Colossal levels of newbuilding, waning demand and a discontented and resentful customer base is a recipe for a run on rates that had been expected last year but is now predicted to be only marginally affected by a United States East Coast port strike.
Global Shippers Forum (GSF) director James Hookham will tell a FIATA World Congress in Panama today (26 September) that shippers have had enough and will be fighting back against what they see as a poor service offered at extremely high rates with little visibility in how charges are made and a suspicion that lines are manipulating capacity to suit them.
GSF along with consultant MDS Transmodal have designed the Container Shipping Performance Indicators (CSPI) to aid shippers in coming rate negotiations arming them with data that can bring visibility to contract discussions.
Following last year’s false dawn, which saw the Middle East war erupt, closing the Suez route, and forcing carriers around the Cape of Good Hope to absorb newbuilding capacity that had been expected to rebalance the supply and demand equation, shipper confidence is again growing.
“The market is too unpredictable at the moment to confidently make projections,” pointed out Hookham, “but we can look at trends in the current circumstances.”
Those trends will initially take the form of quarterly market reports compiled by MDS Transmodal using publicly available sources and the company’s own algorithms to detect those trends and inform shippers.
Hookham will tell the FIATA delegates that shippers are looking for three things from this data, the numbers to use when they are in discussions with the shipping lines; to understand trade routes more fully, so that when a problem arises they can rapidly assess their options; and, when considering re-sourcing to other parts of Asia or closer to the consumer market, what are the available services, what is the quality of those services and can they make a detailed risk assessment before taking major decisions.
In an effort to address these questions, GSF and MDST have put together the CSPI which has eight indices, three of which – capacity, profitability and connectivity – will be presented by Hookham in his Panama speech today.
Global Shippers Forum (GSF) director James Hookham will tell a FIATA World Congress in Panama today (26 September) that shippers have had enough and will be fighting back against what they see as a poor service offered at extremely high rates with little visibility in how charges are made and a suspicion that lines are manipulating capacity to suit them.
GSF along with consultant MDS Transmodal have designed the Container Shipping Performance Indicators (CSPI) to aid shippers in coming rate negotiations arming them with data that can bring visibility to contract discussions.
Following last year’s false dawn, which saw the Middle East war erupt, closing the Suez route, and forcing carriers around the Cape of Good Hope to absorb newbuilding capacity that had been expected to rebalance the supply and demand equation, shipper confidence is again growing.
“The market is too unpredictable at the moment to confidently make projections,” pointed out Hookham, “but we can look at trends in the current circumstances.”
Those trends will initially take the form of quarterly market reports compiled by MDS Transmodal using publicly available sources and the company’s own algorithms to detect those trends and inform shippers.
Hookham will tell the FIATA delegates that shippers are looking for three things from this data, the numbers to use when they are in discussions with the shipping lines; to understand trade routes more fully, so that when a problem arises they can rapidly assess their options; and, when considering re-sourcing to other parts of Asia or closer to the consumer market, what are the available services, what is the quality of those services and can they make a detailed risk assessment before taking major decisions.
In an effort to address these questions, GSF and MDST have put together the CSPI which has eight indices, three of which – capacity, profitability and connectivity – will be presented by Hookham in his Panama speech today.
