Thailand and Vietnam Space Is Gone to 21–29 August — Book Your Sailing This Week
Thailand and Vietnam Space Is Gone to 21–29 August — Book Your Sailing This Week
Executive Summary
Space out of China to Thailand and Vietnam is tight right now, and it gets tighter the longer you wait. COSCO's week-33 sailings show Laem Chabang (Bangkok) fully booked through 21 August, and Haiphong's next direct sailing after the 18 August cut-off is 29 August — at a higher rate. If you have cargo for this trade, tell your forwarder your volume this week. Miss the 21 August Laem Chabang window and your box rides a transshipment or waits until the end of the month. Here is the sailing map, the reason behind the squeeze, and the move to make before Friday.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Laem Chabang (Bangkok) next direct sailing | 21 August |
| Haiphong direct — last sailing before cut-off | 18 August (full) |
| Haiphong next direct sailing | 29 August (rate up) |
| Drewry intra-Asia index (IACI) | USD 1,028/FEU (+6% week-on-week) |
| Shanghai port waiting time (typhoon) | 5–6 days |
| Singapore VLSFO bunker price | USD 848/t (was 804 two weeks ago) |
| Emergency bunker surcharge (EBS) | USD 38–75 per box |
| Ho Chi Minh late-August official hike | ~USD 50 |
| Singapore / Pasir Gudang direct sailings | 20 & 26 August |
| Bulk bookings to Singapore / Pasir Gudang | 14 days ahead (carrier rule) |
Where the Space Actually Is
Don't bet on it. The Thailand–Vietnam trade is booked solid for the next two weeks, and the open dates are not where you think. Here is the week-33 map as we read it from the carrier sailings.
Laem Chabang (Bangkok) is the tight one. The 12 August spot sailing held its space and rolled nothing, but the next direct sailing slips straight to 21 August. Book that window or you are looking at a transshipment. Haiphong is worse: the earliest 18 August direct sailing is already full. Your only fallback that week is a 19 August sailing routed through Ningbo, and the next clean direct sailing is 29 August — and the rate is climbing. That's the catch: the later you book, the more you pay for the privilege of waiting.
Singapore and Pasir Gudang are the calm corner. Direct sailings on 20 and 26 August are still open, and they are steady. But read the fine print: small and mid-size boxes can be booked in volume, while high-cube containers are on allocation. You do not get a high-cube just because you asked. Space there is real, but it is not unlimited.
Why It Tightened Overnight
Two things hit at once, and neither is a one-week blip. Port congestion met a bunker rebound, and the space simply shrank.
Shanghai, Ningbo and Shekou are holding cargo three to four days before it sails. Manila is worse — three to four days is the floor, not the ceiling. Boxes sit on the quay, they do not come back, and the next sailing has fewer slots to fill. On top of that, a typhoon is adding five to six days of waiting at Shanghai alone, and the two big transshipment hubs — Singapore and Colombo — are both clogged. When a feeder misses its connection, your box misses the mainline. That is the part most shippers do not see until the rollover notice lands.
The bunker side is moving the same direction. Singapore VLSFO went from USD 804 a tonne two weeks ago to USD 848, and carriers have re-hung an emergency bunker surcharge of USD 38–75 per box. Carriers are also pulling capacity out of the intra-Asia trade and pushing it onto the Trans-Pacific lanes, which is exactly why the boxes that should reload onto your Thailand sailing are being redirected elsewhere instead. My read: this is a capacity pull, not a demand surge — do not wait for it to loosen on its own.
What to Do With Your Shipment
Report your volume to your forwarder today. Not tomorrow — today. Big-volume cargo and high-cubes should fight for the 21 August Laem Chabang direct sailing, and take the direct routing over any transshipment. Every leg you add is one more chance to miss the mainline connection.
Ho Chi Minh is the looser lane. The 16 August sailing still had a few high-cubes left, and the official word is a ~USD 50 hike in late August. If your cargo is not urgent, push one shipment into that window rather than the second half of the month. Singapore and Pasir Gudang bulk bookings need 14 days' notice — that is a carrier rule, not a suggestion, so plan the PO release accordingly.
North China shippers, listen up: Qingdao is running special rates on high-cubes right now. You do not have to crowd Tianjin for every box. Frankly, the smart move is to quote both ports and let the math decide. One phone call to your forwarder this morning is worth more than a week of watching the rate tick up. Send us your volume and sailing date and we will quote both Tianjin and Qingdao against the 21 August window.
Market Outlook
Bottom line: the second-half peak has not even fully started and space is already tight. Another typhoon adds waiting days, and rates only move one way from here. My read is to lock the 21 August Laem Chabang window now and treat the 29 August Haiphong date as your fallback, not your plan. For Singapore and Pasir Gudang, the 14-day rule means you should be releasing POs this week for any September arrival you care about. The window is widening on paper, but the standard is not dropping — wider channel, stricter reads. Plan both at once, and you will not be the one chasing space at the end of the month.
JETWAY Supply Chain is your execution partner on the ground in China — based in Tianjin, licensed as an NVOCC (MOT) and a member of CIFA, FIATA and WCA. We run ocean, air, rail and road across the major Chinese ports and we pre-check your documents and sailing options before the box is stuffed, so your booking clears the first time and your cargo rides the sailing you planned. Send us your next Southeast Asia volume and we will quote Tianjin and Qingdao against your real sailing date. See our services or request a quote.