Blank sailings have traditionally been a tool for shipping lines to manage supply in relation to demand, but during the pandemic, shipping lines were forced to blank sailings despite high demand and high freight rates, as endemic port congestion created a shortage of available vessel capacity. The current round of blank sailings is also driven by a shortage of vessel capacity, as the idle container vessel fleet was at a very low 0.9% in April, according to the Sea-Intelligence Sunday Spotlight.
As shown in Figure 1, on Asia-North Europe, the ratio of blanked capacity essentially doubled from March to April, from a -12% blank share to -21%. For Asia-Mediterranean, the share of blank capacity goes from -17% in March to -8% in April. On Transpacific, a capacity reduced of around -14% to the West Coast, and -11% to the East Coast, for both March and April 2024. This indicates a much more unstable operating environment in Asia-Europe than on Transpacific.
With virtually no idle vessels, and with spot rates increasing sharply in recent weeks, this increase in blank sailings is driven by the Red Sea crisis. Port congestion is worsening in key hubs in both Asia and Europe.
