Sector outlook

According to the market research institute Drewry, the container market is currently unpredictable – meaning that events may lead to major forecast adjustments. With this in mind, Drewry has fundamentally changed many of its key forecasts in order to reflect the supply chain disruption observed in the first half of the year. According to a Drewry survey, the Red Sea crisis is likely to last into the first half of 2025 and may then take at least another three months before shipping lines can resume normal operations.

Compared to its March outlook, however, Drewry has significantly upgraded its forecast for global container throughput in 2024 to 4.1 % in light of a strong first six months and a stable global economic outlook. Handling activities at global ports are likely to slow in the second half of the year, however. There is also uncertainty about how sustainable the upturn in container throughput actually is.

For the Europe shipping region as a whole, Drewry has upgraded its forecast from 3.3 % to 4.5 %. It believes that the northern European ports are mainly benefiting from rising imports from Asia and unexpected additional handling due to changed shipping routes. Due to attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, ships are being diverted around the Cape of Good Hope; as a result, more cargo is being unloaded in northern European ports and transshipped to final destinations in the Mediterranean region.