The last months have been very challenging with all time high ocean rates and blank sailings around Golden Week. It really wasn’t easy. Luckily there were some significant improvements the last few weeks. The container rates are slowly coming back to normal, blank sailings are stabilizing after the Golden Week in China, and the schedule reliability is improving as well.

From Asia to the US West Coast, the average capacity has fallen to its lowest since February in the past four weeks, according to new data from online rate platform Xeneta. Over this period, 275,000 TEU on average has left Asia heading for the US West Coast. That is about 50,000 TEU less than the peak in early August.

The current geopolitical situation, macro- economic uncertainty and record-breaking inflation in Europe are affecting the transport sector severely. Over the last two years we have seen a huge imbalance in the European market and in ocean freight.

High yard occupancy at ECT Delta & Euromax Container Terminal in Rotterdam as well as multiple container terminals in the port of Antwerp have reached critical levels according to a multitude of sources. The main driver is the Increasing container dwell times, which is causing operational disturbance.