China - Europe Railway

China - Europe railway (Photo: Global Times)

 

The latest Container Shipping Market Quarterly Review, published by the Global Shippers Forum (GSF) and MDS Transmodal, highlights how shippers are turning to rail between China and Europe, air freight and chartering their own vessels.

The report used a chart (see figure below) to compare the volume of imports (yellow line) with the volume transported by fixed-scheduled container shipping services (blue line). It shows a rapid increase in import volumes in Q3 while the expected container liners capacity actually decreased slightly.

 

Compare import volume with container shipped volume

The chart compares the import volume (yellow line) with the volume shipped by container (Source: GSF)

 

“The Container Shipping Market Review shows the extent to which shippers sought out alternatives, as shipping lines priced themselves out of reach and narrowed the cost difference with offerings from other modes. A measurable share is also accounted for by vessels chartered by shippers for their own goods, or by other non-liner shipping carriers," said James Hookham, Director of GSF.

Mike Garratt, President of MDS Transmodal, said: “Given the dramatic growth in freight rates and declining service performance it is not surprising to see trade growing more quickly than container volumes on the established lines, as shippers have found other transport solutions; starting own shipping routes, using long-haul rail or air or semi-bulk traffics switching to conventional methods…”

The report also highlights how shipping lines have turned to port-to-port services limited to two regions instead of multi-regional services. As ports become congested, container carriers are increasingly skipping intermediate calls.

 

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Source: Phaata.com (According to ContainerNews)

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