Maritime booking surge suggests capacity could get tighter this fall

Maritime bookings represented by the Inbound Ocean TEUs Volume Index (IOTI) show a 40% increase over the past two weeks, the strongest spike in activity since early spring. This movement breaks the slow downward trend that had been in place since late April and could mean this cycle of tightened transportation capacity may have yet to peak.

The IOTI is an index with a base value of 100 starting on Jan. 1, 2019. The current value of 222 indicates that there is over twice as much order volume (222%) with an estimated departure date of Aug. 26 as on Jan. 1, 2019. The biggest takeaway, however, is the most recent spike.

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