Russbroker Caribbean market review

Small ships lag behind in the recovery

Container Market

Covid-19 induced economic decline continued to pressure the container charter markets in the second quarter. By the middle of May, globally 524 ships with a combined 2.65 million TEU capacity were idle or undergoing scrubber retrofits. With the relaxation of lockdown measures, the worldwide demand for transportation picked up again and the number of idle ships fell to 264 ships or 1.2 million TEU total capacity.

The US had been an important driver behind this development with a historic annualized GDP decline of 33% in the second quarter and an expected recovery in the third quarter of about 20%. In sync with the economic activity, Far East to US TEU volumes fell to a low of 0.9 million TEU in March and then recovered to a strong 1.5 million TEU in June – a value higher than in January or a year ago.

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