Containers

A box shortage last year led to a surge in freight rates that helped several major carriers recover from a dismal 2009.

Container box availability has fallen to around 1.6 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) this year, from 2.2 four years ago, said Eng Aik Meng, president of APL container shipping line, a unit of Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines.

That translates into around 23.7 million container boxes available to the container shipping industry, which has a capacity of around 14.8 million TEUs.

“As early as April, you are going to see some shortages. I’m quite sure by peak season, you are going to have a severe shortage,” Meng told reporters at a news conference. “Undoubtedly, freight rates will go up.”

From Reuters