(TheConservativeTimes.org) – The CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, which is the fifth largest ocean carrier, said that they have a new view into what the next half of 2024 may look like for ocean freight.
Houthi attacks that targeted ships and caused chaos led ocean freight companies to steer away; many ocean freight companies saw a decline in business and movement. Previous forecasts showed a lower scale number but Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO, said that things have started to pick up in recent months.
“We also see that inventories are depleted in many cases and so far we’ve seen a good recovery after Chinese New Year, so we’ve been fairly happy with that,” Jansen said.
He described a drop in profits for them and explained issues like high rates and container congestion, which led to continued issues. Jansen commented, “The last quarter was difficult because rates were at unsustainable levels.”
“I think everybody noticed that. We saw them coming up a bit towards the end of the quarter, and then of course, the Red Sea crisis which again changed the market,” he continued.
The issues in the Red Sea have caused ocean freight shipping to take much longer as companies are changing routes in order to keep their people safe and out of the line of attack. Jansen says that he hopes the conflict is over in a couple of months but there is a substantial possibility that it won’t be.
They are preparing for peak season which could come earlier this year, and they are working on a new transportation model called a hub and spoke model, which would allow more efficiency with traveling.
Copyright 2024, TheConservativeTimes.org
