Capacity deployed on the Asia/US East Coast trade, using either the Panama Canal or Suez Canal transit routes, will have increased by a staggering 27% in the first six months of this year from January through until the end of June, and experts believe at least half of that increase will have come as a result of the peak season on the trade.

The following details the total weekly capacity deployed on the trade month-by-month over the six-month period, and makes for an interesting comparison with the Asia/North Europe trade, which still remains at single-digit level despite all the market hype about overcapacity.

Monthly capacity figures for Asia/USEC through 2015: January 2015 – 90,413 TEU; February 2015 – 90,630 TEU; March 2015 – 86,212 TEU; April 2015 – 95,344 TEU; May 2015 – 102,552 TEU; June 2015 – 114,846 TEU. Increase June on January 27.02%.

As expected, much of the increase has come from the Suez route, where, theoretically, there is no limit on container vessel size. One example of how the figures can grow there comes from the G6 Alliance AZX/AZS service, which will witness a 24.9% increase in the period Week 23 through Week 34.

The major part of the Q3/Q4/2015 increase will come from the deployment of 8,000+ TEU vessels on the service from late July and August; most of that capacity will come from the Hapag-Lloyd deployment network.

G6 Alliance AZX/AZS service weekly capacity deployment: July 2013 – 5,987 TEU; July 2014 – 5,987 TEU; July 2015 – 6,219 TEU; Late Q3/through Q4 2015 : 7,771 TEU.

AZX/AZS service rotation details: Laem Chabang, Singapore, Colombo, (Suez transit), Port Said, Damietta, Cagliari, Halifax, New York, Savannah, Norfolk, Damietta, Port Said, (Suez transit), Jebel Ali, Singapore, Laem Chabang.

But while things have shone on the US trade, the same cannot said for the Asia/North Europe trade. In simple terms, there has been no peak season in 2015; there are few signs of things changing, and certainly not in the short term.

Spot rates for the westbound Asia/North Europe trade have tumbled to all-time lows week on week through May and early June and, by mid-June, the spot rates quoted by the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) were only US$284/TEU for North Europe.

For Asia/Europe, the biggest alarm bells are ringing in China, where China Shipping (CSCL) has confirmed rates for westbound Asia/Europe cargo of just US$150/TEU and US$200/FEU valid through the second and third weeks of June.

By Paul Richardson

Sea Freight Correspondent | London