The market for regular liner shows clear signs of recovery next year

The market for regular liners, having fallen since last year, shows clear signs of recovery next year. According to shipping agents, the market for regular liners has good prospects for next year due to the increase of cargoes and a decrease in excess capacities. Quoting the latest data from Clarkson, they predicted that cargoes for containerships would hit 76 million TEU next year, an increase of 7.8%. But containership capacities would only increase by 8.46 million TEU, 6.4%.

The rate of increase of cargoes will overtake capacities for the first time since 2000, something the shipping world regards as having a positive impact on the market. Asian container cargoes are predicted to increase by 8.7% while world cargoes also continue to improve. Capacity, on the other hand, should slow down due to reduced ship orders.

Compared with capacity increase of 8.5% last year, minute cargo increases of 0.8% caused stagnancy in business activities.

An officer in Hanjin said, “here is the possibility of war in Iraq . Allowing for the relation between cargoes and capacities as the most important index for forecasting, the market for regular liners shows clear signs of recovery next year, taking the circumstances into consideration.”