Prime Freight’s summary of a November 2020 report by The Loadstar. Read the original for the full story.
In November 2020 Ocean Insights data showed container rollovers at major transhipment hubs rising again in October, a month that would normally fall in the post-peak lull.
After a decline in September, almost every carrier saw more shipments miss their planned loading. Ocean Insights said the cargo pipeline had maxed out ocean capacity: carriers were struggling with box shortages in Asia, and almost the entire global fleet was already in service, so there were no extra ships to add.
October rollover ratios included about 23% for MSC, 35% for Maersk, 38% for Hapag-Lloyd, 39% for ONE, 26% for Cosco and 32% for Evergreen. A few carriers improved: Hamburg Süd fell to about 25%, and CMA CGM dropped to 31% from more than 40% in each of the previous two months. At Singapore, the largest transhipment hub, the rollover rate rose to 31%, against about 22% a year earlier, and Ningbo and Tanjung Pelepas also saw more rollovers. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai and Busan saw fewer.
What it meant for shippers
A rollover can add days or weeks to a transhipment shipment, often with little warning. In late 2020 this made it important to track cargo at the transhipment port as well as at origin, and to favour direct services for urgent freight where available.