Global TEU/Miles grew a very strong 8.1% Y/Y in January
Sea Intelligence reports that global container volumes continued showing strength in January 2025, reaching 15.4 million TEU, a Y/Y growth of 5.8%, according to data from Container Trade Statistics (CTS). Using the CTS data, we calculate that global TEU/Miles – adjusting for nautical distance sailed – grew a very strong 8.1% Y/Y in January, soaking up more vessel capacity, while the growth in head-haul container trades in January 2025 was also very strong, at 12.9% Y/Y.
TEU/Miles growth rates were even higher throughout 2024, more than 20%, but this was due to the rerouting of container services from Suez to round-Africa due to the Red Sea crisis and thus not by an underlying strength in container demand. January 2025 is the first month with an apples-to-apples Y/Y comparison of going round-Africa, so the 8.1% Y/Y growth reflects real, distance-adjusted container demand. That said, the shifting timing of Chinese New Year (CNY) means that January figures should always be considered with some caution.
Another way to gauge the strength of the market is by looking at utilisation. Measures of utilisation somewhat alleviate the timing concern of CNY, as the carriers will have adjusted their networks to match supply to the expected seasonal CNY drop in container demand.
On Asia-Europe, utilisation at a monthly level dropped already in January 2025, whereas this drop typically only begins after CNY. This is likely a part of the explanation for the early drop-in spot rates on this trade lane in January.
On Asia-North America, there is a clear strengthening of utilisation in January. This trade also saw spot rates hold firm longer than in Asia-Europe, lending credence to the notion that lower utilisation is one of the drivers behind the early drop in Asia-Europe spot rates. On Europe-North America however, there was a sharp drop in utilisation in January, but curiously, without a major drop in spot rates – at least not yet.