Sea Intelligence

New alliances debut with record schedule reliability levels

Sea-Intelligence has published its latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, whose extensive coverage spans 34 trade lanes and over 60 carriers, featuring schedule reliability data through February 2025.

“Source: Sea-Intelligence.com, GLP Report, issue 163”

In February 2025, global schedule reliability improved by 3.6 percentage points month-over-month, reaching 54.9%—the highest level recorded since May 2024. On a year-over-year basis, reliability increased by 1.8 percentage points.

Among the...

https://container-news.com/new-alliances-debut-with-record-schedule-reliability-levels/

Major container lines report over US$27 billion in 2024 earnings

The major shipping lines that have reported and published their financial figures for 2024 have recorded combined full-year earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of US$27.3 billion.

In comparison, the same group of shipping lines generated nearly US$200 billion in combined EBIT across 2021 and 2022.

However, despite the decline from peak pandemic-era profits, the 2024 profitability level remains significantly higher than in pre-Covid years. The EBIT recorded in 2024 exceeds the combined EBIT...

https://container-news.com/major-container-lines-report-over-us27-billion-in-2024-earnings/

Global container volumes strong in January 2025

Global container volumes remained strong in January 2025, reaching 15.4 million TEUs, a 5.8% year-over-year (Y/Y) increase, according to Container Trade Statistics (CTS).

Data from CTS shows that global TEU*Miles – adjusted for nautical distance – grew by 8.1% Y/Y in January, indicating higher vessel capacity utilization. Additionally, head-haul container trades showed a robust 12.9% Y/Y growth in January 2025.

While TEU*Miles’ growth exceeded 20% in 2024, this was primarily due to the rerouting...

https://container-news.com/global-container-volumes-strong-in-january-2025/

Africa: Key Shipping Hub of the Coming Years?

Examining the Africa region as a key shipping hub, Danish maritime data analysis firm Sea-Intelligence has studied the vessel deployments by major liner operators, particularly the world’s largest, MSC, on services covering the region.

This past week, MSC announced the deployment of 23,000+ TEU vessels on its Asia-West Africa service, “Africa Express.” Currently, the largest vessel on this service has a capacity of 16,600 TEUs, with the average vessel size at 14,465 TEUs.

These new deployments...

https://container-news.com/africa-key-shipping-hub/

West Coast ports regained ground in 2024 H2

Danish maritime data analysis firm Sea-Intelligence has analyzed the shift in container volumes from the East to the West Coast during the second half of 2024.

The following figure shows the ratio of laden imports between the East and West Coast of North American ports. A figure higher than 1 represents more volumes being handled by the West Coast ports, whereas a value lower than 1 means more volumes being handled by the East Coast ports, explain the Danish analysts.

image.png

Source:...

https://container-news.com/west-coast-ports-regained-ground-in-2024-h2/

Ocean carrier schedule reliability remains steady, with Maersk leading the rankings

Throughout 2024, schedule reliability stayed largely within 50-55%, according to the latest Sea-Intelligence’s report. The new year has started in a similar manner, with schedule reliability continuing to remain within that range.

Source: Sea-Intelligence.com, GLP Report, issue 162

Incidentally, the January 2025 score of 51.5% is the same as in the first month of the previous year, while on a month-to-month level, schedule reliability dropped by 2.1 percentage points.

At the same time, the average...

https://container-news.com/ocean-carrier-schedule-reliability-remains-steady-with-maersk-leading-the-rankings/

Asia-Europe trade faces sharp decline in demand after Red Sea crisis

When the Red Sea crisis broke out and vessels started rerouting around Africa, the Asia-Europe supply chain became 7-14 days longer, depending on port-pair configurations. As supply chains lengthen, shippers typically increase their inventories to account for the longer transit times, effectively treating the cargo on the ships as inventory.

In 2024, demand on the Asia-Europe route grew by 8.5%. However, after factoring in the longer transit times and the associated increase in inventory (7-14...

https://container-news.com/asia-europe-trade-faces-sharp-decline-in-demand-after-red-sea-crisis/

IMF downgrades 2025-26 World Trade Growth projections

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released the January 2025 update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO), originally published in October 2024.

This update includes key revisions to global trade growth projections, particularly for advanced economies. According to the following figure, global trade growth is expected to reach 3.2% in 2025 and 3.3% in 2026. However, both figures have been revised downward in the latest update.

“Source: Sea-Intelligence.com, Sunday Spotlight, issue 701”

Fo...

https://container-news.com/imf-downgrades-2025-26-world-trade-growth-projections/

Alliance restructure reshapes Asia-North America container trade

February 1st marked the beginning of a new competitive landscape in the crucial deep-sea container trades from Asia to North America and Europe.

Sea-Intelligence analyzed the shifts in market share among shipping line alliances compared to the previous year.

The following figure illustrates the Asia–North America West Coast market share for March 2024 and March 2025, reflecting the alliances in operation during each period. The category labelled “other” includes capacity from all non-alliance...

https://container-news.com/alliance-restructure-reshapes-asia-north-america-container-trade/

December Schedule Reliability Slips, with Maersk Leading Ahead of Alliance Reshuffle

Danish maritime data analysis firm Sea-Intelligence has published the latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, presenting schedule reliability data through December 2024. This summary highlights the key global trends from the report, which covers performance metrics across 34 trade lanes and over 60 carriers.

In December 2024, global schedule reliability declined by 0.9 percentage points month-over-month (M/M), settling at 53.8%. Throughout the year, schedule reliability fluctuated within a...

https://container-news.com/december-schedule-reliability-slips-with-maersk-leading-ahead-of-alliance-reshuffle/

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