Date: Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Source: Splash 24/7
As the liner shipping party comes to a close, ships are cascading back from the long-haul east-west lanes to regional trades.
Latest data from consultancy Linerlytica shows that the total boxship capacity employed on the intra-Asia trades are rising again after a two-year decline.
Intra-Asia capacity peaked in early 2020 at 3m teu but fell to a low of just 2.6m teu by mid-2022 as carriers sought to maximise profits by deploying any available capacity, however small, on the transpacific and Asia-Europe tradelanes.
New Linerlytica data shows the slide has reversed with intra-Asia capacity now back to 2.8m teu with more newbuilds set to enter to the region soon.
Rates on many routes in the highly competitive intra-Asia region such as from China to Southeast Asia are already operating at below breakeven levels, Linerlytica warned in its latest weekly report.
