Jury still out on 2021 container growth figures

Full year growth figures for the volume of containers shipped around the world are showing considerable divergence among analysts.

Clarksons Research Services is now projecting the global container trade will reach 206.8m teu in 2021, up 6.3% year-on-year.

Maersk, meanwhile, suggested last week that global trade volumes will grow 7% to 8% this year compared with 2020.

Charles Moret from container advisory CTI Consultancy put the annual figure in the 8% to 9% range when contacted by Splash today.

“Year to date we are above 10% and projecting 4% for the last four months,” Moret said.

Alphaliner is predicting 5.8% year-on-year growth. Overall, the top 20 container ports handled 13% more twenty-foot boxes in the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, new analysis from Alphaliner shows.