SOUTHBOUND Asian export cargo to the east coast South America (ECSA) increased three per cent between January and May year on year to 559,000 TEU while southbound European cargo grew four per cent to 349,000 TEU, according to London's Drewry Maritime Research.

Northbound traffic from ECSA to Asia experienced a 14 per cent spurt to 232,000 TEU during the same period while volumes to Europe fell 6.5 per cent to 314,000 TEU.

But Drewry said the north-south ECSA tradelane offers poor employment prospects for redundant east-west tonnage.

"As with the major headhaul east-west routes, the north-south tradelane remained in the doldrums waiting for Europe to climb out of recession, and Brazil, the powerhouse of the region, to resolve its problems," said the report.

"The tradelane between Europe and ECSA is likely to remain unattractive for carriers to the end of the year. Being outside of the fruit season, even reefer container specialists will suffer," the report said.

First half reefer boxes accounted for 41 per cent of all cargo to North Europe, and 44 per cent of all cargo to the Med. Boxed fruit and veg to Europe rose 11 per cent in the first half to 1,007,817 tonnes, but poultry and meat from Brazil and Argentina to Europe fell nine per cent to 556,799 tons.

Carriers retained all services from January through June with average vessel size rising from 6,155 to 6,422 TEU. MSC's and Maersk's joint Bossa Nova/Loop B to the Med increased average ship size from 5,432 to 8,074 TEU.

Carrier intentions appear to be to standardise vessels to between 8,000 and 9,000 TEU using Maersk's SAM-MAX and MSC'S wide beam reefer-friendly ships, said the Drewry report.

MSC recently replaced one of the seven vessels averaging 6,100 TEU in its north Europe Loop A service with a 7,500 TEUer chartered from Cosco, it said with CSAV, CMA CGM, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyds and Hamburg Sud participating.

Despite poor utilisation, southbound all-in rates based on forwarder buy rates for spot cargo from Rotterdam to Santos remained stable between January and July, according to Drewry's Container Freight Rate Insight, varying only between US$2,590 and $2,390 per FEU.

"The dramatic increase towards the end of last year, up to just under $3,000 per FEU was clearly due to the sudden reduction in vessel capacity caused by service rationalisation, but it didn't last long," said Drewry.

Northbound spot rates were more volatile, falling from just under $2,000 per FEU in March to $1,620 per FEU in June.