It is ranked 16 th in terms of capacity, with a fleet of 85 ships (of which 37 are owned) for a total capacity of 134,773 teu.
Nevertheless, according to Alphaliner, Singapore-headquartered X-Press Feeders has managed to expand its fleet by 2.1% in the past year, and has overtaken Unifeeder to become the world’s largest common feeder operator. “We had some ships sitting outside Rotterdam for six days during the peak congestion periods, and there were ports that refused to accept a feeder call at all, despite the boxes for relay taking up space on the quay,” he added. “Schedules were destroyed and it was impossible to find replacement ships to cover the delayed vessels.” And if we did get tonnage, we couldn’t get the ships worked due to port congestion,” he said. “Unlike our carrier customers, we never enjoyed the boom times as charter hire rates for ships went through the roof, and shipowners wanted us to commit for ridiculously long periods. Indeed, a feeder operator executive told The Loadstar recently carriers were again “turning the screws” on feeder rates and volume commitments. Moreover, the liners, still awash with cash generated over the past two years and with surplus capacity snapped up on the second-hand vessel S&P market, are minded to deploy their own tonnage for spoke-hub relays and the ad-hoc feeder parcels which add the jam to the bread-and-butter of the liner feeds. Notwithstanding the war in Ukraine, which has significantly affected cargo demand in the Baltic, feeder operators plying traditional feeder routes in the North Sea and Irish Sea are having to manage lower volumes and tougher budgeting demands from ocean carrier client procurement officers. The consultant said DP World subsidiary Unifeeder had streamlined its services connecting North Europe with the Baltic region since the end of last year after “a serious drop in cargo demand in the Far East to North Europe trade” impacted its feeder volumes.
Shortsea shipping lines in Northern Europe are facing a fight for survival as demand weakens and rates plummet.Īs in the deepsea sector, shortsea container carriers and feeder lines are having to adjust to a reduction in demand across their networks.įor example, according to Alphaliner data, Aarhus-based Unifeeder has reduced its capacity by more than 25,000 teu in the past year, a 17.9% decline in its fleet.
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