While analysts believe that the additional capacity coming to the market will likely ease the current pressure on containerised trade, they forecast that the demand for containerised shipping will remain high in the next few months.

According to an article by Lloyd's List, the US National Retail Federation expects US retail imports to grow 12% during June-August. They expect demand to cool down as of September, a trend considered seasonally normal.

On the other hand, HSBC analysts believe that trade momentum will be sustained throughout the third quarter of this year.

"Shippers are keen to front-load their cargoes ahead of Christmas to evade further disruptions, potential tariffs and further increases in freight rates," HSBC said.

"Apart from this, the end of destocking in the US has meant that retailers now need to rely on imports rather than inventories to meet demand."

On the other hand, Alan Murphy, chief executive at Sea-Intelligence, says that the April 2024 sales and inventory data from the US showed "no early warning of the sudden sharp uptick on container bookings in May, indicating that inventory replenishment was not the main driver behind the recent demand surge."

He believes the restocking of inventories had the same trend in 2024 as in 2023.

"It is clear that part of the supply chain crunch is due to a crunch in capacity, where carriers have been unable to operate the planned sailings, and hence capacity has declined year-on-year," Murphy said.

In the meantime, carriers plan to increase capacity on the Transpacific and Asia-Europe trades in the next few weeks.

"Their ability to do this, and hence alleviate at least part of the pressure on the market, will critically depend on whether port congestion allows them to operate the envisioned vessels in the sailing schedules," Murphy said.