Some of my thought on:
Far East to Europe
“Average departure delays on trades from Far East to Europe reached 12.5 days in the week ending 14 December 2025 – the second highest level in three years. This pushed many departures expected for last week into this week, which clearly has knock-on disruption for supply chains.
“These delays are not caused by carriers blanking sailings – it’s about port congestion and operational inefficiencies. Shippers need to be on top of this and manage the risk of congestion and the potential for containers arriving later than expected.
“If shippers are looking to move back to just-in-time supply chains in 2026 after a just-in-case approach during the tariff chaos of 2025, they need to manage this risk and ask carriers to deliver on their promises.”
and
Far East to US West Coast
“Capacity offered from Far East to US West Coast is expected to increase 10.4% in January compared to December, with blanked capacity decreasing 48.5%.
“It’s a different story into the US East Coast with 162,219 TEU of blanked capacity announced for the next eight weeks.
“There is a distinct difference in the services offered into US East Coast and US West Coast and the way carriers are managing capacity. This is motivated by underlying stronger demand into the US East Coast, while the US West Coast being more sensitive to US-China geo-political tensions.”
https://www.xeneta.com/news/xeneta-weekly-ocean-container-shipping-market-update-18.12.25
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Get Xeneta’s 2026 Ocean Freight Outlook here: https://www.xeneta.com/outlook/2026-ocean-freight
