Soaring costs to fuel hub and spokes model shipping world

Soaring operating costs and the trend towards bigger and bigger ships on the Asia-Europe trade as well as the lack of profitable backhaul cargo could see ports like Felixstowe completely removed from the port rotations of the major carriers in the near future, an industry insider told the Container Shipping Manager.

“It will just not be economical to call these ports anymore. At Felixstowe, the only backhaul cargo you see being loaded onto these ships is waste paper and scrap metal,” the industry insider said.

Instead, he believes that these ports would be served by feeder connections from larger ports in the area in the future.

“The main line operators will likely call at Rotterdam or Hamburg, and then feeder services will deliver the UK bound import cargo from Asia from one of the larger European ports.”

In this era of cost consciousness, carriers may be unwilling to burn extra fuel, which translates into extra dollars, for a non-profitable port call.

Source: Container Shipping Manager, the publisher HKSG Group Media is one of the world's largest providers of shipping information.