Shipping lines face a minefield of surging capacity and sinking demand, but there is a path to safety, claims one industry expert.
Container shipping rates remain far above pre-COVID levels, yet there are more signs of prices easing.
New reports from Maersk, Kuehne+Nagel and Drewry point to an ongoing boom for container shipping lines.
Ocean carriers could make up for two decades’ worth of losses in a single year as demand overwhelms vessel supply.
The containers that U.S. shippers need are all built in China, where factories could set a new production record this year.
Philip Damas, managing director at Drewry Shipping Consultants, and Andy Gillespie, director of global logistics at Ansell Healthcare Products, chat about the current port congestion and how the situation can be corrected.
As states prepare to administer COVID-19 vaccines, it is still unclear who will be deemed “essential”.
The shipping consultants Drewry predicts carriers should be able to return “solid if unspectacular results”in 2020.
The shift of production from China to southeast Asia is unlikely to stop the trans-Pacific container market from declining this year.
Although air freight prices have been edging upwards, sources suggest the 2019 peak season might be short-lived.
