North Macedonia Freight
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Air & Road Freight Between North Macedonia and the UK

Wave of feeder newbuilds could bring a chill to charter rates in 2027

Feeder containership charter rates could face downward pressure in 2027 as a wave of newbuild deliveries adds capacity to a market that has enjoyed strong earnings in 2026. Ship brokerage Intermodal research analyst Vasilis Fousekis noted that the time-charter rate for a 1,700 teu geared feeder had climbed to about $33,750 a day for six to 12 months, up 19% year on year and more than double its 2023 level. A 1,000 teu vessel now earns approximately $18,750 a day, up 10% annually. Charterers are fixing sub-3,000 teu tonnage for delivery as far ahead as Q3 27, with average fixture periods extending to around two years. Linerlytica's report yesterday disclosed that Namsung Shipping had fixed the newly built 3,318 teu Sheng Shun 62 from Chinese owner Xiamen Hongtai Shipping for $37,000 a day for 23 to 25 months. Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, in need of tonnage to support their hub-and-spoke model, were also busy. Maersk fixed the 2000-built 2,442 teu Meratus Jayagiri from Indonesian feeder operator Meratus Line for $26,500 a day for two years, while Hapag-Lloyd chartered Germany's Hanse Bereederung's 2023-built 1,930 teu Cape Bruno for $21,250 a day for three years. Market strength has been driven by expanding intra-Asia trade, Middle East disruption, and persistent port congestion. Mr Fousekis said: "Behind this strength lies a restructuring of Asian trade flows. Product components are now assembled in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia before onward shipment, adding port calls that favour smaller tonnage." However, supply growth presents a more immediate challenge. The feeder orderbook stands at around 1.05m teu, across 635 vessels, equivalent to almost 20% of the existing fleet. Around 42% of the orderbook capacity is scheduled for delivery in 2027, with another 34% set for 2028, mainly in the 1,000-1,999 teu segment. With demolition remaining negligible, despite 30% of feeder capacity being at least 20 years old, fleet growth could reach around 6% next year. The outlook is also becoming less favourable with mainline operators set to make a full resumption of Asia-Europe services through the Suez Canal. Mr Fousekis explained: "The restoration of direct mainline calls at ports such as Jeddah could render some relay services, established during the Cape diversion, redundant as released mid-sized tonnage cascades into regional trades."

Lady Luck and the lifer: Dan Wall's Expeditors is on a tear

Stock value at record $206.23 intraday post-interims. Quarterly revenue up 42%, operating profit up 55%. A freight market delivering disruption, scarcity, and an AI infrastructure boom. Expeditors' new chief executive has produced extraordinary results - however, the real test may be what happens when the market stops helping. There's no polite way to say this, so let's just say it: Dan Wall (pictured below) picked a hell of a time to become chief executive of Expeditors International.

Putzger perspective: Not enough done to protect aviation

After a few years in the business, almost everybody in the aviation industry can remember at least one large-scale disruption to the system. For recent industry entrants in North America, one likely candidate is the massive telecommunications and radar outage on 21 September that snarled air traffic in the US Northeast for more than eight hours, causing the cancellation or delays of over 7,000 flights, including 1,400 flights at the major New York City airports, where 130 world leaders and dozens of ministers were arriving for the annual high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The following day, the US Transportation Secretary assured the public that such an outage would not occur again after the replacement of the existing air traffic control system, which has been prone to hiccups. Not everybody thinks that a new ATC system will be the kind of magic wand that heralds the end of large-scale disruptions. The US Airforwarders Association has pointed to a report by the US Government Accountability Office that was published on the very day when the disruption in the Northeast occurred. The report identified significant gaps in the protection of aviation communication systems, and it noted that the FAA had not completed the basic risk assessments or built the monitoring needs to address them. "That is not good enough when the threats facing aviation are becoming more sophisticated, and the consequences of failure can spread across airports, airlines, freight networks, and the wider economy," commented AfA executive director Brandon Fried. Such incidents and their causes and catalysts for broader repercussions are not infrequent reminders to the air cargo industry of the vulnerability of the aviation system it is built on. The US is no outlier when it comes to air traffic control. ATC capacity and staffing shortages have been a headache for European operators. These strained systems are faced with a relentless growth in traffic. Airbus forecasts 3.9% annual growth in passenger traffic over the coming 20 years. Moreover, ATC is not the only Achilles heel for air cargo relying on limited foundations. In September, IATA warned that screening alone is not enough to cope with the threat of hazardous goods and called for stronger, collaborative action to muster a multi-layered approach. As with flight disruptions, the risks are outpacing the safety mechanisms, which calls for broad, collaborative measures - at a time when the spirit of international co-operation appears to be on the wane.