Atlantic capacity rises, but demand wanes

Incoming capacity on the Atlantic trades has not shifted the spot rate dial even with the major increase of 21% in capacity overall, from 723,152 to 875,808 teu.

Unexpected and highly disruptive measures are making the various global trades tough to read and far more difficult than usual to forecast, given that major changes can happen rapidly shifting the focus from one issue to another.

Last year the ‘dumping’ of capacity onto the Atlantic trades, mainly from Pacific services had little effect on spot rates, this year capacity has risen again substantially but for entirely different reasons.