SIMIC

Growth concentrated on a few trade lanes, with congestion and imbalances causing disruption on other trades. according to a review by the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), which declared 2021 would be an even better for container shipping.

The biggest growth recorded was on Far East to North America trade. Volumes rose 3.6 million TEU in the second half of the year, compared with the first, while volumes rose 2.1 million TEU compared with the second half of 2019. The entire year saw a growth of 1.4 million TEU.

Of all of the high-volume trades, the Far East to North America was the only one to grow over the full year. Intra-Asia and Far East to Europe growth in the second half of the year wasn't enough to make up for H1 losses.

After falling by 1.1 million TEU in the first half of the year, volumes between the two were only up by 200,000 TEU in the second half of 2020, leaving full year volumes down 5.2 per cent.

The intra-Asian trades saw a 2.2 per cent growth in the second half of the year compared to H2 2019, but it wasn't enough to recover a four per cent loss in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Indian subcontinent and Middle East exports to the Far East saw volumes increase by 115,000 TEU in H1 2020, causing it to be one of the very few trades that bucked the trend and grew in the first half of the year.

"The particularly strong recovery in demand for containerised goods in the US was driven by a rise in consumer spending, particularly on goods for the homes that people have been spending much more time in, as well as higher spending on goods as consumers were unable to spend what they usually do on services," said BIMCO chief shipping analyst Peter Sand.

"As manufacturing in consuming countries has struggled to recover to its pre-pandemic levels, imports have outgrown demand for a number of goods in order to fill the gap. This development is hugely beneficial for shipping,"