WHILE Drewry’s World Container Index continues to fall – this week by another 3% – rates in the China-Australia trade are reportedly nudging year-long highs and demand remains strong.
Carriers have been sneaking extra capacity onto the route by filling ships returning to Australasian trades from drydockings and/or to replace other vessels and now Taiwan’s TS Lines, which proved very adept at opportunistically milking demand during COVID (at one time with three extra services) is again listing extra-loader voyages.
The 1909 TEU TS Guangzhou is already on its way to East Coast Australian ports, due mid-September, and sisters TS Tianjin and TS Osaka are expected to follow at reasonably close intervals. TSL appears to be taking advantage of delays to several other China-Australia services, for which carriers have been issuing port omission notifications thanks to weather and other disruptions.
Separately, SeaLead’s CA2 service contribution Tex (2490 TEU) which was forced back to Qingdao in early August due to the need for major repairs, is now due on the East Coast in early October. SeaLead was able to swing in a smaller vessel, the 1809 TEU newbuilding Aristaios, at short notice but it only loaded at Qingdao and Shanghai and is due Port Botany 3 September, thence Melbourne and Brisbane.
The line’s late September CA2 sailing is now listed to be taken by the recently-chartered, 4636 TEU Zhong Gu Nan Chang.
