THE collapse of ocean freight rates from historic highs is feeding into the containership charter market, bringing fears of charter party defaults by highly exposed small and medium-sized carriers.

Non-operating containership owners are keeping a close watch on load factors of their vessels to identify trading difficulties, but as yet there are no reports of any serious attempts to renegotiate daily hire or time periods.

Nevertheless, any appetite for long-term charters in some sectors is "conspicuous by its absence", according to Maersk Broker, reports UK's Loadstar.

Indeed, even some seasoned brokers have been surprised by the speed of the shift of sentiment in the market in the past month to one of negativity.

London-based shipbroker Braemar reported that the supply of spot and prompt tonnage was increasing as demand slumps.

"What is astonishing is how quickly the market appears to turn. Only weeks ago, charter rates appeared stable and operators were still securing forward tonnage at historically high rates on long-term periods," said Braemar.

The reversal was "remarkable, considering operators should theoretically be able to forecast demand type for at least some months ahead, and not for a couple of weeks, which seems to be the case", it said.

An easing of port congestion, linked to a consumer demand slump, has freed capacity, and falling freight rates have discouraged ad-hoc players from the market. The fact that this is happening during the traditional peak season is of great concern to ocean carriers preparing for, what one contact told Loadstar, would result in "a period of aggressive blanking not seen since the start of the pandemic".

The carrier source added: "That's all we can do and I feel sorry for the shippers. But the silver lining for us is that it will definitely see off the small guys," referring to SME forwarders who had chartered vessels at high rates.