Carriers are having a harder time adjusting their capacity in periods of undulating demand by hiring and off-hiring charter tonnage as freight rates fall, fuel costs rise and charter market turns in favour of shipowners, reports London's Loadstar.
Maersk Line has often spoken of its charter market "toolbox" of short-term fixtures it can easily adjust to suit capacity needs and MSC and CMA CGM draws two thirds of its operational fleet from chartered tonnage.
CMA CGM has issued a customer advisory regarding "fleet disturbances" on its Europe Caribbean Service (ECS), relating to the deployment of a chartered vessel that owners said could be delayed "at least three weeks more".
In the past, said Loadstar, the French carrier would have simply cancelled the fixture and chartered another vessel, however, it was clearly unable to find a suitable replacement for the geared 2,556-TEU Rio Taku, admitting that the "available vessel market is very poor".
The idle containership fleet has shrunk to fewer than 100 ships "many of which are in long-term lay-up requiring two weeks or more of reactivation - and in some sizes the market has actually "sold out".
One London broker told Loadstar he had nothing open on his books, and charterers were "getting desperate".
"Carriers are starting to feel the pressure from higher charter rates, as the availability of open tonnage shrinks," said Paris research house Alphaliner.
Sources:HKSG GROUP
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