High shipping rates will continue for at least several weeks, despite new COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe, believes shipping group Maersk.
Namely, in increase in demand from shoppers sheltering at home during the pandemic has boosted normal trade flows and led to a spike in the cost of moving goods around.
However, Maersk’s Chief Commercial Officer Vincent Clerc, said that there are not enough containers in the world to cope with the current demand. He also added that he doesn’t see a big change in demand, and the current high container demand will continue at least for some weeks.
Moreover, container ships have been sailing at full load since August, something that has not happened in a decade. In the meantime, while global demand dropped sharply in March and April, consumption rebounded strongly in the second half of 2020.
Now, Maerks expects historically high freight rates to ease off at some point during the first half of 2021.
Currentl, the biggest gap between supply and demand is in the US followed by Europe, as governments there had been better able to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic.