The container shipping market outlook for the 2H 2023 indicates that the drop in spot container freight rates has largely stabilized, Maritime Strategies International analyst Daniel Richards told Seatrade Maritime. Although there hasn’t been significant “downward movement,” certain long-haul trades are still facing erosion in their freight rate levels mainly due to events like the US Coast dockworker strike threat in June, he said. Contract container rates have declined compared to 2022 but remain higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to Richards. Average rates are expected to continue declining in 3Q and 4Q 2023 before stabilizing in 2024, Richards predicts.

This (sort of) tracks with Bloomberg’s trade tracker, which predicts that global trade will take a temporary hit before recovering. The tracker shows six out of ten indicators that are performing at a below-normal level, with the ones in the long-term normal range — which include Korean export data recording a positive y-o-y reading in June for the first time after nine months of negative figures — looking uncertain. China data indicate a continued negative trend which impacts other export economies that heavily rely on the country’s economy.

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