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In the all important Asia-Europe trade the latest data from the European Liner Affairs Association suggests that the pace of trade fall-off is slowing. Westbound volumes were reported to be down 12% in March compared to the same month a year earlier. Total volume was 963,000 teu. This represents a significant improvement on February performance when volume fell by 32% to just 576,000 teu. There was also some improvement in eastbound traffic, the fall off amounting to only 4% compared with the year before and total volume comprising 430,800 teu.

The overall climate in the trade, however, continues to claim casualties with Malaysian International Shipping Corp (MISC) recently giving notice of its intention to resign from the Grand Alliance at the end of the year. The remaining Alliance partners, Hapag Lloyd, NYK Line and OOCL, will fill the capacity gap and thereby maintain the same service levels.

MISC states that in the future it intends to concentrate on the core service networks covering the intra-Asia trades including the Middle East. And here also some positives can be seen: the company recently decided to boost its Halal Express service by upgrading capacity and including coverage of China as well as South East Asia. At the beginning of 2009, weekly capacity on the Halal Express was 1,500 teu and five months later with expanded port coverage it is over 4,000 teu.

Another positive sign is in the eastbound container trade from Europe to the Middle East and Indian sub-continent. In February, volume rose by 4% compared with the previous year and in March by 7%.

Vietnam is another bright spot with Mitsui OSK Line launching a new Vietnam/USWC service this month and American President Lines adding a new call in Vietnam at the Saigon Port/PSA deepwater terminal as part of its PSI service connecting with the US West Coast over Seattle and Vancouver.

At a company level, there is also the news from Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) that it intends to relaunch its Asia/Black Sea Tiger Service – 10 vessels are to be deployed, although all the capacity will come from MSC’s Asia/Mediterranean Phoenix Service, the future of which is uncertain at the moment.

Similarly, in April, Piraeus-based containership owner Danaos Corp stated that it believed the worst of the so-called container shipping crisis may have passed, although this might not be reflected in terms of chartering activity for several months. John Cousta, chief executive, Danaos Corp, in a briefing to analysts said: “We believe we have seen the bottom in the first quarter.” He further explained that this view was arrived at by analysing factors such as the number of vessels lying idle and the load factors of vessels in service.

On the other hand the pain still keeps coming. MSC, for example, reported in mid-May that it is to suspend its Jade Service which runs from Asia to Gioia Tauro/Valencia. This move will take eight to nine 9,200 teu vessels out of the Asia/Mediterranean trade. This is just one development but there are many more like it.

Bottom line, it is also the case that volume restoration does not necessarily mean rate restoration. While, for example, Maersk has been able to achieve some modest rate increases of $100 – $200 per teu eastbound and westbound in Asia-Europe trades, and plans further increases later in the year, these rises will not be enough to compensate for the earlier rate collapse. Equally, it is Maersk’s view that the North-South trades have not yet bottomed out. Eivind Kolding, chief executive, Maersk Line, said: “There is still a long way to go to get rates up to a level where lines would just break even.” And generally concluded that: “There is no doubt that the year ahead of us is going to be extremely difficult.”