The impact of the trend has been relatively limited in the first quarter of the year, however, concerns have already been raised that the situation is likely to worsen in the second quarter of the year with much higher economic impact.
According to the data from Copenhagen based intelligence provider Sea-Intelligence, the number of blank sailings on the main east-west trades is now some 250-350% higher than what is normally seen during Chinese New Year.
The Asia-Europe trade lane has been affected the most, especially impacting the ports on the Mediterranean. The route hosts the majority of the world’s ultra-large containerships.
” As such, the calls to individual ports from these behemoths are an important part of both their operations and finances,” Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence, said.
“Looking at 2020-Q2, the hardest-hit ports in the Mediterranean are La Spezia, Tangiers, and Damietta which see more than 40% of their direct calls removed due to blank sailings from Asia. In North Europe, the hardest hit ports are Felixstowe, Zeebrugge, and Antwerp with roughly a 30% drop in vessel calls from Asia. “
According to Sea-Intelligence, there are only 7 ports that are presently not scheduled to experience blank sailings.
“This clearly shows that the capacity reductions performed by the carriers will not have an even impact across different cargo gateways, and as a consequence, this might serve to strengthen the longer-term competitive positioning of some ports over others in Europe,” Murphy added.
由於COVID-19大流行引起的需求減少，海洋運輸公司宣布的海運數量驚人，這對全球港口產生了連鎖反應。
這一趨勢的影響在今年第一季度相對有限，然而，人們已經擔心這種情況在第二季度可能會進一步惡化，對經濟的影響更大。
根據來自哥本哈根的情報提供者Sea-Intelligence的數據，東西方主要航線上的取消航班次數現在比農曆新年期間通常看到的航行次數高出250-350％。
亞歐貿易通道受到的影響最大，尤其是對地中海港口的影響。這條航線擁有世界上大多數超大型集裝箱船。
海洋情報公司首席執行官艾倫·墨菲說：“因此，這些龐然大物的靠港是其運營和財務的重要部分。”
“從2020年第二季度開始，地中海受災最嚴重的港口是La Spezia，Tangiers和Dimietta，他們直接取消超過40%來自亞洲航班停靠。在北歐，受災最嚴重的港口是Felixstowe，Zeebrugge和Antwerp，來自亞洲的船隻停靠數量下降了約30％。“
根據海洋情報局（Sea-Intelligence）的報導，目前只有七個未計劃進行停靠的港口。
“這清楚地表明，承運人減少的數量不會在不同的貨運通道之間產生均勻的影響，因此，這可能有助於加強某些港口相對於歐洲其他港口的長期競爭地位，” Murphy補充說。
Imformation source: World Maritime News Staff , Image Courtesy: Internews
