Blank sailings appear to have reached a plateau, according to the latest information released by respected maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence.
And while the total number of announced blank sailings have now crossed the 500 mark, there has only been an increase of seven over the past week, says CEO Alan Murphy.
“We have now reached a plateau where carriers are maintaining their existing blank sailings, without the need for a large-scale increase in new blank sailings announcements.”
Murphy also points out that carriers have been “particularly good at maintaining freight rates, and net of fuel, spot rates are actually up 25-40% in some trades compared to 2019. Carriers achieved this through rapid and hard capacity cuts”.