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2024 Container Traffic to Top 2021 record, CTS

[ February 7, 2025   //   ]

           Only a month before the book is closed, container traffic is expected to top a record set in 2021, according to data from Container Trades Statistics Ltd.

            CTS reports that global loaded volumes increased 5.3 percent year-over-year in November, hitting 15.6 million TEUs. That was the same annual growth rate as recorded in October (revised) but was down 1.6 percent on the prior month (15.9 million TEUs). The monthly decline puts the year-to-date growth rate after 11 months at 6 percent.

            The industry has stacked monthly year-over-year gains for 16 months straight, back to August 2023.

            Some context needs, though, sand Simon Heaney, senior manager, container research at Drewry, who said the market’s recovery in 2024 followed two underperforming years in 2022 (4 percent year-over-year decrease from 2023, according to CTS) and 2023 (an 0.5 percent rise).

            2024 results are expected to surpass CTS’s existing record of 179.9 million TEUs from 2021, sitting 11.7 million TEUs from the record with December to come. “If we assume that 2024 will finish 6 percent higher than 2023 with a total of around 184 million TEUs, the five-year compound annual growth rate since 2019 will amount to a much more sedate 1.5 percent, Heaney said.

            “Fundamentally, Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. believes that 2024 should be viewed as a year of correction in the market and not a signal for ongoing robust growth,” Heaney said. “In our most recent Container Forecaster report (https://lnkd.in/eQz3ccsF) published last month, we predicted that world loaded container traffic would increase 2.2 percent in 2025.”

            CTS’s data shows the leading regional growth drivers in 2024 to date have been:

            • North America: total traffic up 9.4 percent after 11 months (primarily due to a 13 percent increase in exports, offsetting a smaller 2 percent rise in exports).

            • Oceania: up 8.7 percent.

            • Latin America: up 7.4 percent.

            • Asia: up 6.4 percent (exports up 8.3 percent, versus a 3.5 percent increase for imports).

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