Container Shipping Quarterly
Special Report
Carriers increasing Asia – Europe blanks ahead of Golden Week
Asia – North Europe container ship capacity, deployed and blanked, with planned
TEU capacity
Asia – Europe schedule reliability slump deepens in August
Percentage of on-time arrivals of container ships; ships are considered late if they arrive one calendar day or more after schedule
Softening demand drags Asia – Europe rates to 21-month lows
Container spot rates from Asia to N. Europe and Mediterranean, in USD per FEU
USD per FEU
60 %
50 50 %
10 40 %
30 %
20 %
1.9M
1.5M
1M-400k 500k
0
-500k L Jan 2024 Jul Jan 2025 Jul Oct, 2025
Source: eeSea
10 % LOct Jan 2024 Apr Jul Oct Jan 2025 Apr Aug Jul, 2025
Source: eeSea
$ 10,000
$ 8,000
$ $ 10,000 6,000
$ 4,000 $ 3,745 $ 2,000
$ 0
Actual capacity Planned capacity Blanked capacity
Asia to North Europe
L Jan 2024 Jul
Jan 2025
North Asia to UK Continent
Asia to Mediterranean
North Asia to Mediterranean
© 2025 S & P Global
© 2025 S & P Global
Sep Jul, 2025
L
L
Destine Ozuygur, product marketing manager at rate benchmarking platform Xeneta.
“ We saw blanking announcements from Mediterranean Shipping Co.( MSC) last week and a few more, which we are currently factoring into the database,” she told the Journal of Commerce in early September.
MSC announced six blank sailings on Asia – Europe loops for the last two weeks of September, ahead of China’ s National Day Golden Week holiday, while Maersk said it would blank four sailings in late September and early October.
Ozuygur said that carriers scheduled to blank a total of 13 Asia – North Europe sailings in September and 16 in October, far short of the 25 sailings canceled in September and 39 in October last year.
“ We do expect to see a few more but don’ t currently believe it will reach those [ prior-year ] levels,” she said.
That relative lack of blanks has put additional downward pressure on spot rates, which have been in freefall since mid-July, as reflected by the various rate indices— Drewry’ s World Container Index, Xeneta, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index and Platts, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S & P Global.
“ This is problematic going forward, as we will see ever more of these vessels delivered.”
Average spot rates from Asia to North Europe fell to $ 1,400 per FEU in the week of Sept. 22, down 57.6 % from the week of July 18 and 65.3 % from the same week last year, according to Platts. Short-term Asia – Mediterranean pricing of $ 1,800 per FEU was down 61.4 % from its summer peak in June and 56.3 % year over year.
C. H. Robinson wrote in its September update that there is insufficient cargo demand on Asia-Europe to support any rate hikes, with carriers choosing market share over pushing through increases. That could be a positive for shippers beyond the initial cost savings.
“ We’ re seeing Asia – North Europe spot rates falling at an accelerated pace, while Mediterranean rates are declining more slowly, eliminating the traditional price differential between these destinations,” the forwarder noted.
“ This convergence means there’ s no longer a significant advantage between North European and Mediterranean discharge ports based solely on rates,” C. H. Robinson added.“ Greater flexibility in port selection then allows for more strategic supply-chain optimization beyond the cost of the ocean shipping itself.”
In tandem with the rate decline is schedule reliability that fell to its lowest level in years in August. Data from eeSea shows on-time performance on Asia-North Europe of just 17 % and 16 % from Asia to the Mediterranean.
Source: Platts, S & P Global © 2025 S & P Global email: greg. knowler @ spglobal. com
22 Journal of Commerce | October 6, 2025 www. joc. com