Shipping container boxes not keeping up with demand: Triton

T

he world’s largest container-equipment leasing company, Triton International, recently announced the price of a new container box - which had stabilised at around $3,500 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) earlier this year - has reached $3,800 per TEU, American Shipper reported last week.

The price was “at unprecedented levels,” according to John O’Callaghan, the global head of marketing and operations, for Triton, the US-based shipping publication reported. What's behind the price rise of the 40-foot dry cargo box? A price drop suggests supply chain pressures are easing, while the opposite suggests container capacity demand is intensifying.

Pre-Covid the price of a new container was about $1,600 per TEU, less than half the current level and forecasts suggest prices will increase further, American Shipper said. "What’s particularly telling is that the price is rising at the very time Chinese factories are churning out more new boxes than they ever have before.

"According to Triton’s estimate, which excludes sales to non-leasing and non-shipping buyers, factories built around 2.6 million TEUs of dry (non-refrigerated/non-tank) containers in H1 2021 — more than the 12-month totals in most years. "It estimated that 2021 production could reach just over 4.5 million TEUs, more than double the annual totals in the prior two years and almost 30 per cent above the record set in 2018. The global container equipment fleet could increase 8 per cent year-on-year," the report said. Continued low levels of new container inventory confirm the strength of demand.

Triton International describes itself as the world's largest lessor of intermodal containers, "which are large, standardised steel boxes used to transport freight by ship, rail or truck."