According to Sea Intelligence analysis, the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak continues to affect container shipping, but its impact is slowing down.
The data from Sea Intelligence shows that since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia in the Chinese New Year in January this year, the cancellation of the voyage by carriers has been being stable.
From the 5th to the 15th week starting on January 27, 2020, the number of voyages cancelled on the trans-Pacific route had increased to 111, of which 48 were due to the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, and the rest were the normal seasonal cancellation because of the Chinese New Year. On Asia-Europe routes, cancelled voyages up to to 75, of which 29 were due to the epidemic.
As of March 1, 2020, shipping containers has decreased by 1.9 million TEUs due to cancellation of voyages. Calculated at an average rate of $ 1,000 per TEU, this is equivalent to a loss of $ 1.9 billion on operators’ revenue.
Sea Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy said: “Although the carrier announced the cancellation of 7 voyages in the past week, which is equivalent to an additional 7% cut in capacity, but the cancellation has significantly dropped, indicating that the carrier believes that the volume will slowly return to normal level.”
But Murphy also warned:" This does not mean that the chain reaction has ended."
So far, carriers have successfully stabilized freight rates through proactive capacity management to avoid the “worrying” freight rates plunge as if it were undergoing “the financial crisis”.
Source: COSCO Shipping e-Journal