2025 Global Volumes and Trade Insights: A Strong Start Despite Challenges
A Strong Start to 2025
As we enter the first quarter of 2025, it is evident that global container volumes are continuing to build on the strong performance seen in 2024. January 2025 global volumes reached 15.4 million TEUs, marking a 5.8% increase year-on-year. However, this represents a nearly 4% decline from the previous month, which saw volumes reach an impressive 16 million TEUs. Despite this month-on-month drop, it’s worth noting that January and February of 2024 experienced the lowest volumes of the year, largely due to the festivities in Asia.
Month on Month Declines, but Year on Year Success
Turning our attention to monthly imports as we begin 2025, all regions reported a decline in volumes compared to December 2024. Nevertheless, year-on-year growth remains positive across the board. Sub-Saharan Africa saw the largest month-on-month decrease, with imports falling by 6%, primarily due to a reduction in exports from the Far East and Europe. After months of holding the top spot, North America experienced a slowdown in import growth, with a year-on-year increase of 7.6%. Europe, on the other hand, posted impressive import growth of 13% year-on-year, driven by strong exports from the Far East and Indian Sub-Continent & Middle East regions.
Regional exports also experienced month-on-month declines, although most regions still saw growth year-on-year. The exceptions were North America and Sub-Saharan Africa, which experienced year-on-year drops of 7.6% and 1.1%, respectively. When compared to January 2024, exports from the Indian Sub-Continent & Middle East, and Far East surged by 12.4% and 8.3%, respectively.
Price Index Stable Against Previous Years
The global price index dropped by 2 points in January, starting the year at 94 points. To put this into context, the index stood at 88 points in January 2024, 107 points in 2023, and 204 points in January 2022.
2025 Looking Forward
The global price index saw a marginal rise of 1 point, reaching 94 points in November 2024. This represents a 25-point increase compared to the same month in 2023, where the index stood at 69 points. However, it is still 40 points lower than the 134 points seen in November 2022, as the industry emerged from the pandemic’s grip.
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