|
INTRA-Asia
trade volumes are expected to provide a
major boost for world trade this year, however,
given the ease with which carriers are able
to cascade tonnage into this market it may
make it a very unstable region this year,
despite the fast growth.
While
trade volumes are projected to remain subdued
on the mainline routes of Asia-Europe and
the transpacific, Intra-Asia volumes are
expected to grow by 7.8 per cent this year
for a total of 48 million TEU, according
to the latest Clarkson-published Container
Intelligence Monthly.
This
is very solid growth. But according to sources
this publication has spoken to concerning
the outlook for the trade a number of liner
executives operating in the market are very
concerned about the number of larger ships
entering the Intra-Asia arena¡K
One
carrier executive that we spoke to summed
up his view on the situation on the trade,
where his company makes almost all of its
money: "We just have to survive,"
he said.
This
is a rather ominous outlook for a service
provider operating in one of the strongest
growing trades in the world today.
The
fact of the matter is that while many ports
throughout Asia are not capable of handling
the largest vessels in the world, there
are still a number that can. After all,
this is the part of the world that the goods
are loaded onto the ships for delivery to
Europe and the United States.
Certainly
the Chinese ports are capable, as are the
leading transhipment hubs of Singapore,
Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas and the Northeast
Asian hubs in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
While
there is still no influx of 13,000 TEU ships
into the Intra-Asia trades, there are an
increasing number of post-panamax ships,
which are making life very difficult for
operators of ships in the 1,000 TEU to 3,000
TEU category. They simply cannot compete
due to the lower unit costs of the larger
players.
This
all makes for a very volatile trade. The
evidence for this is in the various freight
rates on the major port pairs within the
trade.
According
to the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index
(SCFI) the rate from Shanghai to Japanese
west coast ports is now US$342 per TEU and
$351 per TEU to the east coast. And this
is the all-in rate.
Page 1 2
[Next]
|
