London – Cargo owners should expect significant further ocean freight service disruptions this year with more blank sailings and likely service suspensions, Drewry highlighted yesterday, as volatility linked to the coronavirus pandemic continues or worsens. In its latest Container Insight briefing, the container shipping analyst also suggested that shippers “should consider adding a few ‘backup carriers’ to their list of vendors if their primary service providers ration capacity or stop loops”. It also warned that despite the unexpected reduction in fuel costs, shippers prioritising transit times “need to watch out for slower service speeds as some carriers may be tempted to extend round voyages to absorb capacity”.
Highlighting that the world is a very different place to when the last edition of Drewry’s Container Forecaster report was published in December, Drewry noted the only certainty currently was “supply and demand volatility”, as “each passing day brings more grim new statistics that make it clear that our early assessment of the crisis and its likely impact on the container shipping market was too optimistic”.
(Source: GTCL)
