Aggressive scrapping, a dearth of newbuilds and port congestion has given the Panamax containership sector a welcome boost and pushed daily charter rates to their highest level in four years.
Meanwhile, the current port congestion crisis afflicting the US west coast is providing a further boost to the sector. Although Panamax ships have mostly given way to 6,000-10,000 teu units in the transpacific trade, the current delays to mainline vessels has opened up the market for supplementary ad-hoc charters for the transpacific, and for cargo diverted to the US east coast which sails via the Panama Canal.
Spot freight rates from Asia to the US east coast have climbed to over $5,000 per 40ft – more than double the market rate for the US west coast – as shippers seek to overcome the substantial business-threatening delays of containers stuck on ships and congested quays at Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland.
