Zencargo Market Update: 3rd October

China

Ocean

• In good news for shippers, reliability continues to climb. Schedule reliability for Asia-North Europe hit 30.5%, driven by improvements from the 2M alliance with MSC on the lead at 45% improvement. On the Mediterranean routes, schedule reliability sits at 33.7%.
  • Average late days are 9.41 to North Europe and 4.98 to the Mediterranean.

• Long-term contracted rates finally caught up with spot market fluctuations, with Xeneta noting a 1.1% drop in September, marking the first fall since January and only the third decline in the past 21 months.
  • Asia-North Europe spot rates fell 10% on the Drewry index, with rates to the Mediterranean down 19%. Container utilisation rates were noted to be poor, ahead of Golden Week.

Air

Central China to USA and Europe 

• From SHA to both the USA and Europe, space is tight between 1st-7th October, due to Golden Week. Rates are likely to decrease during the 2nd half of the holiday. 
  • Rates will continue to decrease after 8th October.
• From NGB to Europe, rates have remained the same and the market is stable

North China to USA and Europe 

• From TSN to Europe, rates have decreased. However, rates have remained the same between TSN and the USA as compared to last week. 
  • Capacity is not as tight as expected and airlines are offering competitive rates to attract more bookings. 
• Rates have decreased from PEK to Europe and the USA. Space is still tight to both lanes. 
• Due to hot weather and rain, carriers are taking on less volume and have even cancelled or rescheduled flights

South China to USA and Europe 

• From CAN to Europe and the USA, the market is busy due to Golden Week and airlines have increased their rates for this week. 
• From SZX to Europe and the USA, rates have again increased to both trade lanes due to China’s national holiday. 
• From XMN to Europe and the USA, flights may be cancelled due to the national holiday. Rates remain the same as last week on both trade lanes.

USA

Ocean

• Europe-US rates have been holding steady, unlike other major East/West lanes.
  • The OCEAN Alliance members are preparing further ship swaps to upgrade their joint North Europe – US East Coast ‘TAT2. From mid-October, the ‘TAT2’ will turn in six weeks with 6 8,500 – 13,100 TEU ships.
• Multiple carriers are reorganising their transpacific services in line with reduced demand:
  • Effective September-October 2022, 2M will revise their Transpacific service portfolio, by suspending the TP3/Sequoia and merging it into the TP2/Jaguar service. 
  • Maersk is suspending the TP28-service and merging it into the TP20-service, accounting for eleven vessels with an average capacity of 4,600 TEU.
  • Effective September 2022, CMA CGM will terminate the GGB-service, which connects Asia to North America West Coast,  accounting for seven vessels with an average vessel capacity of 8,500 TEU.
• Blanked sailings expected to be around 25% for Golden Week.
• Despite ongoing ILWU labour negotiations entering their fourth month, productivity at Oakland and Seattle-Tacoma ports remains on track.
• Major U.S. railroads and unions representing 115,000 workers reached a tentative deal last week and averted a potential strike that could have stalled almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments, though the deal is yet to be ratified.

Benelux

Ocean

• Yard utilisation is at ECT and RWG remains high and may lead to some operational restrictions.
  • While ECT is seeing improvement in the long dwell times for T/S and export cargo, import dwell times are still very high.
  • RWG is still not accepting delivery of empty containers until further notice as a yard protection measure and the current empty stack situation is impacting vessel operations and waiting times.
• APM Terminals has reportedly postponed the final decision on the expansion of its APMT-MV2 terminal at Rotterdam from the third quarter of 2022 to the end of the year.
• The overloaded rail hub in Antwerp is currently not able to handle all trains, reducing capacity from Germany and France.

UK and Rest of Europe

Ocean

• Liverpool port workers are set to stage an additional week-long strike this month, starting October 11th.
• UK charter operator Allseas is in talks to shrink its charter fleet, focusing on freeing their vessel, the 1,878-TEU Allseas Pioneer, which has been stuck in Rotterdam since August.

Road/Rail

• Further strike action is due to take place on the 5th and 8th of October.

European Bank Holidays

We anticipate a shortage of availability and the occurrence of delays around the bank holiday periods. Plan ahead and allow extra time for your products to be delivered.

October 3rd – Germany

October 5th – Portugal

October 10th – Austria

October 12th – Spain

October 23rd – Hungary

October 26th – Austria

October 28th – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece

October 31st – Germany*, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia

*Not in all regions