NICHE carriers - smaller operators with limited deep-sea capacity - have made a notable return to the Asia-North America West Coast (NAWC) trade, driven by renewed market instability.

Sea-Intelligence data shows niche carriers held 7 per cent - 10 per cent of weekly Asia-NAWC capacity in 2019, reports London's Port Technology International.

Amid the Covid-19 shipping surge, new entrants pushed that share to 10 per cent-15 per cent (Aug 2021-May 2023), with opportunistic carriers alone contributing up to 4.5 per cent - nearly a third of niche capacity.

However, as freight rates normalised and demand eased, these opportunistic carriers quickly exited the trade. By June 2023, the last such service had been withdrawn.

Yet, the resurgence of geopolitical instability over the past 18 months has created new space for these carriers to return.

As of May 2025, niche carriers have expanded their weekly share of Asia-NAWC capacity to 13 per cent, up from just 7 per cent in January 2024.

Sea-Intelligence notes that this increase is again being driven by new entrants capitalising on elevated demand and spot market volatility.

Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, said: "We see a sharp ramp-up in capacity deployed by these new entrants in recent months, to 4.5 per cent of the weekly deployed capacity on Asia-AWC. This is back at the level that we saw during the height of the pandemic.

"This means that the current market conditions are such that these new entrants feel that there is an opportunity reminiscent of the global pandemic; and if history is anything to go by, we will see these carriers remove capacity as quickly as it was introduced, once the market conditions start to normalise."