If, in the last four weeks, due to the introduction of duties, shipping companies have tried to reduce their Transpacific capacity to cope with the slump in bookings, today the situation appears to have changed.
In fact, the temporary 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs between the US and China is expected to encourage carriers to re-boost their vessel capacity to cope with an expected increase in bookings, as getting goods to the US before the new August 14th deadline means they have to be shipped no later than mid-July.
However, the data provided by Sea Intelligence shows no significant change in capacity along the trade routes connecting the Far East with both sides of the American continent, at least for the time being.
Looking at the period between 12th May and 21st July, and comparing it with the same period last year, the consultancy notes that capacity on services between Asia and the US West Coast will only begin to increase significantly from mid-July, while the connections to the East Coast will be massively injected with new capacity from the end of June. Too late, in both cases, to cope with the possible new wave of bookings from China.
According to Sea Int. the failure to inject additional capacity into these trade routes could lead to a sharp increase in spot rates.
Translation by Giles Foster
