The major boom in container traffic, especially from Asia to the US, has drained transport capacity in Europe, Asia and Africa, according to a report by analyst firm Alphaliner.

Worst off is Europe, where intra-European container routes as of Aug.1 had lost 14.2% of their capacity compared to the same time last year. This drop corresponds to a ship capacity of almost 150,000 teu being withdrawn from intra-European routes.

On intra-Asian routes, the decline came to 10.3% in the same period, while capacity in all Africa traffic dropped by 4.3%.

Alphaliner’s report states that it is traffic between Asia and North America, in particular, that has drained the internal capacity in Europe, Asia and Africa, however, the picture is more nuanced than that.

While 2021 saw an increase in capacity on Asia-North America routes by an entire 31%, these routes have only attracted an additional 62,500 teu in the first seven months of this year.

On the other hand, capacity displacement was greater on Transatlantic routes as well as those to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, according to Alphaliner.

While Transatlantic capacity had increased 8.5% on Aug. 1 compared to the same time last year, capacity on routes to the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent had grown by 8.6% in the same period.

”As more medium-sized or smaller ships have been shifted to deep sea routes, the average vessel size has decreased. This goes in fact for all trade routes, except for the Africa-related services,” Alphaliner concludes.

English edit: Jonas Sahl Hollænder

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