GLOBAL SEAFREIGHT MARKET UPDATE

Although media reporting suggests that the incident involving the Ever Given in the Suez Canal is resolved, the fallout on the international seafreight market continues to be strong a month after the canal was cleared. For one, the Ever Given and its 18,000 containers remain off the coast of Egypt and have been impounded pending a reported USD 916 million fine over the incident.

More significantly, schedules for international container service continue to be disrupted as hundreds of ships were forced to stop their voyages due to the closure. This is also contributing to port congestion.

In the United States, the worst congestion continues to be at the Port of Los Angeles / Long Beach, where at any given time an estimated 20 container vessels are anchored off the cost of California awaiting berth. The congestion at Long Beach is also causing delays at other west coast ports as vessels waiting off Long Beach fall off schedule on subsequent port calls.

Coupled with existing capacity issues caused by strong import demand in the United States, seafreight market rates continue to climb on all major global routes. According to Drewry, market rates on the eight main global lanes have increased by anywhere from 37 to 342% year-over-year this week. The global composite rate increased by 234% this week versus last year.

These extraordinary increases in global market rates are expected to continue at least through May.

Falcon is continuing to work with customers to find cost-effective seafreight solutions to meet the scheduling and budgetary needs of our clients. Our operations team holds weekly strategy meetings with the major global carriers to ensure we stay ahead of market conditions and are able to offer the best available options to our clients.