The container freight market may already be past the worst of the impact of the COVID-19 virus outbreak on demand for boxships, according to marine analysis firm Sea-Intelligence.
“The weekly measurement of carriers’ blank sailings out of China show that the coronavirus impact is now subsiding rapidly,” the company said in an emailed research note Tuesday.
“The bulk of the blank sailings were announced during weeks 7 and 8.
“Weeks 9 and 10 have seen a clear tapering off in terms of new blank sailings, and the level of new announcements of blank sailings is back to the normal level.
“This means that carriers are seeing demand ramping back up to normal levels over the next few weeks.”
Week 10 of 2020 was the week that ended on March 8.
On Monday the International Energy Agency said it expected oil demand to return to “close to normal” in the second half of this year.
