According to a recent Sea-Intelligence analysis, the rate of contraction for both loaded imports and overall handled volumes has been steadily slowing down in recent months.
In May 2023, Sea-Intelligence reported laden imports recorded a growth of 0 per cent, while total handled volumes contracted by only -0.2 per cent. Laden import volume growth since January 2020 can be seen in Figure 1.
The trendline here closely resembles that of total volumes, as this constitutes the majority of the ports’ handling volumes.
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Sea-Intelligence witnessed the reductions for loaded arrival volumes were somewhat stronger year-over-year (YoY).
However, on an annualised basis, Sea-Intelligence detected a high fall in December 2022, with the value remaining rather constant at roughly -5.5 per cent in January and February 2023.
But by March 2023, the figure had dropped dramatically, to -0.7 per cent.
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Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, stated: “This gradual improvement over 2023 looks to be an indication towards normalisation of the market. By May 2023, the laden inbound annualised growth rate was 0.0 per cent, which, while not really growing, is also not contracting.
“On a side note, the laden export to empty export ratio has started to decline once again i.e., towards higher laden export versus empty export, with the latest figure at 0.5, down from 0.9 in March 2023, which was almost at parity.”
