EC opened 1-2% lower, with the main contract down 3.2% at the intermission of the morning session, on slightly better volume than the same period yesterday, when the main contract fell for the first time in two weeks. The liners' online quotations have not changed much, although OOCL has revised up its rates for several departure dates in October, reversing its move from yesterday. The lack of upward revisions for freight rates on departure dates before November 1 suggests that demand is still
ONE is scheduled to report its calendar Q3 results on October 31, 2024, marking the start of the reporting period for major liners. ONE has projected its Q3 2024 net profit to increase by 88% quarter-on-quarter, while COSCO recently indicated that its Q3 2024 EBIT is expected to rise by 154% quarter-on-quarter. Other liners have not provided guidance for Q3, but those that have offered FY2024 projections suggest their second-half earnings could vary from a decline quarter-on-quarter to an incre
EC contracts rose again, with strength shifting to the February-April 2025 contracts on relatively lower volume, although open interest continues to increase. The overnight changes in the liners' quotations are modestly bearish; for example, OOCL has reduced its October rates by 3-5%. We would have expected freight rates to strengthen in anticipation of a successful General Rate Increase. Moreover, liners are still implementing some blank sailings for November, which does not convey any confide
The containership charter market has seen one of its most active weeks with a large number of new fixtures and extensions taking effect in the past week. Charterer interest remain very high despite the weakening freight market, with limited vessel availability across all size segments and forward fixtures now a common market feature even for ships of 1,500-3,000 teu where previously they were limited to the larger sizes. Charter periods continue to remain high with fixtures of up to 2-3 years f
Global container port congestion has eased noticeably in the past week, with Chinese ports gradually clearing the backlog of vessels that has built up around its main ports at the end of September. Shanghai remains highly congested with berthing delays of up to 4 days but the other key ports including Ningbo, Shenzhen and Qingdao have managed to bring down the average vessel waiting times to less than 1 day. In the US East Coast, Hurricane Milton made landfall on 10 October but most of the main
EC contracts up 3-8% this morning with bids focusing on the near term contracts e.g. EC2412. Evergreen and MSC join the other liners to lift their November FAK rates quotation to over $4,000/FEU with Evergreen quoting $4,320/FEU and MSC quoting $4,540 /FEU. Average utilization continued to improve. COYHAIQUE, from Hapag Lloyd's independent service CGX left Singapore yesterday at 93% utilization, which is better than the same ship's last departure from Singapore in July when it registered only
EC opened lower but then recovered throughout the day, supported by decent volume and increasing open interest. The main contract, EC2412, ended the day higher, while longer-dated contracts declined, following yesterday's trend. The main delta today in liner's online quotations were ONE's lifting its online quotations, and COSCO published its November rates at $4,800 per 40-foot container. Average utilization for alliance vessels departing from the Far East continues to increase. The MUNICH MA
Taiwanese carriers’ aggregated September revenue dropped by 17% from the August peak, but remains 84% higher compared to September 2023. For the July-September quarter, their combined 3Q 2024 revenue is up 43% QoQ and 107% YoY.
Shanghai-North Europe freight futures have rallied since 10 October with traders placing their bets on a rate rebound in the next 2 months. December 2024 contracts are now trading at a 16% premium over October on expectations that carriers will be able to secure part of their planned rate increase in November and hold the higher rates through December on the back of firmer year-end cargo demand. However, the post-Chinese New Year rate rally have fizzled out with forward rates for April, June and
Carriers’ reluctance to pull out more capacity in the last 2 weeks have hurt their efforts to hold rates post Golden Week as Asia-Europe rates continue to weaken with the SCFIS registering a 10.2% decline on Monday following last week’s 15.9% decline. Although rate surveys suggest a small uptick in carriers’ quotation, there are still some carriers offering aggressive rate discounts of below $3,000/feu. Several carriers have announced rate hikes from 1 November aimed at raising spot freight ra