Container Trade Statistics (CTS) data on containerised cargo volumes for March was released last week, showing signs of a market rebound. The new uptick in demand comes after six months of severe drops, says a new Sea Intelligence report.

Looking back at the data of the past few years, analysts found that the drop in demand between September 2022 and February 2023 was nearly as sharp as the collapse seen at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.

However, the Sea Intelligence analysis, which looks at the data from the TEUxMiles perspective, described the March rebound as “very evident.”

“The rebound has not brought the market fully back up to the level seen before the drop in September 2022, but we are certainly significantly above the lower plateau seen since September 2022. All in all, this implies the rebound is real,” writes the report.

Nevertheless, not all markets recovered in the same way. The data shows that the North American market continued to suffer a decline in demand. In particular, import volumes declined by nearly 20% in September 2022 and remained at this low level in March. However, the year-on-year decline in exports was relatively smaller at around 1%. Experts have linked the lack of progress in the market to inventory development in the US.

In Europe, TEU volumes shipped to the region increased in March for the first time since February 2022, says the analysis. Imports started to show positive figures growing by nearly 2% year-on-year in March, while exports remained negative at almost -10%. Interestingly, the Sub-Saharan Africa region witnessed the most significant year-on-year growth for both imports (+10%) and exports (+9%).