The “stratospheric” freight rates and shipping lines’ huge Q2 profits have been slammed by cargo owners, and a new report claims the carrier alliances are “suppressing” cargo.
According to a market review by MDS Transmodal and the Global Shippers Forum (GSF), container traffic grew 4% in Q2, up 22% year on year, returning close to pre-Covid levels of growth.
Carriers were “effectively full”, at 90% utilisation on most tradelanes, MDS said, noting capacity shares based on vessel-sharing agreements “in some key markets” exceeded 40%.