According to industry sources, shippers are rushing shipments to Europe ahead of schedule, leading to a nearly 50% in capacity before the Chinese New Year compared to historical normal levels.

The extended transit times due to the Africa route detour have fueled this rush of shipments, with volumes pe in the sixth week before the holiday to create an inventory buffer.

In its latest Sunday Spotlight, Sea-Intelligence analyzed the trend in capacity deployment in the 1 weeks before the 2026 Chinese New Year. By comparing the deployed capacity with the established pre-holiday baseline, the analysis revealed a significant deviation from historical patterns.ippers appear to be rushing to ship earlier on the Asia-Europe trade lane to counter the extended transit times.

The magnitude of this shift is highlighted in the chart below Looking at the historical data (2015-2019), capacity growth on the Asia-Europe trade lane before the Chinese New Year has been relatively flat with only about a 10% increase from the baseline to the peak.

In 2026, the forecast shows a significant increase, four times the historical level.

Based on a baseline capacity of 282,947 TEU in 2026, the deployed capacity will climb to 42,825 TEU by the sixth week before the holiday (six weeks before Chinese New Year). This means a net increase of 138,878U, a 49.1% increase over the baseline. Even after accounting for potential delays in vessel schedules, the capacity index remains well above 130 by the week before the holiday.

This pattern suggests a structural shift in the behavior of the route network.

On the Asia-Mediterranean trade lane, the rush of ahead of schedule is also very pronounced, with the relatively strongest growth surging by 62% in five weeks to reach 278,172 TEU.

The Transpacific trade lanes, meanwhile, present a different picture: the Asia-US West trade lane experiences a surge in volumes in the later period, with significant volatility, the Asia-US East trade lane maintains a high and stable level, consistently running 25% above the baseline before the holiday.

In December 2025 the operational stability of the major east-west container trades in 2025 deteriorated sharply, with capacity volatility on the Asia-Northern Europe, Asia-North America and Asia-Mediterranean trade lanes reaching unprecedented levels.