Global container volumes dropped 6.8 percent in the first half of the year, although the decline lessened in June. Recent trends lend hope to a full year impact in 2020 not being as severe as first feared, writes analyst firm Sea-Intelligence.
The coronavirus crisis shaved significant chunks of volumes off the world’s container ships, causing volumes to drop 6.8 percent in the first half of the year, shows new analysis by Sea-Intelligence, which uses figures from Container Trade Statistics.
The drop is equivalent to a drop of 5.7 million teu compared to the same period last year. April turned out to be the month in which the effects of the coronavirus pandemic started affecting statistics in earnest, while things improved slightly in May. In June, the drop lessened and global freight volumes only dropped 5.1 percent.
Positive news, according to the analyst firm.
“(…) we should not lose sight of the fact that the decline in 2020-1H has indeed been severe,” emphasizes Sea-Intelligence.
June’s developments and an unexpected increase in Transatlantic volumes since June present a hope that the full-year impact may not be as severe as first feared, the analyst firm writes.
“When this is taken in the context of the freight rate development, it is clear why the carriers’ overall results are actually looking quite reasonable for 2020,” writes the analyst firm and points out that recent weeks have seen a growing optimism among container carriers.
Developments in global container volume growth measured year-on-year. | Photo: Sea-Intelligence
Most routes saw definite improvements in June. Exports from North and South America, however, declined in June and even performed slightly worse than in May.
The last two weeks have not seen any sailings being blanked on the Atlantic routes or between Asia and Europe, which was otherwise not an uncommon sight in Spring, when hundreds of sailings were blanked.
