Blank sailings due to COVID-19 may have reached "peak"

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BLANK SAILINGS DUE TO COVID-19 MAY HAVE REACHED "PEAK"

April 29, 2020

Container shipping lines may have already experienced the peak impact of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of blank sailings according to maritime analyst, Sea Intelligence.

The Denmark-based agency said the peak of the blank sailings on the Asia-North Europe route peaked on week 17 with around 38% cut, Asia to East Coast South America cancelled 59% capacity (week 20), as 33% of capacity was also cancelled in service to the Mediterranean to North America East Coast.

Nonetheless, Sea Intelligence said the impact on the market will continue to be felt with some more blank sailings.

“For Asia-North Europe the market will experience more than 20% capacity withdrawal for 7 consecutive weeks, hereof three weeks in excess of 35%. For both Asia-Mediterranean and Asia-East Coast South America the shippers will have to navigate around 4 weeks where the cancelled capacity exceeds 30%,” said Alan Murphy CEO, SeaIntelligence.

“In the coming 6-8 weeks, we could very well see a period where the export cargo and empty flow combined exceeds the total capacity available in the market. Historically this has led the carriers to favour empty container evacuation and curb booking intake with rising freight rates as a result,” he added.

The Alliance, for example, has earlier announced 20 blank sailings earlier this month in response to the continuous decline in demand due to COVID-19.

Its members ⁠— Hapag-Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), Ocean Network Express (ONE) and Yang Ming ⁠— have all announced some blank sailings in April and modified their sailing schedules until June.