By Nick Lung.    Photo：Daniel Peterson

While there was a shortage of containers at the height of the Covid pandemic, the global economy is now facing the opposite problem: too many empty containers. In addition to the drop in freight rates, the data showed that container yards are now full of unloaded containers.

It pointed to more signs of falling global demand and a looming economic slowdown.

Traders and shippers say the drop in global consumer demand is not a sign that the global economy is normalizing after a frantic post-lockdown spending spree, but rather a downward shift in consumer appetite. In response to stacked and overflowing warehouses, ports such as the Port of Houston have begun imposing fees on empty containers sitting at terminals for more than seven days, according to Darin Miller, national maritime manager at global claims management provider Sedgwick.

"What a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of the time, the containers in the warehouse are empty," often for weeks on end, and the sheer number of containers on board ships or ports leaves us running out of warehouse space, which only exacerbates our ongoing supply chain crisis as it affects the repositioning and movement of containers. "

As the biggest spending period of the year approaches, blank or canceled sailings also increase, which is usually the opposite. Blank voyages occur when a shipping line decides to skip a port or an entire voyage to manage changes in demand and capacity.

According to Drewry's latest analysis of canceled voyages, 14% of voyages on major container lines were canceled from late November to early December.

Last week, major shipping group Maersk warned in its third-quarter results that freight rates had peaked amid easing supply chain congestion and falling demand. The company told investors to expect lower margins in ocean shipping. Nearly 60% of the 200 freight forwarders, traders and shippers interviewed by Container xChange last month said they were grappling with geopolitical, economic and political risks that are causing downside to consumption and container demand pressure.

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