...and in the opposite direction

摘要

The westbound tradelane to Asia from USWC shares many of the same themes as eastbound - a fall in volumes last year is forecast to be replaced by an increase this year, with a rise in rates and a shortage in both vessel capacity and equipment. According to PIERS, traffic from the USWC to Asia fell by 7.6% to 3,817,412TEU. As with the eastbound trade, the pickup in trade westbound as 2009 went on can be shown, as there was a crash in cargo volumes in Q2 09 and Q3 09 year-on-year of 11.7% and 8.6% respectively. In Q4 09 the tradelane rebounded by 25.4% compared to the same period in 2008 (see figure 2).