One in three containers shipped today is empty, up from one in four before the pandemic

Measured in teu-miles, 30% of all global container shipping work now involves repositioning empty boxes, up from 24% pre-pandemic. The number of empty containers shipped has grown 65% since the first quarter of 2019, while the number of full containers has grown just 17% over the same period. Total demand, measured in TEU-miles, has grown 40%.      In practical terms, Sea-Intelligence calculates that carriers are now moving double the volume of empty containers – measured by distance – compared with before the pandemic.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The analysis points directly to widening global trade imbalances as the driver. Where cargo flows are unequal between regions, carriers are obliged to reposition empty equipment to where demand requires it, absorbing both the cost and the capacity to do so.      Sea-Intelligence warned the trend has direct consequences for freight rates. “The added cost of these imbalances will result in increased costs – and hence freight rates – for the head-haul shippers,” the consultancy concluded, noting that it is the shippers on the high-volume lanes who ultimately bear the expense of repositioning the industry’s growing surplus of empty boxes.      The findings underscore a growing structural challenge for liner shipping, where the efficiency gains achieved through larger vessels and network optimisation are increasingly being offset by the cost of managing global trade imbalances.