High rates and the shortage of ships are bringing more niche providers back into the container shipping industry. One of these is the company Ellerman.
Spot rates in container shipping rose dramatically in May and, excluding the pandemic period, have reached an all-time high. Clarksons analysts estimate the 6-12 month rate for a conventional Panamax vessel (4,400 TEU) at US$34,000 per day, roughly double what it was in December.
The market conditions are also quite comparable: A sudden increase in demand and a shortage of shipping space and boxes are resulting in massively higher freight and charter rates.
And, as in Covid times, this is attracting niche providers who sense a business that is otherwise largely left to the liner shipping companies. Ellerman is one such name, which is also well known in Germany as a former division of Hamburg Süd. The current shipping subsidiary of the British shipping group UniServe was revived during the pandemic at the end of 2021.
Ellerman returns to Far East traffic
With the end of the coronavirus crisis, Ellerman City Liners withdrew from the Asian business and focused entirely on transatlantic transportation. Now, however, there is a return to the Far East route.
As the industry service Alphaliner reports, Ellerman is offering departures from China to Europe in June and July. Two ships will be deployed, which will be loaded in Ningbo and Dachan Bay and then sail to Casablanca (Morocco) and Tilbury in the UK.
Ellerman Lines was an important British shipping company. In 2003, Hamburg Süd bought the Mediterranean and India/Pakistan services from Andrew Weir Shipping and ended the tradition of the Ellerman name in 2005 when it replaced it with its own Hamburg Süd name.
