The empty container problem isn’t a shortage. It’s a data problem.

Container shipping has just lived through its third consecutive year of a peak season that arrived early and left just as fast. Shippers rushed cargo out ahead of the July 1 bunker adjustment factor reset , itself a product of fuel costs pushed up by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, continued avoidance of the Red Sea cut effective fleet capacity by around 12%, with slow steaming absorbing another 2%, according to MPC Container Ships chief executive Constantin Baack. Idle capacity opened 2026 at just 0. 6% of the global fleet.