In order to better understand what is going on at the moment and to find out how you can specifically solve it, we first have to look at the positions of the various parties involved in this unique market.
On the one hand, there are the container shipping lines: An oligopoly in which the top five account for a good 65 per cent of the market volume and whose market share has increased massively over the last ten years. The shipping lines are extremely asset heavy and – after a break of about five years – have outdone themselves in recent weeks in placing orders for new ships with a slot capacity of up to 24.000 TEU per new-built vessel. Typically, however, delivery takes up to three years after the order has been placed.
On the other hand, there are shippers that have the choice of either shipping containers with the forwarder or directly with the shipping lines, hence bypassing the forwarders.
