BLANK sailings will peak on the
Asia-Europe trades in the next three weeks, with carriers withdrawing close to
40 per cent of capacity in an attempt to match their available space with evaporating
demand.
Cancelled sailings linked to
COVID-19 until week 28 beginning July 6 currently stand at 55 on Asia-North
Europe and 38 on Asia-Mediterranean, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime
Consulting, which said the next three weeks would see 35 per cent of
Asia-Europe capacity pulled from the trade.
But, maritime academic Theo Notteboom said the withdrawn capacity could be as high as 38
per cent, reports IHS
Media.
The unprecedented number of
cancelled sailings will extend until July, a clear indication of low demand
expectations by carriers and a lack of forward bookings. That means Europe's
hub ports will take a hit at least through the second quarter.
Mr
Notteboom, a professor of maritime studies affiliated with the Shanghai
Maritime University, the University of Antwerp, and Ghent University, said if container
throughput at Europe's hubs declined 20 per cent this year, that would likely mean that over the next few
months, volume at the ports would drop as much as 35 per cent.
He explained that containers
shipped from China after measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus eased
and factories were reopened in March had all arrived in European ports by
mid-April.
"But from now there will be
a huge reduction in volume because of the enormous numbers of blanked sailings
from Asia," Mr Notteboom said. "This week and the last week of April
will be the worst in terms of blanked sailings on Asia-Europe, with 38 per cent
of capacity removed."
Mr Notteboom compiles the
IAPH-WPSP Port Economic Impact Barometer with professor Thanos Pallis from the
University of the Aegean and Universidad de Los Andes; the weekly survey takes
the pulse of port operations around the globe.
In its latest report, the
barometer showed an interesting development. Despite the huge number of blanked
sailings, the decline in the number of deep-sea container vessel calls was
being counterbalanced by carriers increasing the frequency of regional feeder
services.
"Ports are seeing more calls
by regional and short-sea vessels because cargo from congested yards and depots
is being moved out of ports and closer to their final markets," Mr
Notteboom said. "There is also a repositioning of cargo going on in Europe
between depots and distribution centers because of the low demand."
The ports survey found that at
some ports in Europe, yard congestion was the result of laden imports of
non-essential goods, including new cars, which remained in port longer than
usual. This left storage capacity within the ports in critical short supply,
but the report noted that respective governments have allowed the weekly
release and acceptance of import and export of non-essential goods on an
average of three days a week, a move the port barometer noted had brought down
storage utilisation at container yards by 60 per cent.
Source : HKSG / Photo : More Than Shipping.
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