Reality Check: A Look Back At Last Year's Container Shipping Report

Aregular feature of AlixPartners' Annual Container Shipping Report is a section detailing trends to watch in the coming year. Each year, when we prepare our latest report, we review our selection from the prior cycle to learn how well our forecasts held up against real-world events.

In last year's report, we named five trends to watch in 2023 and suggested how they might develop during the year. Read on to learn how they played out.

Trade flows in flux

We noted in last year's report that substantial volumes of trade had shifted from the U.S. West Coast (USWC) to the U.S. East Coast (USEC) in response to soaring eastbound transpacific rates, labor market uncertainty, and an acceleration of re-shoring and nearshoring activity. And we suggested that some of the eastward shift of trade volumes could be permanent. We also predicted that EU shippers would turn their focus more toward Eastern Europe and North Africa.