ComPair Data’s World Liner Supply Analytics has a tool allowing users to measure the ratio of deployed capacity (total vessel capacity assigned to a trade) to allocated capacity (the percentage of that deployed capacity actually available to shippers, based on ComPair Data estimates). That tool presently shows the ratio of deployed-to-allocated capacity on the westbound Asia/Europe trade has risen from 11.8 to 14.8 from Jan. 2 to Jan. 23. On the eastbound transpacific, the ratio has risen from 9 to 10.5 in the same three-week period.
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The higher the ratio, the less capacity available to shippers relative to total capacity deployed. A higher ratio doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s less capacity available to shippers; it typically means that carriers are deploying more capacity on a trade while not making all of it available to shippers.
As an example, if a line expands deployed capacity on a transpacific or Asia/Europe service by adding a new vessel or switching to larger vessels, it can mitigate the amount of capacity made available to shippers by slow steaming. In that way, it is employing its expensive assets (namely vessels) while also refraining from overloading the market with capacity that could drive down rates. It’s the primary way the liner industry has been able to manage capacity in the last 18 months while also taking collective delivery of a record amount of ordered tonnage. ‘ Eric Johnson
