OCEAN carriers are setting on a rate restoration programme for the westbound trade lane by increasing general rate increases (GRI) from US$600 to $900/TEU to alleviate depressed volumes and rates.
The Asia-Europe trade lane saw decreased container traffic drop 0.5 per cent in the final quarter with a quarter-on-quarter basis recording declines of 4.2 per cent in second quarter and 3.7 per cent in the third quarter. The deepest decline in November reached 5.8 per cent with a slight uptick in December compared to same period 2010.
But fourth quarter container volumes were still 3.3 per cent higher than 2010, according to figures from Container Trades Statistics, though a consistently bad performance on the Asia-Europe rates for dry and reefer cargo, dropping 16.8 per cent to 13.9 million TEU year on year offset gains.
An aggressive slew of GRIs of which include the German carrier's Hapag-Lloyd and Japan's MOL increasing by $750/TEU on westbound trades effective March 1. "K" Line and NYK will raise rates by $725/TEU and $650/TEU effective March 1 and 2 respectively. Hong Kong-based carrier OOCL has introduced even higher increase at $800/TEU.