Record number of cancellations in freight

While freight continues to drop sharply due to the slowdown in the global economy, operators are canceling a record number of flights to maintain the current freight level. According to Project44, in the first two weeks of December, the average level of cruise cancellations in the Transatlantic and Trans-Pacific is expected to rise to 46 percent, while this rate will increase to 33 percent in trade from Asia to Europe.

Container operators are gearing up for a record number of cruise cancellations to avoid a drop in freight ahead of Christmas, when they're sorely disappointed in shipping volumes. In addition to the world's two largest container shipping giants MSC and Maersk, another major player, Zim, also brought up the cancellations of voyages. It has been announced that these shipping companies will cancel two-thirds of their Transatlantic flights and more than half of their Trans-Pacific flights in the pre-Christmas period. According to data from the freight tracking platform Project44, this corresponds to 38 percent of the trade route from Europe to Asia.

Normally, November and December before Christmas are the busiest months for shipping. Due to the slowdown in the global economy, the season is very weak this year. In particular, there is a great loss in transportation from Asia to Europe. This created a great disappointment for container operators who spent their historical profitability during the pandemic period on giant fleet investments.