Blank sailings data, when put into context of container demand data, can be useful in calculating the underlying capacity utilisation on the major East/West trades. A caveat with this simplistic approach, is that this is not necessarily the “true” capacity utilisation, as e.g. vessels from Asia to Europe would also be carrying capacity/cargo allocated to other trades, such as the Asia to West Africa or Asia to Middle East trades. However, relative changes in time would be representative, given the same constraints apply throughout. (....)