{"id":12714,"date":"2025-10-27T22:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visiwise.co\/blog\/?p=12714"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T04:41:31","slug":"empty-container-repositioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visiwise.co\/blog\/empty-container-repositioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Empty Container Repositioning: Challenges and Methods to Improve Efficiency<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The shipping industry faces significant challenges with empty container movements, which drive up costs and reduce efficiency. This happens due to factors like trade imbalances, fluctuating demand, and transit time variations. In this guide, we explain these challenges and explore strategies to optimize empty container repositioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Market Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n

Container Rates and Trade Volumes<\/h3>\n\n\n

For many months the shipping industry has been riding the sky-high container rates wave, but with lowering trade volumes, the tides are turning. This leads to a greater need for efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n

Growth in Container Capacity<\/h3>\n\n\n

Container capacity has been growing at 4% annually until 2021 when the growth was 13%\u2014a triple average increase.<\/p>\n\n\n

Supply Chain Bottlenecks<\/h3>\n\n\n

Supply chain bottlenecks such as strikes, covid-related closures, and unpredicted circumstances such as the Suez Canal blockage increased the transit time two-and-a-half fold. This meant suppliers needed a lot more containers to fulfill the same amount of business.<\/p>\n\n\n

Changing Transit Times and Demand<\/h3>\n\n\n

However, peaking at 112 days in 2021 and dropping to around 50 days in 2023, transit times have reduced dramatically alongside consumer demand, freeing a lot of containers.<\/p>\n\n\n

Excess Containers in the Market<\/h3>\n\n\n

As a result, the industry had an excess of 13 million containers globally in Spring 2023. This also pushes down the container rate to pay a shipping line to transport products and the trend still continues.<\/p>\n\n\n

Focus on Resilience and Flexibility<\/h3>\n\n\n

So, with the high costs of new containers to pay off and slowing revenue, modern shipping lines\u2019 top priorities are resilience and flexibility. Let\u2019s take a deeper look into the reasons behind inefficient repositioning and some methods to improve this.<\/p>\n\n\n

Understanding Inefficiencies in Empty Container Repositioning<\/h2>\n\n\n

Share of Operating Costs<\/h3>\n\n\n

Repositioning of empty containers in the shipping industry represents about 5% to 8% of a shipping line\u2019s operating costs.<\/p>\n\n\n

Total Cost of Empty Logistics<\/h3>\n\n\n

Further, there are additional costs for the storage of empty containers and their maintenance, so the total cost of empty logistics is estimated by Transmetrics to be more than 12% of operating costs.<\/p>\n\n\n

Main Factors Behind Inefficiencies<\/h2>\n\n\n

Trade Imbalances<\/h3>\n\n\n

By far, the main reason for empty container repositioning arises from trade imbalances, where full containers are shipped from export-oriented locations (e.g. Asia), and typically, many of them have to be relocated back empty from import-oriented destinations (e.g. Africa). Roughly, such economic imbalances affect two-thirds of all movements of empty containers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

Relocation Time<\/h3>\n\n\n

To make it even worse, relocating containers takes several weeks, sometimes months.
That is why shipping lines need to understand their demand weeks in advance, relocate containers across their network, and maintain safety stocks of empty containers in various locations worldwide \u2013 all while trying to lower overall capacity and minimize storage and relocation costs.<\/p>\n\n\n

Example<\/h4>\n\n\n

When carriers want to build up their stock of containers in Asia before the Chinese New Year, then they already have to start relocating containers to Asia in November-December.<\/p>\n\n\n

Empty Stock and Its Costs<\/h3>\n\n\n

To meet the demand, companies have to decide how many empty containers of each type to keep in each location.<\/p>\n\n\n

Three Main Cost Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

There are three main types of costs related to empty stock \u2013 repositioning costs, storage costs, and costs of ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n

Repositioning Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Since moving empty containers uses the capacity of the same ships that move full containers, the repositioning costs for both types are relatively the same.<\/p>\n\n\n

Storage Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Storage costs depend on complicated contracts with each depot where containers are kept.
Typically, companies have some free tier, after which they pay different rates depending on the number of containers and\/or days.<\/p>\n\n\n

Cost of Ownership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

The more containers you want to have in an empty reserve, the more containers you need to have in total, which comes with a cost of ownership of about $0.5\u20131 per TEU per day for normal dry containers and potentially much more for specialty containers (e.g., reefers, chemical tanks, and others).<\/p>\n\n\n

Unreliable Commercial Forecasts<\/h3>\n\n\n

Typically, commercial people in the industry are notorious for over-forecasting, and many forecasts are coming from different agents and are based on their gut feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n

Furthermore, there are huge fluctuations in seasonal demand for shipping containers. As a result, the low accuracy of commercial forecasts makes them unhelpful for planning purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n

Additional Inefficiency Factors<\/h2>\n\n\n

Dependence on Excel for Planning<\/h3>\n\n\n

Even nowadays, complex decisions for planning empty container logistics are based on the experience of logistics teams and are typically handled manually with Excel, which until today remains one of the most widely used supply chain management tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

Such manual and time-consuming planning is still possible since the majority of the container shipping lines own too many containers in reserve, which leads to significant cost inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n

Lack of Cost Visibility<\/h3>\n\n\n

In many cases, the logistics team manages empty container repositioning globally, while a procurement team controls vendor costs.<\/p>\n\n\n

With different types of costs in place, that can lead to situations in which container shipping lines know the total amount they paid to a certain vendor in a certain location, but the drivers behind these costs are not clear \u2013 for example, how many containers were moved, why were they moved, where were they going, was it necessary to move them, if another vendor could do it, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n

