2024 is year of dry freight container: Drewry

2024 is expected to be the second highest year on record for dry freight container manufacturing, driven by the all-time high quarterly production in 2Q24, followed by July’s output of dry freight and reefer containers exceeding 850,000 TEU from factories in China.

Manufacturers are reporting full order books until mid-October, according to the latest update from Drewry.

"The provision for containers in numbers and at locations where they are required has become a challenge because of the strong exports from Asia, congestion at large container transhipment hubs and declining container productivity due to the extended voyage caused by the Red Sea crisis.

"The availability of 40ft high-cube containers, the workhorses of the industry, in particular, has become increasingly tight with more boxes needed to move the same volume of cargo,” the update added. In the first seven months of 2024, 1.4 million units were delivered, up from just 125k units in the same period of 2023, indicating a tenfold surge year on year."

Production of reefer boxes also increased in the second quarter but the numbers were still in the range seen over the last several quarters, the update added. "The tonnage of reefer cargo on routes which would normally include the Red Sea fell by more than five percent YoY in 2023, well before the start of the recent supply chain issues. A similar trend was seen in the wider market with a 0.7 percent YoY decrease in global seaborne reefer trade, following the 1.5 percent YoY decline in 2022 and signalling the relative weakness of the sector.

"The verdict: 2024 is the year of the dry freight container."