Register Free Trial Container vessel traffic in the Middle East remains unaffected by the escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict since 13 June with carriers maintaining their scheduled calls at Middle East Gulf and Israeli ports, while Suez transits have also been retained. Zim affirmed the continuation of its services to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa while CMA CGM is still proceeding to reroute 3 of their Europe-Indian subcontinent/Far East ships through the Suez this month despite the
CMA CGM has redirected a ship on the Europe Pakistan India Consortium (EPIC) service to the Suez route despite the escalation in the Middle East conflict since 13 June 2025. The 11,388 teu CMA CGM AQUILA is heading from Algeciras to the Red Sea and is scheduled to transit the Suez Canal on 17 June 2025 before calling at Jeddah on 20 June, Abu Dhabi on 28 June and Jebel Ali on 30 June. The shorter Suez route will allow CMA CGM to cut the transit time from Europe to Abu Dhabi by about 10 days and
MSC will launch a new Oryx service connecting Singapore, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Singapore from 19 June 2025. The service will turn in 6 weeks using up to 6 ships of 3,500 teu starting with the 3,534 teu MSC ELBA III at Singapore on 19 June 2025.
It was a busy day as Israel launched an attack on Iran, which many freight futures traders interpreted as a buy signal. Traders have become conditioned to view any conflict as potentially positive for container shipping freight rates. The rally began with longer-dated contracts, fueled by expectation that liners will have to postpone their return to the Red Sea. Later, the main contracts, EC2508 and EC2510, gained momentum on expectations of increased fuel surcharges, which would be added to the
Freight futures in China surged shortly after market open, following news of Iran’s threats of retaliation against Israel—a development that raised expectations of a delay in liners returning to the Suez route. However, short sellers subsequently entered the market and drove down futures prices for most of the day. Despite this, longer-dated contracts ended the session higher, supported by increased open interest.
May revenue figures for Yang Ming and Wan Hai have also been released, and both operators have performed much better on a sequential basis than Evergreen. As a result, the combined May revenue of the three liner companies declined by just 3% month on month—an improvement over Evergreen’s 8% monthly drop.
The sharp correction in freight rates on the Far East–West Coast North America route since June appears to have deflated pricing on the Far East–Northern Europe route as well, where vessel utilisation has remained lacklustre. With the prospect of $3,000 per FEU before July now in doubt, shipping lines are once again trimming rates for the next fortnight. The futures market is just moving side way at low trading volume.
Asia-Europe carriers continue to struggle to maintain an united front on their pricing, with the range of rates remaining wide going into the 2nd half of June. Maersk’s pricing remains highly erratic as it reversed its aggressive price cuts in early June with higher rates in the 2nd half of the month although its rate quotations remain lower than other carriers on the North European routes. Port congestion remains high across all North European main ports, but this has not resulted in any mater
The North Europe SCFIS published after market close on 9 June rose by 29.5% to 1,623 points but remains 20% below the last EC2506 closing price which had risen by 6% over the past week in anticipation of the gains with carriers still eyeing another attempt to raise rates in mid-July. Open interest remains elevated at 7,803 contracts with just three weeks to expiry and could face selling pressure if the mid-July rate hike flops. Futures contracts for August-December traded sideways with no new c
Asia to US freight rates have peaked after carriers rolled back the increases from the last 2 weeks as the new Transpacific capacity injections have exceeded market demand, especially to the Los Angeles/Long Beach PSW gateway where carriers are struggling to fill the ships. Although PNW and US East Coast capacity remains tight, it will not be enough to push through a fresh round of rate increases in mid-June as the carriers focus on holding their recent gains. Carriers’ initial exuberance has be