This was meant to be the year that the chickens came home to roost for shipowners.
After spending large chunks of the excess profits made when shipping rates soared during the pandemic on new ships, the forecasts a year ago were for freight rates (and shipowners’ earnings) to crash as huge new vessels came into service.
Although the latter has happened, with container lines expanding their existing fleet at a rate of 1 per cent per month in the first eight months of this year, a wave of disruptions has pushed rates higher, according to Simon Heaney, senior manager of container research at consultancy Drewry.