As congestion problems continue to ease and the supply-demand ratio stabilizes, the shipping market is now in danger of being overwhelmed by a tsunami of containers.
According to Container XChange, ports gradually becoming operational again and traffic congestion easing up is creating a container oversupply scenario that is generating a price correction in the second-hand container market.
If, during the period of lockdowns and disruptions in the global supply chain, carriers were forced to acquire a huge quantity of containers, either new or in the second-hand market, to replace those that had been piling up in the congested yards in many ports, especially Chinese ones (origin and destination hubs of some of the trade routes considered to be the most profitable), today this problem no longer exists.
In other words, the increased productivity of traffic flows is leading to a structural surplus of equipment. Figures provided by XChange leave no room for doubt. In June there was a surplus of incoming containers in the three main ports of the Old Continent: Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
At the three ports of call, the CAX availability index remained well above 0.5 points, a sign of more containers arriving than departing for destination markets.
In Hamburg, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, average prices in the used container market have dropped by 5.7%, 4.9%, and 1%, respectively, compared to the previous month. In the German port, for example, the cost of leasing a container is down to $2020 while in May it was $2143.
The Port of London is the most expensive port. The port of call recorded a 6.6% increase in average prices over May. The average price per twenty-foot box is $2568.
In the United States, Long Beach is going against the trend. Average prices rose 7.8% in June to $2446 per TEU. The Port of Miami, on the other hand, is the most expensive port after London: although they dropped 1.8% compared to May, the average price for a twenty-foot container is still around $2,500.
Translation by Giles Foster
