Although container spot prices on the Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific trade routes seem to have bottomed out and are likely to rebound, demand on the US line remains weak, and the signing of many new long-term contracts is still in a state of stalemate and uncertainty.

The cargo volume of the route is sluggish, and the future prospect is uncertain. Shipping companies have been adopting the strategy of canceling voyages in order to alleviate the impact of extremely weak demand and increase spot freight rates. However, shippers, BCOs and NVOCCs are shifting a higher percentage of their business to the spot market due to deadlocked contract negotiations and weak demand.

Due to the cancellation of consecutive voyages, the mass cancellation of flights on certain routes has led to the suspension of services. For example, the AE1/Shogun ring route, one of the six Asia-Europe routes of the 2M alliance, has been permanently suspended.

Maersk is still canceling sailings in an effort to match supply and demand. However, the freight rate has recently rebounded. Global liner companies including Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, CMA CGM, MSC, Evergreen, Yangming, etc. have begun to issue notices to increase GRI from April 15th to May 1st. 600-1000 US dollars (check the article: Freight rates are rising! Following HPL, Maersk, CMA CGM, and MSC have successively raised GRI). As the liner companies actively pushed up the freight rates of the routes that started sailing after mid-April, the booking prices in the spot market stopped falling and rebounded. The latest index shows that the increase is more obvious due to the lower freight rates of the US-West route.

Of the total 675 scheduled voyages on the major trade lanes across the Pacific, Transatlantic and Asia to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, the latest figures from Drewry show that in weeks 15 (April 10-16) to 19 ( During the five weeks from May 8 to 14), 51 sailings were canceled, accounting for 8% of the cancellation rate.

During this period, 51% of suspensions occurred on the trans-Pacific eastbound trade, 45% on the Asia-North Europe and Mediterranean trade and 4% on the trans-Atlantic westbound trade. Over the next five weeks, THE Alliance has announced the cancellation of up to 25 voyages, followed by the Ocean Alliance and 2M Alliance with 16 and 6 voyage cancellations respectively. During the same period, non-shipping alliances implemented four suspensions. Carriers such as CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd are keen to order 6-10 new methanol-powered vessels to replace existing ones, despite complex macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions affecting consumer demand, Drewry said Team. New decarbonization measures and rules in the EU are likely to drive this move. Meanwhile, Drewry expects spot prices on east-west routes to stabilize in the coming weeks, with the exception of transatlantic routes.

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