Maersk Line sees seasonal peak volume on Asia-Europe routes

The world's largest container shipper Maersk Line expects the seasonal peak in volumes to start later this year on its key Asia-Europe routes, but still hopes rising demand and

a decline in the rate of new ships coming to market will lead to an improvement in the currently weak rates in the third quarter of 2011, its chief operating officer told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It's difficult to predict how the Asia-Europe business will develop going forward. What we can say is that we've had a challenging second quarter, and that the peak period on volumes may start a little later than usual this year," said Maersk Line Chief Operating Officer Morten Engelstoft.
Maersk Line, a unit of Danish industrial conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, however, maintains its mid-term expectation of trade growth of between 5% and 8% on the Asia-Europe routes between 2011 and 2015, Engelstoft said.
Container traffic between Europe and Asia has been hit in the first half of 2011 by a massive decline in rates, with shipping prices currently down some 50% on the year, and 40% this year sofar. Maersk Line is particularly sensitive to price volatility on these routes, because traffic here makes up about 40% of its total shipping volumes, or a share roughly twice as high as the sector average.
"On the positive side, we see a lower growth of new tonnage in the second half of the year, compared to the first on the Asia-Europe routes. We know when new ships will be delivered, and most were already delivered in the first half, so we see a gradual growth decline of new capacity coming to market in the second half," Engelstoft said.
"At the same time," he added, "we expect a peak in volumes in the third quarter, and combined this should lead to a better balance between capacity and demand."
Source: Dow Jones