[May Mid-Month Market Report] Transpacific Rates and Space Situation Updates

Rate & Market Information

The transpacific market has slowed down since mid-March and we expect to continue till end of May. However, we do expect a peak season starting in June up till October after various locations in China start getting back to order from COVID lock-down.

China has seen the most challenging Covid outbreak since 2020, which impacted the overall economic growth of the country. China’s manufacturing activity slumped to its lowest level since February 2020. Shanghai, the commercial hub, which has been locked down for over six weeks, disrupting manufacturing output and logistics services from/to neighboring provinces including Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The Shanghai export volumes are expected to be down 30-40% in April and 20-30% in May with the impacts from the covid situation. The most suffering industries are clothing, textiles and automotive. The central government has enlisted over 2000 key enterprises to resume work in Shanghai, mostly in four areas – medical supplies for epidemic prevention, necessities for people’s livelihood, important agricultural materials, and strategic emerging sectors such as automobiles and semiconductors.

Shanghai’s local and inter-provincial trucking are still significantly disrupted due to extensive testing and quarantine requirements. Elsewhere, warehouses remain operational at other ports including Ningbo, Shenzhen, Qingdao and Xiamen although there are local restrictions on drivers which mainly focus on the need for a negative NAT report within 24H. The port productivity has decreased 20% to 30% with the impacts from the lockdown.

A number of carriers have canceled sailings from Shanghai to the transpacific route. 2M intend to cancel four sailings on TP12/TP16/TP18/TP88 ex Shanghai to USEC from the end of May through June. Carriers have shifted some of the allocations from Shanghai to Ningbo, Pusan and other Asian origin ports where the markets are hungry for spaces. There is not a noticeable adjustment of the rates with main carriers while most of them have just extend the current FAK rates till 31 May.

COVID-19 situation in Ningbo

The city is recovering from the lockdown. A noticeable box shift has been seen from Shanghai to Ningbo. The booking volume in last two weeks has increased around 10%. Carriers add ad-hoc port calls which is lengthening vessel wait times and berth congestion at Ningbo port.

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The above information is for reference only. However, should you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

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Although J.M. Rodgers Co., Inc. (JMR) makes reasonable efforts to obtain reliable content, JMR does not guarantee the accuracy of or endorses the views and opinions given by any third-party content provider. JMR disclaims all responsibility for any mistakes or inaccuracies in the information. Further, JMR disclaims all liability for loss or damage resulting from the use of information in this newsletter.