While peaks and troughs in the rates cycle are an accepted norm in the container shipping industry, never before has the industry seen such a collapse in TEU volumes and a yo-yo of rates.
That’s according to the latest blog posted by Katherine Barrios of ocean and airfreight benchmarking platform Xeneta.
It’s challenging to try to make sense of it she says.
And the impact on shipping lines is monumental.
“In March Moody’s downgraded the credit outlook for Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, MOL and NYK from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ and placed CMA CGM’s credit ratings under review for potential downgrades,” says Barrios.
FTW Online has already reported on consultancy Sea-Intelligence’s prediction that freight rates could decline to the same degree as they did during the financial crisis in 2009 - in which case the main carriers will collectively lose US$23 billion in 2020.
Alphaliner has reported that blanked sailings have laid up some 13% of the world’s container fleet which is approximately three million TEUs.
The question, Barrios asks, is whether trade is coming to a halt.
