Blanked Sailings Means One Million TEU Now Idle

Carriers have recently announced numerous blanked sailings through to the end of November, as a recent report confirms that idle capacity has exceeded one million teu.

Global shipping demand is showing no signs of increasing, which has led to carriers confirming further blanked voyages on Asian routes. Meanwhile, the 2M Alliance have suspended a complete loop, which effectively creates their ‘winter schedule’.

Over-capacity is also contributing to blanked sailing needs, as new build ships continue to enter the market. New builds with 190,000 teu of capacity have been delivered to steamship lines in September, following similar figures in August and July, and a record 300,000 teu in June.

The Loadstar recent reported that 1.18 million teu of capacity aboard 315 inactive ships is now laid idle. This has dramatically increased from the 942,035 teu that had been reported two weeks earlier.

Market conditions are becoming extremely challenging for carriers right now, especially since the European Commission recently announced they will not be renewing the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER) when it expires next April. CBER is the regulation that enables  carriers to operate as alliances, which was introduced in 2009 and then renewed in both 2014 and 2020.