Thus, people making logistics decisions do not always have a full awareness of the cost impact of their recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n

Improving Strategic Decisions<\/h2>\n\n\n

Importance of Container Visibility<\/h3>\n\n\n

You can\u2019t improve what you can\u2019t see; that\u2019s why logistics providers need to create a detailed view of their container operations and processes across the entire network.<\/p>\n\n\n

Visibility Metrics<\/h3>\n\n\n

Detailed visibility on where containers are, the costs associated with being there, longstanding\u2019s, and first-in, first-out (FIFO) violations, can help shipping companies manage and minimize container logistics costs. They can also identify areas for improvement in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n

Example: Container Location Data<\/h3>\n\n\n

Say you had a container in Portsmouth, you would need to know when the container was there, for how long, and the associated costs. This data increases flexibility allowing you to decide whether to relocate containers to more affordable locations during more extended waiting periods.<\/p>\n\n\n

Integrating Tracking and Finance<\/h3>\n\n\n

Integrating container tracking<\/a> data and financial systems can support resilient cost management.
Logistics providers can improve visibility by streamlining their data processes, centralizing internal data sources, improving data quality, and mapping container events and cost data.<\/p>\n\n\n

Forecasting Container Demand<\/h2>\n\n\n

Importance of Demand Forecasting<\/h3>\n\n\n

Seeing the demand at different locations is critical to defining optimal stock levels and building data-driven strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n

To do this, logistics providers must review demand data at the most granular level with two outlooks.<\/p>\n\n\n

Short-Range Forecasts<\/h3>\n\n\n

Short-range forecasts generally predict a few days or weeks ahead.
For example, the optimal demand forecasting window for ocean shipping is 12 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n

This allows shipping lines enough time to understand where the upcoming demand fluctuations will arise and reposition the empty containers to mitigate them.<\/p>\n\n\n

Short-range forecasts are highly useful in influencing operational planning to help improve the bottom line for companies with low-profit margins.<\/p>\n\n\n

Medium to Long-Range Forecasts<\/h3>\n\n\n

These demand forecasts can range from anywhere between half a year to three years. They are for strategic purposes, using data for budgeting and planning purchases of new assets such as ships, trucks, warehouses, and containers.<\/p>\n\n\n

With the help of modern predictive tools, accurate demand forecasting enables logistics companies to shift to an anticipatory strategy. They can increase resilience in their long-term planning and enhance flexibility in the short term.<\/p>\n\n\n

Optimizing Empty Container Repositioning<\/h2>\n\n\n

Cost of Repositioning<\/h3>\n\n\n

According to a study, the annual operating prices for shipping and repositioning empty containers ranged between $25,000 to $40,000 in 2025.
This was due to labor, fuel, and land charges\u2014which have all increased with inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n

Influence of Global Shipping Conditions<\/h3>\n\n\n

The state of global shipping impacts whether logistics providers opt for a just-in-time approach (JIT) or overstock supply, and it\u2019s a fluid situation.<\/p>\n\n\n

In a year and a half, shipping companies have seen transit times peak and drop, affecting their ability to operate JIT.<\/p>\n\n\n

Adjusting to Transit Time and Demand<\/h3>\n\n\n

If transit times are 112 days and demand is high, shipping companies need extra capacity to support the movement of their goods.<\/p>\n\n\n

However, when both transit times and demand reduce, logistics providers have the flexibility to return their empty containers quickly in time for the next shipment.<\/p>\n\n\n

Leaner JIT Planning<\/h3>\n\n\n

Understanding the state of local, regional, or global shipping operations and the logistic provider\u2019s forecasted demand provides a good environment for leaner JIT logistics planning.<\/p>\n\n\n

They are able to minimize their fleet and costs while still being able to satisfy 100% of their demand.<\/p>\n\n\n

A setup in which safety stocks are significantly lower than traditional buffers can help minimize OPEX costs.<\/p>\n\n\n

Continuous Monitoring and Visibility<\/h3>\n\n\n

Consequently, shipping lines\u2019 planning teams must continuously monitor the state of shipping operations and their forecasted demand.<\/p>\n\n\n

With the right set of tools providing demand visibility and suggesting the most efficient strategy to resupply, companies can ship the right number of empties, of the right type, at the right time and place.<\/p>\n\n\n

Visibility 12 weeks in advance will help provide time to reposition their assets effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n

Final Words<\/h2>\n\n\n

For many months the shipping industry has faced high container rates, but with lowering trade volumes, efficiency is now crucial. Transit times have reduced, freeing containers and pushing down transport costs. Inefficient repositioning remains costly, driven by trade imbalances, relocation time, empty stock costs, and unreliable forecasts. Improving visibility, forecasting demand, and optimizing repositioning allow shipping lines to manage empties efficiently, minimize costs, and maintain flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Empty container repositioning is one of the biggest logistical hurdles in global shipping. Imbalances between import and export volumes often leave containers stranded where they\u2019re not needed. In this guide, we explore the causes, economic impact, and innovative strategies\u2014like data-driven planning and smart routing\u2014to make repositioning more efficient and cost-effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"categories":[252],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEmpty Container Repositioning: Challenges and Methods to Improve Efficiency - Visiwise Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover why empty container repositioning matters, the challenges it creates in global trade, and methods to boost efficiency and cut costs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visiwise.co\/blog\/empty-container-repositioning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Empty Container Repositioning: Challenges and Methods to Improve Efficiency - 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