Demand revisions suggest that demand from Asia to the Middle East and South Asia is in a steep decline.

Since we last reported on this trade our data provider Container Trades Statistics (CTS) made a substantial downgrade to the shipments data for the Asia to Middle East and South trade that erased the reported very high growth in the first quarter.

The new CTS numbers indicate that westbound trade to both regions grew by 5% instead of the previously reported rate of 16%. Moreover, demand appears to be in retreat as second quarter volumes fell by 3%.

Broken down by region, the Asia to Middle East container trade decreased by 5.7% in the second quarter to 850,000 teu; all but wiping out the first quarter gains. Data for July continued the depressing trend, falling by 11% so that after seven months the trade was down by 1.3% year-on-year.