Responding to what it says is an unexpectedly strong rebound in the demand for container shipping, Maersk Line said it expects the 2010 Peak Season will see an unprecedented shortage of containers, and plans to bring more equipment and capacity back into the marketplace.
"The present market situation is unique. We are experiencing a demand surge in most trades, which is a development that is both unprecedented and unexpected by us and our customers,” said Lars Reno Jakobsen, head of network and product for Maersk, and a member of Maersk Line’s management board.
Jakobsen said the Asia - Europe trade is growing by 23 percent “compared to the market’s single digit expectation just six months ago.”
“Therefore, we already see a very tight equipment situation, and we expect an even more pronounced and serious shortage of containers in the coming months as we enter the peak season,” he said.
The global recession of the past few years reportedly caused a virtual halt to container leasing, sourcing and production, and as a result Maersk said in a statement “the necessary equipment has not been ordered in 2010, ultimately resulting in the global shortage in equipment.”
In response to the equipment shortage, Jakobsen said the company has initiated production and leasing of containers, along with re-activating laid-up containerships “to assist in repositioning containers as fast as possible from e.g. the east coast of North America and Latin America to Asia.
“We have been working hard the last couple of months to minimize the inconvenience for our customers. And we are adamant that we continue to live up to the customer commitments we make, also through the peak season,” said Jakobsen.
Maersk referred to its most recent Peak Season Surcharge for the Far East – Europe trade that begins in mid-July as a way for it to recover “the higher costs caused by the increased volumes and equipment shortage (e.g. port costs, extraordinary vessels deployed to reposition containers and leasing of same) and ensure that Maersk Line can continue to offer its services in a sustainable manner,” the shipping line said.
Maersk said it expects the equipment shortage to last through the third quarter of this year.
In related news, the member carriers of the Trans-Pacific Stabilization Agreement (TSA) released a statement that said the group of container shipping lines “acknowledged the difficulties many shippers have had going into second quarter 2010, with space and equipment availability in Asia, as a result of the unforeseen surge in cargo volumes.”
The TSA members said in the statement they are each adopting “a range of strategies to address these issues, including reinstatement of key service strings, deployment of ‘extra loaders’ – vessels added on a per-sailing basis to carry loaded containers to the U.S. and reposition empty equipment back – and have also noted the use by some shippers, of transloading to keep ocean containers close to port for quicker turns.”
The TSA carrier group reported a 24.1 percent year-on-year increase in traffic during the month of May to the U.S. West Coast and a 30.8 percent increase in all-water shipments to the East and Gulf Coasts via the Panama Canal.
TSA members include APL Ltd., ”K” Line, China Shipping Container Line, Maersk Line, CMA-CGM, Mediterranean Shipping Co., COSCO Container Lines, Ltd., N.Y.K. Line, Evergreen Line, Orient Overseas Container Line, Inc., Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd., Yangming Marine Transport Corp., Hapag-Lloyd AG, Zim Integrated Shipping Services and Hyundai Merchant Marine Co., Ltd.