Using VesselsValue data, Plamen Natzkoff, Senior Trade Expert, has explored the impacts of commodity pricing, problems in the chain supply and associated port bottlenecks on the Trade markets, resulting in unprecedented volatility in 2021. This article looks at the effects of these factors on ton mile demand and fleet capacity across the various ship types.

“While the first half of 2021 saw owners and operators in the Container market achieve record earnings, the bull market was only just getting started. Indeed, while the hire rate for a Panamax Container vessel at the end of June was at an unprecedented until then $45,000/day, it had reached $87,000/day by the end of October for an increase of almost 100%. Equally, average rates over the last 6 months of 2021 were 150% higher than the rates achieved in the first 6 months of the year.”

“While long ship queues and long waiting times at US (Long Beach) and European (Rotterdam, Hamburg) ports have frequently made the headlines over the year, using detailed data on port level waiting times, we found that congestion rates increased the most at loading ports in China. For example, while congestion at import ports was 46% higher relative to the previous “normal year” of 2019, it had increased by 77% at Chinese ports, as shown in Figure 9…”

Read the full report here.