Logistics businesses may not have "peak season"

Many logistics enterprises said that the volume of transported goods has shown signs of decline since May. And the situation has not only not improved, but has become worse in the last 2 months.

“Especially, from August to October is the "peak season" of sea logistics and from October to January next year is the peak of air logistics when schools enter the new school year and the last holiday shopping season. five. However, this year it seems unlikely and the "peak season" will never come.” - A shared logistics business.

Mr. Jens Roemer, Senior Vice President of FIATA, and Head of the FIATA Sea Transport Working Group, also said that the situation of "speculation" of storing goods beyond necessary in recent times also caused the situation The decline in goods output became more and more serious, and freight rates fell sharply.

Average capacity supplied from Asia to the US West Coast has fallen to its lowest level since February in the past four weeks, new data from online rate platform Xeneta shows.

During this period, an average of 275,000 teu left Asia for the west coast of the United States, about 50,000 teu less than the peak in early August.

Compared to the same period in 2021, the supply capacity decreased by 13%, equivalent to the removal of 21 vessels of 8,000 teu, which is the average size of vessels on this route.

Accordingly, shipping lines are "grabbing freight rates from Asia to the US West Coast by "running empty", reducing the supply of about 1.5 million teu of capacity in the past 12 weeks to keep the price level. . However, the exchange rate is still down 46.3% year-on-year, Xeneta data shows, averaging $4,150/feu (40-foot container).

"This is the highest number of empty runs since January and February, at a time when the industry usually anticipates very strong demand," said Peter Sand, principal analyst at Xeneta.

According to Peter Sand, this is a powerful strategy used by shipping lines, but it does not bring the expected results. In particular, Peter Sand said, the peak season does not seem to have come true.

Sharing the same view, Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, also commented: “Demand for ocean freight is falling, regardless of its drivers, inflation, recession fears, peak season. Too soon is making capacity more available than before.”