According to Container Trade Statistics (CTS), global container volumes were strong in January 2025, hitting 15.4 million TEUs, a 5.8 per cent increase year-on-year (YoY).
Using CTS data, Sea-Intelligence calculated that global TEU Miles – adjusted for nautical distance travelled – increased by a very robust 8.1 per cent YoY in January, absorbing greater vessel capacity, while head-haul container transactions increased by 12.9 per cent YoY in January 2025.
TEU Miles growth exceeded 20 per cent in 2024, driven by rerouted container services from Suez to Africa due to the Red Sea crisis, not by increased demand.
January 2025 is the first month with an apples-to-apples YoY comparison of moving across Africa, therefore the 8.1 per cent YoY rise represents genuine, distance-adjusted container demand.
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However, due to the changeable schedule of Chinese New Year (CNY), Sea-Intelligence noted that January data should be interpreted with caution.
The data analyst company added that market strength can also be assessed by usage.
Measures of utilisation serve to alleviate CNY timing concerns, as carriers will have adjusted their networks to match supply to the expected seasonal fall in container demand.
On Asia-Europe, utilisation at a monthly level dropped already in January 2025, whereas this drop typically only begins after CNY. This is likely a part of the explanation for the early drop-in spot rates on this trade lane in January.
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In January, utilisation in Asia-North America increased, and spot rates remained stable for a longer period than in Asia-Europe.
This suggests that lower utilisation was a contributing factor to the early drop in Asia-Europe spot rates.
However, utilisation in Europe-North America decreased sharply in January, but spot rates did not fall significantly.
