As seen in chapters 1 and 2, there has been an imbalance between the growth rates of demand and supply in the container market. As illustrated in figure 3.1, global container trade witnessed continuous downturn trends, with a growth in volume of 3.3 per cent in 2012, compared with 7 per cent in 2011. At the same time, the large influx of new vessels continued to affect the container shipping markets throughout 2012, with global container supply growing 5.2 per cent, outpacing global demand. In an attempt to handle the imbalance between excessive supply and low demand, carriers deployed less capacity on routes where trade was declining, such as the main headhaul East–West routes, where trade was 5 per cent less compared with 2011. They deployed more capacity on the growing North–South routes, where trade grew by 4 per cent, and on interregional trade, which grew by 7 per cent, stimulated by increased consumer demand in emerging economies in 2012. (See chapter 1.) Given the widening gap between the supply of vessel capacity and the demand for transport services, freight rates in the different container markets remained low, but improved in relative terms compared with 2011 (table 3.1). This can be attributed mainly to a change in shipping lines’ strategy and the imposition of market discipline, that is, they were not seeking to gain market share and volume as in 2011 but rather to improve earnings. In 2011, rates remained low because the shipping lines were under cutting each other, seeking market share and volume. In an effort to control the slide of freight rates, carriers exercised in the first half of 2012 some degree of market power by applying a common pricing discipline known as general rate increases (GRIs).