A DOWNTURN in global container demand is to be expected during the Chinese New Year period, but the significant drop in volumes witnessed in February will have set alarm bells ringing ahead of the peak season and before the impact of the trade war starts to bite, wrote Lloyd’s List deputy editor Linton Nightingale.

The latest official figures published by Container Trades Statistics, which have a two-month lag, showed that volumes of 13.1m teu in the most recent reporting month were down 13.6% on January 2025. While this reflects factory closures across China to mark the holiday season, more telling was that the decline was not only far greater than the 8.9% fall recorded last year, but volumes in February were also down 0.7% year on year.

Despite February’s fall, volumes through the first two months of 2025 were still tracking ahead of last year at just over 2%. Even so, this marks a definitive slowdown in growth compared to the more than 6% growth recorded across 2024.

New IMO framework gets cautious industry welcome

Shipping groups have given the International Maritime Organization’s new Net Zero Framework a cautious welcome but concerns are mounting it will send the industry mixed signals on green fuels, wrote senior reporter Declan Bush.

Danish container line Maersk  had called for a carbon price of $600 per tonne. It called the agreement “an important first step towards the first global greenhouse gas price structure for any industry”, adding that such an outcome was far from guaranteed. 

Transport & Environment said the GHG fuel intensity (GFI) reduction targets would drive ships to use the cheapest crop-based biofuels, which could mean higher overall emissions as land was cleared to grow fuel crops.

Armed robbery incidents surge in Singapore Strait

Maritime crime in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore has surged in the early part of 2025, with 27 incidents reported in the first quarter of the year compared with seven in the same period last year, International Maritime Bureau data reveals, wrote news reporter Joshua Minchin.

The majority of these incidents are usually armed robbery attempts and classified as “low-level opportunistic crimes” by the IMB. But crew can be taken hostage while these crimes are taking place and are frequently threatened with weapons, including guns. In 2024, 10 crew members were taken hostage in six separate incidents, with one reported injured.

Worryingly, IMB said 92% of vessels targeted were successfully boarded, including nine bulk carriers. Their lower freeboard, slower sailing speeds and smaller crews often make them an easier target to board.

As IMB deputy director Cyrus Mody told Lloyd’s List in 2024, the perpetrators of crime in Strait of Malacca are usually after spare parts or simply whatever they can lay their hands on.

How Trump’s trade war could play out for crude tanker rates

The US-China trade war has minimal direct impact on crude tankers. US tariffs exclude crude, and while China has placed levies on US crude, it hadn’t been importing much anyway, wrote senior maritime reporter Greg Miller. 

The Baltic VLCC time charter equivalent index was at $39,552 per day on Tuesday, 32% below the Baltic’s assessment for Suezmaxes ($58,580 per day) and 23% below the rate for aframaxes ($51,166 per day).

One of the bullish cases for VLCCs was that Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, and his threat to place secondary tariffs on countries that buy Iranian and Venezuelan crude, would slash sanctioned flows and boost demand for mainstream VLCCs.

The maximum pressure campaign began on February 5, with multiple rounds of sanctions since then, but VLCC spot rates are currently at the same level they were in late January.

Boxship chartering at crossroads, awaiting Trump policy fallout

Containership charter rates have been on the rise since early 2024, courtesy of the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Rates have continued to increase despite an onslaught of newbuilding deliveries and are now far above pre-pandemic levels, wrote Greg Miller.  

The New ConTex index, which tracks charter rates for 1,000 teu-6,500 teu ships, rose to 1,480 points in the week ending April 10, up 2% week on week and up 188% from the low in early January 2024, before Cape of Good Hope diversions rejuvenated the market.