The freight futures in Shanghai experienced a wild ride over the past two trading sessions, with a spike at the open yesterday followed by a retreat over the past two days, apparently finding a short-term bottom this afternoon. The spike yesterday was driven primarily by short covering, as open interest has hardly changed. Then Maersk offered $1,400 per FEU for shipment leaving at the first week of October, which gave short sellers added conviction. The short sellers returned today and added ano
Register Free Trial Container freight rates resumed its decline with the SCFI slipping by 3.2% last week, with sharp drops in rates from China to Europe, Mexico, Middle East and India. Even the SCFI rate gains on the Transpacific is masking the weakness in the US trades, with market rates already falling rapidly. The suspension of 2 services to the US West Coast in September is insufficient to stop the rate rot as only 1.5% of the total capacity on the route is removed. The USTR 301 service fe
Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk will withdraw the Gemini Cooperation's WC6/TP9 service in October 2025, with the last sailing to depart from Xiamen on 23 September 2025. The WC6/TP9 service was launched in June 2025, using 6 ships of 4,200 to 5,000 teu calling at Xiamen, Busan, Long Beach, Xiamen. The move is a change from the Gemini partners' initial plan that was announced on 3 September to blank 3 WC6/TP9 sailings in October. This plan was changed to a full suspension of the service for the remainder
Maersk’s offer of $1,550 per FEU after the market closed yesterday triggered a more meaningful decline for all freight futures contracts, with trading volume nearly double that of the previous day. Most contracts closed at their daily lows. The most notable development, however, was the increase in open interest, particularly for EC2510. Typically, traders begin to liquidate positions in a contract about two months before expiry and roll over their bets to the next expiring contracts. But this h
The container shipping industry has reached a pivotal point this year in the application of freight futures as a hedging tool. Major players are starting to act, rather than avoiding or merely considering the use of freight futures. The freight futures products are ready, and more options with potentially even better designs will be available soon. There are already two freight derivatives products in operation. One is the SCFIS (Europe) Futures Contract (EC) listed on the Shanghai Internationa
The Taiwanese liners’ monthly revenues fell by 7% month-on-month in August, a smaller decline than the CCFI’s 9% drop. Even so, the latest figures still leave aggregate revenues for the first two months of the third quarter 4% higher than in the final two months of the second quarter, keeping open the possibility of a quarter-on-quarter earnings rebound in third quarter. Nevertheless, it is almost certain that the Taiwanese carriers’ combined earnings in third quarter will not surpass their resu
The trading volume is drying up, with open interest holding up only because of the hotly contested EC2510 contract. There is no sign yet of traders willing to roll over their EC2510 positions into longer-dated contracts. If the bears are correct, volumes will fall sharply once the October contracts expire, creating a difficult environment for the launch of two additional futures products—one on ICE based on the NYSHEX index and the other on Euronext based on the Xeneta index. For the first time
No one was willing to make a move today, as all eyes are on what Maersk will offer for late-September shipments. With no fresh news to set the tone, most contracts moved higher on traders’ concerns that the market may have already bottomed. Trading volume was light today but open interests edged up by 927 contracts. As of the time this note was published, Maersk’s new offer had still not surfaced. However, after market close, OOCL posted a rate of $1,650 per FEU—down another $200 per FEU, which
The containership charter market shows no signs of cooling down despite the weakness in the freight market, as charter rates retained their recent strength. Open units continue to be snapped up quickly including several sublet candidates. CMA CGM was the most active charterer in the past week, including a sublet of the 5,527 teu ESL OMAN for up to 3 months at $62,000 per day with delivery scheduled for 30 September. MSC continues to focus on second hand purchases with 2 more resale units joinin
MSC announced its Golden Week blank sailings program at the start of last week, triggering a brief double-digit jump in EC futures prices and lifting daily trading volumes above 100,000 contracts for the first time since mid-July. However, open interest hovered at only 80,000 contracts with traders reluctant to hold large overnight positions. The much-anticipated Gemini announcement of its own blank sailing plan on 4 September disappointed with just a single sailing removed in October. Average