In the weeks following Golden Week (weeks 41-43), carriers are taking out significant levels of capacity per week (as shown in figure 1 for Asia-North America West Coast). This level of blanked capacity is not only higher than in 2019 but has also increased from what was scheduled 3 weeks ago in the outlook from week 37. However, even with an average (over weeks 41-43) 26%-31% capacity reduction on the Transpacific and 19%-27% capacity reduction on Asia-Europe, freight rates on these trades continue to fall considerably. The question is why? The simple answer: because carriers added so much capacity during last year, that even with these levels of capacity reductions, the underlying capacity has still only been brought in line with 2019. (....)