April increases not likely to hold

Shipping consultants Drewry said the 1^st April GRI is likely to have little effect in raising rates to sustainable levels.

“We anticipate freight rates on the Asia-Europe trade to remain highly volatile. Hence, the April GRI may lift rates in the short term but we expect these gains to erode thereafter,” Drewry’s director, research products, Martin Dixon, told Lloyd’s Loading List.com.

“Longer term, we expect rates to remain under pressure given that 2014 will see yet another year of excess capacity supply growth, albeit at a slightly slower pace than we have seen of late. Demand on the trade is not stagnant but growth remains very modest and well below growth rates of the past decade,” he added.