So much for a “peak season” in Asia-Europe trade

It’s been a pitiful start to the pre-Xmas peak season in the northern hemisphere, with sea traffic volumes declining in July over the same month last year.

This was the fifth month in a row in 2015 that has seen a slip from the 2014 equivalent months.

With both ends of the trade currently suffering from weak economic performances it was rather inevitable that trade volumes would decline. And in July they did just so, slipping by 7.1% year-on-year to 1.3 million from 1.4m TEUs, according to the latest figures published by Container Trades Statistics.

In the year to date, a similar drop in box numbers was recorded, with volumes on the east-west trade down from 9m to 8.6m TEUs – a 4.7% decline on the same seven-month period last year.

And any hopes for a recovery in the rest of the peak season are rather feeble, with rather poor predictions for the economies in both China and Europe.

For example, Lloyds List quoted analysts SeaIntel as remaining “quite bearish in its forecasts for full-year traffic, with volumes expected to contract some 3%-5%”.