Markets/Trades

Transpacific rates to the US West Coast enjoyed a minor rebound last week, on the back of strong e-commerce cargo demand after the Chinese Golden Week holidays coinciding with reduced capacity availability due to blanked sailings with week 41 capacity more than 40% less than usual. East Coast rates remained under pressure but the rate of decline has slowed due to reduced capacity availability. But more space will return in November, with current projections showing a 22% increase to the West Co

It should have come as a surprise to the liner managers in the container shipping industry is that the CoFIF has been rallying since China is back from its national holidays. As the liner managers are struggling to sell $1,000/FEU to their customers in current round of 2024 contract negotiation. There are buyers in CoFIF markets willing to pay something like $1,300-1,500/FEU for shipments embarking between April and December next year. But most of the liner managers do not know CoFIF. The two

Charters rates are falling steadily with further declines expected over the coming weeks with vessel availability rising faster than the market can absorb. There are more than a dozen newbuildings of up to 3,000 teu scheduled for delivery in the coming 3 months that remain open for charter, putting further pressure on an already over-supplied market. Charter rates have slipped across all sizes including the larger sectors of over 4,000 teu where there is an increasing build up of surplus ships.

Transpacific rates were mostly unchanged during the week, with the Chinese holidays producing little rate movements. However, the SCFI assessment is still expected to register a sharp fall when publication resumes this week after the Golden Week holidays, as the actual market rates have already dropped by over $200/feu below the SCFI level. Although carriers have filed for a $1,000/feu rate increase on 15 October and 1 November, both of these increases are not expected to stick given the curre

With the number of idle ships starting to rise and fresh demand failing to match the rapid build up of the surplus fleet, charter rates are increasingly under pressure across all size segments. There remains limited activity in the larger sizes, but demand is also similarly muted with most of the main carriers’ requirements this year already fully covered. The most notable fixture was PIL’s charter for 4 units of 7,000 teu from TSL and RCL for delivery in 2024. The recent delivery of the 8,000

The SCFI assessment on the Transpacific shed a further 3.4% last week to the West Coast but it is the East Coast where carriers are facing greater pressure with rates dropping by 5.4%. Spot rates are available in the market at up to $300/feu lower than the SCFI rates, with carriers unable to fill the capacity available despite a 13% drop in average capacity in October on the West Coast and 23% drop in the East Coast. Rates to North Europe have cracked below the 2019 levels and appears to be in

Trading in China ended on Thursday last week as markets in China closed from 29 Sep to 8 Oct for national holidays. Prices of the CoFIF came down between 12% and 20% WoW, benchmarking the physical market where spot rates for FE-NEUR are plummeting as players are entering into the bidding season for the 2024 contracts. SCFI was just below $600/TEU at market close last week but actual going spot rates could be already much lower. Average daily trading volume last week rebounded by 1.5 times back

Global containership capacity is growing at an average rate of over 190,000 teu a month since April, after accounting for new ship deliveries and capacity upgrades and deducting scrapped capacity and other deletions. This pace of growth is the fastest rate ever recorded for the container markets and is set to continue for the next 2 years. Compared to the growth spurt in 2006-2008 and 2014-2015, when the average monthly growth rate was just 120,000 teu per month, the current growth burst will

Transpacific freight rates have continued to drop, but latest SCFI rates have not fully reflected the current market rates that are already $200-300 lower than reported, with rates to the West Coast reaching $1,500 while the the East Coast market is even weaker with rates as low as $2,000 are being offered. Although THE Alliance have announced the withdrawal of the PN3 service in October, the impact is limited as it only accounts for 3% of total capacity on the West Coast. Carriers have not adj

One month in, the Container Freight Futures Index (CoFIF) were up 13-26% while the spot freight rates were down by 30%. For the trading interests in CoFIF, trading volumes has been down by 58% but open interests have been tripled, meaning less day-trading while more positions taken on longer term views. Last week, the prices of CoFIF continued to drip while suffered another big drop. However, the price for CoFIF is still surprisingly resilient, in our view, given uncertain economic outlook for