In November, during the start of the 2022-23 cherry season, a 25% increase in ocean freight rates had been announced.
In light of the increase, various companies representing the national fruit industry, such as SNA, Fedefruta and Asoex, have called for the measure to be reconsidered.
However, just last Tuesday night, the CEO of the German shipping line Hapag Lloyd, Rolf Habben Jansen, indicated that container freight rates will continue to fall due to the current supply and demand for maritime transport.
“The party is over. We are back to a normal shipping business. Now we have to fight again for each container to fill our ships,” Jansen said, according to the media outlet Más Container.
However, Hapag Lloyd's CEO expects freight rates to remain below input costs as the need to adjust fleets arises.
“Ship owners must fight for business. We hope that orders for shipping goods and services will pick up again, as demand has fallen and customers have replenished their supplies. Whether that will happen in March or July, I don’t know,” concluded Rolf Habben Jansen.
It should be noted that, according to Más Container, Hapag Lloyd is the world's number five company in terms of shipping capacity and has reported very high profits for three consecutive years, and during 2022, they increased by 86% year-on-year to around USD 19,000.
