THE westbound cargo volumes on the Asia-North Europe trade lane continue to disappoint with an increase of 8.7 per cent between December 2012 and January 2013
Asia-North Europe trade wrestles with supply and demand imbalance
THE westbound cargo volumes on the Asia-North Europe trade lane continue to disappoint with an increase of 8.7 per cent between December 2012 and January 2013 attributed to seasonal uplift.
According to latest data from Drewry Maritime Research, services outnumbered demand with only two withdrawn before the European winter season of CKYH's NE4 and the G6 Alliance's Loop 3, and Maersk's AE9 suspended and then reintroduced in December.
Cancellations of sailings went from four in December to 11 in January and 10 in February which bettered October's vessel utilisation of 79 per cent to 94 per cent in December and 101 per cent in January. February bumped down to 71 per cent due to seasonal imbalances of cargo volumes post-Chinese New Year, according to latest data from World Container Index assessed by Drewry Maritime Research.
By reintroducing withdrawn services carriers hope to improve berth coverage but with an upsurge in capacity cascading onto this trade at around 45 ULCVs averaging 13,250 TEU in 2013, increasing the trade lane by replacing vessels of 8,000 TEU and 9,000 TEU, an increase of six per cent and seven per cent.
Carriers are delaying deliveries into 2013 to include three vessels of a six order of 13,200-TEU vessels to German carrier Hapag-Lloyd to the first half of 2014 following negotiation with the shipyard. The remaining three will delivered in 2013 with the first deployed on the Hong Kong Express service.
Other carriers are juggling capacity with Korea's Hanjin to cascade its 10,000 TEU vessels from the NE6 service between Asia and North Europe to an Asia-USWC loop to limit damage from entry of its newest 13,000 TEU vessels by retaining smaller vessels.
However, carriers are reluctant to withdraw too much capacity and lose market share already eaten by Daily Maersk.
Eastbound trade has increased slightly due to government intervention to boost exports to Asia, which while showing a steady increase from September's 331,000 TEU to February's 378,000 TEU, made little difference to average vessel utilisation of 60 per cent.
To restore utilisation, MSC stopped bookings during March to "allow the cargo booked in time to receive the best attention and required level of service, especially in view of the well-known and widely announced limited availability of space and equipment during the coming weeks."
