Sea-Intelligence: Golden Week Capacity Distortions

With the Mid‑Autumn Festival (Sep 25‑27) falling so close to Golden Week (Oct 1‑7) in 2026, the compressed holiday calendar, combined with port congestion in Asia, and vessels transitioning back to the Suez Canal route on the back-haul from primarily Mediterranean, has created a highly volatile environment for global trade. Source: Sea-Intelligence. com, Sunday Spotlight, issue 783 Looking specifically at Asia‑North Europe, scheduled weekly capacity for the four‑week Golden Week period is substantially elevated, with shipping lines slated to deploy 1. 50 million TEU. This represents a 27% increase Y/Y, and a staggering 60% jump above the pre‑pandemic average.