Markets/Trades

Asia-North Europe forward freight prices on CoFIF were mostly unchanged last week, with the SCFI spot rate assessment slipping by 1.7% after surging by 32% the week before, while the latest SCFIS recorded a 1.7% increase following the 7.7% gain a week before. The CoFIF is settled on the SCFIS (Shanghai Export Containerized Freight Index based on Settled Rates) which is based on the blended average settled rates determined by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange with a base index of 1,000 as at May 20

The SCFI transpacific rate assessments have rebounded on the back of the 1 November GRI that has brought spot rates to the West Coast above $1,900 per feu and East Coast to above $2,350 per feu. Despite this, the positive momentum on the transpacific routes will be difficult to sustain as capacity will increase through November after the cuts in October while capacity utilization continues to weaken on services to both coasts. Spot Asia-Europe freight rates surged last week ahead of the 1 Nove

Hapag-Lloyd will receive next month the first of 9 ships of 14,372 teu that it has chartered from SFL and Enesel for 5 year periods in the first benchmark fixture for ships of this size following the expiry of their initial 10 year charter to Evergreen. The first 2 ships (THALASSA HELLAS and THALASSA PATRIS) are currently undergoing upgrades at COSCO Zhoushan including raised lashing bridges that will increase their nominal capacity from 13,808 teu to 14,372 teu. They will join the FE-US East

INE, the exchange where CoFIF contracts are being traded, doubled the transaction fee for the second time during the last two weeks to 0.02% and cap the trading volume at 500 contracts per day, another attempt to cool the short-term trading activities. Each CoFIF contract is priced as Rmb50 x the SCFIS. So 500 CoFIF contract cap amount to about $2.7mn. Despite being halved, the liquidity remains very high after the new policies kicked in. The transaction fee started at 0.001% at CoFIF's launch

Transpacific rates were largely unchanged over the past week with rates to the West Coast rates remaining firmer than the East Coast but sentiment is improving on both coasts as capacity utilization has been stronger than expected with several extra loaders notably by Maersk being added to cater to the overflow cargo. THE Alliance’s announcement late last week of the withdrawal of the EC4 in November will help to remove the surplus capacity on the East Coast especially on the Suez route which i

Market sentiment has turned positive for the first time since August, with momentum building for the November freight rate hikes as further capacity cuts are forthcoming after THE Alliance decided belatedly to suspend the EC4 service to the US East Coast via the Suez in November. This follows earlier cuts made by various carriers on the USWC and Europe routes that have helped to elevate carriers rate restoration efforts. The SCFI recorded its 2nd successive weekly increase, led by gains on the M

CoFIF trading stays red hot despite of the continuous decline in the FE-NEUR spot rates. Prices for all 5 CoFIF contracts were down 5-7% WoW but the CoFIF were still trading at 20-40% premium to the spot. Trading volume made new high on Friday with close to 500,000 contracts changed hands despite the exchange doubled the transaction fees on Thursday. It is the second time in less than 2 months that the INE has increased the transaction fees. The turnover-to-OI ratio now stayed high at 5x as th

Liners are pushing for GRIs in November. But following their recipe in June i.e. to cut down on the capacity, they are going to increase their capacity as shown by Linerlytica's Capacity Watch. Save for FE-FE-NEUR trade, the main west-east trades will see capacity increase by 9-22% MoM in November: FE-WCNA weekly capacity will increase by 22% MoM in NovemberFE-ECNA weekly capacity will increase by 16% MoM in NovemberFE-NEUR weekly capacity will decrease by 5% MoM in NovemberFE-MED weekly capac

Charter rates are seeing sharper drops with the start of the winter slack season further pushing down market sentiment while charter periods are also significantly shortened with more flexible delivery periods of 1-6 months being reported. Idle tonnage is starting to build up again but the pace of idling is still slower than last year, with most of the larger ships due to return to service by November. However, the build up of surplus tonnage is starting to bite with even MSC forced to idle

The impact of the EU Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER) expiry on 25 April 2024 on the liner shipping market has been overplayed by the carriers and their detractors. Of the 43 consortia that operate in the European Union in 2020, only 13 actually qualify for the block exemption while the remaining consortia exceeds the 30% market share ceiling including each of the 3 global alliances (2M, OCEAN Alliance and THE Alliance). The removal of the CBER will not impact existing alliance arra