26 February 2024 (Lloyd's List) - GLOBAL imbalances in container exports and imports are growing, leading container lines to increasingly transport fresh air in the form of empty containers.

An analysis of empty container movements by Sea-Intelligence shows that the number of empty containers being repositioned rose 20% in the five years between the end of 2018 and the end of 2023. That period includes sharp peaks during the pandemic-driven cargo boom in 2020-2021.

Despite some seasonal variation, the number of empty containers shipped each month has risen from 3.5m teu to 4m teu over the period.

By comparison, the global number of laden containers had increased just 2.5% since 2019.

“Overall, we see that the growth in empty teu movements, on a year-on-year basis, has recently levelled out around 20%,” said Sea-Intelligence chief executive Alan Murphy.

“It is very clear that the need to move empty containers has grown significantly more than the need to move full containers. This is irrespective of whether we measure in teu or teu-miles.”

In essence, the need to move empty containers on the backhaul trades had grown more than twice as fast as the need to move full containers on the headhaul trades, he said.

“This means that the actual costs related to moving headhaul containers has grown, and de facto this means that headhaul shippers need to cover an increasing cost of moving empty containers going forward.”