Total 447 Posts
Asia-Europe freight rates continued to slide, with both the SCFI and SCFIS indices recording accelerated declines. Carriers have largely abandoned any hopes for a September rate push, and are shifting their attention to filling their ships and building up cargo roll pools ahead of the Golden Week holidays in October. Carriers have only themselves to blame for their current predicament given the total absence of capacity withdrawals necessary to arrest the declining freight rates. Their willingn
Freight futures listed in Shanghai extended their decline from the final hour of yesterday’s session (2 Sep), as traders began to question whether MSC’s blanking of four voyages would be enough to offset the expected volume dip in the first half of October. In the physical market, however, liners continue to cut quotations for September FAK shipments, with Gemini operators reducing their offers to USD 1,650–1,700 per FEU. Trading volume fell sharply from yesterday’s 117,491 contracts to 40,534
Freight futures listed in Shanghai surged this morning, buoyed by a fresh influx of cash that pushed up every contract, as a blank sailing notice from MSC strengthened conviction in the market that freight rates have found a floor at around $2,000 per FEU. The MSC blank sailing will cancel four voyages, removing a total of 60,442 TEU—equivalent to 5% of the capacity deployed in October. Even after this reduction, the average weekly capacity for October will remain at 293,341 TEU. Buying intere
Freight futures contracts listed in Shanghai continued to decline. Trading volume remains steady but low, while open interest continues to rise. The main news concerns ONE reducing its quotation for shipments by $200 to $2,143 per FEU, and Hapag Lloyd lowering its rate for shipments departing in the last week of September by $200 to $1,835 per FEU.
Freight futures contracts in Shanghai experienced a sharper decline today compared to the average movements of the past two months, as traders showed increased conviction. The drop remains primarily driven by short sellers, while some buyers who believe the market is nearing a bottom continue to step in. As a result, both short and long positions attracted fresh capital, leading to a rise in open interest.
Freight futures contract prices continued to decline in response to the liners’ latest pricing actions. The primary selling pressure emerged in the afternoon, with most contracts closing near their intraday lows. Liquidity fell further to 25,424 contracts—the lowest level since April 2024. Open interest edged up slightly.
The idle containership fleet has crept above 125,000 teu for the first time in 15 months, due to the removal of 12 ships linked to Iranian interests that have left the SeaLead fleet over the past 3 weeks. 4 of these ships are heading to Khor Fakkan, while the remaining ships are waiting for orders at Chinese and Malaysian anchorages after completing cargo discharge in China and Port Klang. 4 more ships are due to be redelivered by SeaLead in the coming week, with no immediate replacements to fil
Asia-Europe freight rates have seen bigger slides in the past week with space constraints easing as peak season demand have passed. The port congestion in North Europe that has provided some rate supposed has also improved slightly with yard utilization starting to trend down from critical levels in Antwerp and at some of the terminals in Rotterdam. However, Med port congestion remains high especially at Valencia and Genoa. The Turkish ban on Israeli ships has affected Zim’s Med service, which
EC2512 continued to attract short selling throughout the day. For all EC contracts, a total of 34,224 contracts changed hands, marking one of the lighter trading sessions in terms of daily volume. Open interest rose by 1% to 79,739 contracts. For 1 September shipments, CMA CGM reduced its quoted rate from $2,420 to $2,200 per FEU, while Maersk listed $1,900 per FEU for cargo departing in the second week of September.
Freight futures extended their decline for a second consecutive day as CMA CGM and Evergreen made substantial cuts to their FAK rate quotations for sailings over the next two weeks, while Hapag-Lloyd lowered its August quotation to below $2,000 per FEU. Trading volumes remain thin, although open interest increased by 1,148 lots to reach 80,688 lots. EC2510, the benchmark contract, is approaching the 1,300 resistance level. The SCFI-Europe index, released after market close, fell 8.35% to $1,668