Despite falling rates for container shipping, the volume of the global container market is still high. According to the data for August published by CTS, the demand on the global container market remains at record highs of the pandemic period (after a decline in the second half of last year and the first months of this year).
Global market volumes levelled off in spring 2023 and remained around 15 million TEUs per month from May to July. In August, CTS evaluates the market volume at 15.3 million TEUs, which is 3.6% higher than the year before and 5.3% higher than in August 2019, pre-COVID crisis year.
In monthly dynamics of 2023, the volumes keep growing everywhere, except Europe. Imports to Europe have continued to decline since March, however the volumes remain above the anti-record levels of the second half of last year. The European export is at record lows since the beginning of this year.
In Asia, the volumes keep growing: import volumes are lower than in the pandemic period, but are significantly higher than in the pre-pandemic period (2018–2019). The volumes of container export for the second month in a row exceeded the peaks of 2021–2022.
The dynamics of U.S. container import volumes this year follow more or less the same pattern as the 2019–2018 charts, however the average monthly volumes are 100,000–150,000 TEUs higher than pre-COVID ones.