In this context, all the shipping companies observe a cautious positioning on their capacity by placing part of their offer on "standby" in order to maintain pressure on the market and thus avoid a breakdown in sea freight rates.

This results in a reduction in capacity through blanks sailing (stopovers or vessels canceled by the shipping company and leading to a significant reduction in capacity), withdrawal, the merger of services, or the use of smaller vessels. This situation, combined with a peak season longer than usual, leads to a significant backlog (congestion of goods at the port of departure) on all flows and more particularly on the Transpacific and Asia-Europe (North and South).

In order to accompany you and to optimize your maritime transport, we recommend you to send your booking requests within 3 weeks before the loading of your goods. During this unique period, the preparation and sharing of your forecasts will allow us to anticipate your needs and thus to accomplish your operations with greater efficiency.

At the same time, we propose, according to your requirements, to set up space protection in order to guarantee the loading of your goods.

All the Bansard teams are at your disposal to answer your questions and consider alternative solutions such as Sea-Air combined transport or rail transport.

Christopher Leroy

Head of Sea Freight Procurement