According to the Container Trade Statistics (CTS) data, the global container market has turned towards positive demand dynamics, mainly due to the growth in container traffic in Asia. According to the updated data, in June 2022 the global container shipping volume amounted to 15.5 million TEU, which is 0.6% more than a year before and 9.1% higher than in June 2019.
Let us remind that, according to Maersk, in the second quarter of 2022, the overall decline in global container volume was 2.3% compared to the same period last year. CTS reports a 1.4% slowdown in market volume in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year.
The volumes of the Asian container market revived growth in June amid the relaxation of lockdown restrictions - the volume of import container traffic for this month exceeded the level of June 2021 by 2.6%, and export traffic increased by 5%.
CTS experts expect that in the coming months this growth will be reflected in the dynamics of markets in other regions. But still container imports to North America remain a fraction of a percent higher than last year, while exports continue to decline.
In Europe, container imports have been declining since March, exports have been decreasing since February. In June, the decline in imports and exports compared to June 2021 accelerated to 9% and 11%, respectively.