Markets/Trades

Total 324 Posts

Markets

No early return to the Suez

Container freight futures have rallied sharply, with December 2025 contracts surging by 53% over the past week as hopes for an early return of containerships to the Suez route fade. Since the 19 January ceasefire agreement in Gaza, there has been no ships diverted back to the Suez route with all main carriers retaining their Cape routing at least until March. The potential return of the diverted Suez ships would release up to 7% of the global containership capacity with the resumption of slow s

Markets

Daily CoFIF: 2025-02-13

The EC futures contracts continued to decline, accompanied by slightly lower trading volume. Open interest also began to decrease. Overnight, HMM reduced its quotation for February shipments to $2,200 per FEU, down from $2,400 per FEU. Utilization edged up with two above trend line sailings.

Markets

Daily CoFIF: 2025-02-12

The EC container freight futures dropped this morning on strong volume, as the relief rally from the previously bearish sentiment has completed. Traders will now need to see some level of success from the March 1 GRI to validate the 20-50% rally that occurred last week. Utilization for ships that departed this week remains at a decent level; however, the extremely light MSC VENICE has dragged down the moving average. Liners continue to reduce their online quotations overnight. CMA CMG join Hapa

Markets

25 Week 06: Charter Market Watch

Charter rates have resumed their tentative climb after the holidays in the Far East, with a shortage of prompt tonnage keeping rates at elevated levels across all size segments. Improved rates were recorded in the feeder sizes where most of the chartering activity have been focused especially in the Atlantic. There are limited deals in the larger sizes, with one notable fixture last week for the 4,957 teu X-PRESS BARDSEY on a short 2-3m charter to CMA CGM at a relatively strong rate of $63,000 t

Markets

25 Week 06: Freight Futures Watch

EC freight futures surged following the Chinese New Year holidays, with April-December 2025 contracts rising by 20% to 53% in the shortened 4 day trading week. Average daily trading volumes and open interest positions both increased by 19% on strong trading interest sparked by the potential escalation of the conflict in the Middle East after the US proposal to take over Gaza was rejected by the majority of the Arab states. Several EC contracts hit their upper daily trading limits on 7 and 10 Fe

Markets

25 Week 06: Freight Rates Watch

SCFI spot rates to North Europe fell sharply last week, dropping by 15.9% from the pre-holiday level with blank sailings unable to keep pace with the drop in cargo volumes across most Far East origins. Rates to the Med have held up relatively better, with the Med rate premium over the North Continent widening to 68% with the strong demand in the Red Sea taking away some of the Med capacity operated by niche carriers that are using the faster Suez route. Although Hapag-Lloyd announced a speculat

Markets

Daily CoFIF: 2025-02-05

Container freight futures market re-opened after Chinese New Year holidays with a sell-off on average volume as traders taking stocks of the changes over the past week where both MSC and CMA CGM join Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Maersk and ONE to offer sub $3000 per FEU freight rates for shipments embarking in second half of February. Vessel utilization over the past seven days received a boost from a last-minute rush and the blank sailings starting this week. However, this uptick is unlikely to be sustai

Markets

25 Week 05: Charter Market Watch

Charter rates are still holding up with limited open tonnage available and several carriers still not fully covered for their immediate vessel requirements. Chartering activity slowed down last week due to the Lunar New Year holidays across most of Far East Asia, although European carriers have remained active with Maersk in particular still seeking to cover their requirements for the next 6 months. Maersk has fixed the 8,030 teu MANZANILLO BRIDGE on a 4 month charter at a hefty $100,000 per da

Markets

US Tariff Fail To Address Imbalance

The US will impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% from China from 4 February 2025, with no room for shippers to front load their cargo as only goods that are already in transit to the US before 1 February 2025 will be exempted. These moves will do little to reverse the worsening container trade imbalance in the US, with imports continuing to outpace exports by 2.4 times last year compared to 1.8 times in 2017 before import tariffs were introduced in 2018. Lo

Markets

25 Week 04: Charter Market Watch

Fixture activity has remained brisk with both extensions and new charters still fuelling the charter market rally with rates still strengthening apart from the 1,100 teu and smaller segments where there is sufficient availability to meet existing demand. For larger sizes, including the 1,700 teu segment, vessel availability remains extremely tight in the short term and charter rates will remain firm until this situation changes. With all of the main carriers still retaining the Cape routing in

© 2025 Linerlytica (ver. 1.0.27a). All rights reserved.
Liner Analytics Pte. Ltd.