Maritime analysts at internationally respected consultancy, Drewry, have shown that the global shortage of container equipment is caused by difficulties in empty container repositioning.
The global ocean-borne container equipment fleet is expected to end the year having declined 1.1 per cent to 39.9 million TEU, compared to a 3.3 per cent projected fall in 2020 global container handling, Drewry notes in its latest research note.
“This suggests that the former [the ocean-borne box fleet] has more than kept pace with the latter [box handling in ports],” Drewry’s Head of Research Products, Martin Dixon, writes in the company’s latest “Market Opinion”.
The basic reason for the container disruption is that the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a severe trade contraction in the first half of the year that led to blanked sailings. However, there was a massive boom in trade demand in the second half of the year.
“It is the disruption to container supply chains that led to the current shortage of empty containers in key cargo demand centres such as China,” Mr Dixon writes.
Meanwhile, the surge in trade demand has sparked a surge of investment in new containers. This boost in investment is forecast to remain strong and with factories possessing bulging orderbooks, output in 2021 is forecast to leap by as much as 40 per cent.
“Further growth is anticipated in subsequent years,” Mr Dixon wrote, adding, “the ramp up of newbuild production will certainly help alleviate some of the ongoing container equipment shortages, but the greatest impact will come from a normalisation of cargo demand development and carrier sailing schedules, as Covid-19 related disruption unwinds through the first half of 2021”.
