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Market falling apart, say shippers

[ September 1, 2021   //   ]

The container shipping market is “rapidly disintegrating” as capacity fails  to keep pace with returning demand and rates escalate beyond reach for many, says the latest MDS Transmodal and Global  Shippers Forum Market Review.

GSF director James Hookham, said that importers and exporters are facing “a meltdown of the container shipping market, with rates in the stratosphere, slots up for auction and service performance in the trash. The prospects for the coming peak season look grim”.

He said that industry metrics did not show the huge numbers of shipments that are not being moved – “left on the quay, stacked in the terminal or stockpiled in export warehouses awaiting a slot”.

He added: “Getting these goods to market will be the difference between economic recovery and empty shelves and consumer price inflation,” concluding: “Also at stake is the solvency of thousands of SMEs banking on the coming peak season to help get them through the Covid Crisis. Governments need to look closer and harder at a shipping market that is out of control.”

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