sailings continuing to stack-up in other regions.
In the transatlantic, liner operators are continuing to blank services with the 2M partner Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co extending the temporary suspension of their North Europe-US East Coast service until the end of June.
In the Baltic feeder trades, Hapag-Lloyd is to suspend three feeder services hubbing at Hamburg for a period of approximately six months due to lower volumes.
Others remain doubtful about the prospect of any sustained improvement in demand.
In its June outlook, Bimco said it expects the drop in consumer spending will hit the container shipping industry hard, "with no sudden bounce back in demand expected".
"Bimco expects that, much like on the Far East to Europe route, spot rates and contract rates will fall in the coming months, with average earnings for the year at loss-making levels," the shipping trade group said.
