Total 434 Posts
Asia-North Europe rates largely held their ground in the last week of December before the next rate hike attempt in January. SCFI rates to North Europe reversed 3 consecutive weekly declines with a small 0.5% gain while the SCFIS rebounded by 4.4% to erase all of its previous week’s losses. The strong rate environment at the end to the year has helped carriers push ahead with a better outcome on their 2025 annual contract negotiations, with contract rates ranging from $2,500 to $3,5000/feu whic
EC2502 continues to decline as Maersk's January quotation has weakened the liners' resolve to pursue further freight rate increases amid the shipment rush before the CNY holidays. HMM has lowered its quotation for January shipments to below $4,800 per FEU, indicating that HMM believes the FAK freight rates have already peaked.
The containership charter market slowed in the past week both in terms of new fixtures and vessel deliveries with the holiday season approaching. Demand remains high relative to the tonnage available for charter, keeping both charter rates and resale prices at very high levels. Most of the activity is focused on the 1,700 teu and 2,700 teu sizes where rates are still registering marginal gains while the other segments is flat on the lack of new fixture benchmarks. Second hand transactions remai
The main futures contract for EC2502 fell 2% week-over-week on significantly lighter volume compared to previous weeks, with traders liquidating 11% of their open interest amidst concerns that spot rates may have peaked. Longer-dated freight futures dropped further on weakening sentiment for post Chinese New Year rate developments with sellers increasing their short positions. Traders were spooked by Maersk’s rate quotation for January shipments that was $500 below the $6,000 per FEU target set
Asia-North Europe rates slipped marginally in the past week with the SCFI dropping by 2.2% while the SCFIS fell by 2.7% as carriers continued to roll back some of the rate increases that they have obtained earlier in December. Maersk in particular has been blamed for their aggressive rate cutting, forcing rivals to offer lower rates that have been extended to the first week of January. Carriers’ initial plans to raise rates to $6,000/FEU in January now appear doomed although they are still push
The number of containership transits via the Red Sea has dropped by 70% since November 2023 when the Houthi attacks against commercial shipping started. The average number of monthly transits dropped from 606 in the first 11 months of 2023 to just 174 in 2024. When measured by total TEU capacity, the drop is even more severe at 91% as the average monthly capacity of containerships on the Red Sea has fallen from 5.9m teu last year to just 544,000 teu in 2024. Several carriers have retained their
EC futures barely moved on thin volume today, despite a 12% jump in SCFIS overnight. Hapag-Lloyd lowered its January shipment quotations from $6,000-$8,000 per FEU to below $6,000 per FEU, while Maersk has yet to post any quotes for January shipments. Although the industry average utilization for the FE-NEUR route has rebounded to mid-November highs, THE Alliance sailings have shown relatively weak utilization in recent weeks, reflecting the price Hapag-Lloyd has paid for its leadership in raisi
Charter activity is slowing down as the end of 2024 approaches with no signs of charter rates abating after their strong run up over the past 12 months. Activity is focused entirely on the smaller sizes of below 5,000 teu with no fresh deals in the over-5,000 teu segment due to the acute shortage of open tonnage with increasing numbers of forward fixtures done for 2nd half 2025 deliveries. Activity in the smaller sizes remain brisk, with the 1,700 teu/2,700 teu/4,200 teu segments still registe
Asia-North Europe carriers failed in their bid to raise freight rates in mid-December with spot rates rolling back some of their earlier gains with the SCFI slipping by 2.2% last week. However, the SCFIS jumped by a larger than expected 14.0% on 16 December, reflecting the delayed effects of the early December rate hikes. Most carriers are holding their rates until the end of the year, before making another attempt to raise rates to $6,000/feu on 1 January. Maersk continues to offer selective d
EC contracts mostly lost ground over the past week with the longer dated EC futures after February 2025 registering drops over between 1% to 5%. In contrast, near-term contracts were firm with December 2024 and February 2025 contracts gaining some ground as carriers managed to hold on to the 1 December rate increases. The SCFIS released after the market close on 16 December 16 jumped by 14% week-over-week and 22% over the past two weeks, outperforming market expectations bringing the index to wi