Carriers’ pricing behaviour shows prioritisation of short-term profitability over customer relationships, a move that while questionable would have seen them otherwise forego the largest price boom in recent history

With freight rates soaring on nearly all trades and ships sailing fuller than ever amid exceptionally strong demand, the major container shipping lines enjoyed a strong third quarter

Carriers serving the transpacific trade have pulled the plug on planned blanked sailings amid a demand surge and encouragement from China, as they in turn look to curb rate increases. With capacity reductions down, questions remain how long volumes will stay resilient against the backdrop of a pandemic-induced recession

In its latest analysis, Sea-Intelligence highlights how carriers are gearing up for a bounce back in container traffic in the third quarter of the year. Liner services on the key east-west trades are returning to near-full quotas, with blank sailings limited to a minimum. As it stands, capacity in the third quarter of 2020 will far outweigh last year

Transpacific carriers are slated to take out 7% of slot space at the beginning of the third quarter, in addition to 15% of capacity on the Asia-Europe trade

This worst-case scenario would be devastating for the industry, as the combined operating profits of the top 12 carriers during the past eight years was $20.9bn