CONTAINER shipping lines continue to add new services to eastbound transpacific trade lanes as record high freight rates and strong demand attract more carry capacity for Asia to North America cargoes, reports S&P Global Platts.Platts assessments for Nort

"The biggest change we've seen among carriers is more feeder operators getting into the transpacific market. These are intra-Asia carriers or Chinese domestic carriers and tend to be smaller ships in the 2,000 to 3,000 TEU range coming in as rates have skyrocketed," said a US freight forwarder.

Asia-to-North America trade lanes largest capacity increased 30.6 per cent year on year in the twelve months to July 2021. Capacity deployed on Europe-to-North America routes increased 21.4 per cent over the same period, while Asia to Europe deployments grew 19.7 per cent.

Only 2.5 per cent of the global fleet of containerships was idle in July 2021, down 11 per cent for the same month a year ago. Only capacity deployed on African services declined over this period, falling 6.5 per cent.