The Transpacific container market appears likely to rally in the third quarter, according to shipping intelligence service Sea-Intelligence.
The company noted a smaller decline in North American June container imports than in previous months in a press release Tuesday. Laden imports declined by just 7.3% from the same month a year earlier in June, compared with a drop of 17.9% in March at the peak of the crisis, the company said.
“Given these volume developments, it appears as if the Transpacific trade is over the Coronavirus hump, and perhaps is the indication which prompted the carriers to increase capacity in Q3, which, for Asia-North America West Coast stands at 13.1% Y/Y and 16.6% Y/Y on Asia-North America East Coast,” the company said.
“This is the strongest capacity growth in a decade.”
Container lines are the biggest consumers of bunker fuel in the wider shipping industry, and a rally in the container market would be bullish for marine fuels demand worldwide.
