SIMIC

Equipment lessors report that increased production of containers - coupled with stabilising prices - has alleviated some of the supply chain constraints witnessed in recent months. Though supply is expected to meet demand this year, the container market remains tight.

"We expect container supply will better keep pace with demand in 2022 due to increased new container production volumes, and new container prices have eased over 10 per cent from their peak level to roughly US$3,400 per TEU. However, new container prices remain far above their historical range, and market leasing rates and used container sale prices also remain very high," said upstate New York's Triton International CEO Brian Sondey.

While the global economy remains subject to heightened uncertainty due to Covid, the company expects overall container demand to remain strong through the year, Mr Sondey said.

"Our customers are anticipating goods consumption and trade volumes will remain elevated, and they expect the operational challenges slowing container turn times will be difficult to resolve," he said.

Textainer CEO Olivier Ghesquiere said that although lessors continue to see opportunities for growth at attractive yields this year, they are starting to see more normalised levels of container capital expenditure following a record year.

"As trade volume remains elevated, shipping lines have continued to grow their capacity while also positioning additional containers in locations with surplus demand," Mr Ghesquiere said.

Triton and Textainer are the world's largest lessors of intermodal freight containers, with a container fleet of 7.3 million TEU and 4.3 million TEU respectively. Both companies reported impressive full year earnings driven by an increase in lease prices due to the container shortage crisis.