Total 213 Posts
Continued spot rate weakness and renewed Gaza ceasefire talks brought the longer dated EC futures contracts down to their daily limit on 19 August. EC2408 contracts held up with the SCFIS falling by less than expected, down by 2.3% WoW after market close. EC2410 also largely held its ground as the October contracts are already trading at a 48% discount to current spot rates. The latest EC2410 closing price has built in weekly drops of 7% each week over the next 2 months against the SCFIS’ 1-2%
Market attention has shifted to newbuilding orders, with MSC confirming a new order for 12 ships of 19,000 teu at Zhoushan Changhong while Seaspan has announced a 23 ship order made earlier in June comprising of 9,000 teu, 16,000 teu and 17,000 teu units with charters to ONE and Maersk. A further order for 4 units of 9,000 teu ships were novated to an undisclosed carrier. Charter rates have stabilized in the past week, ending an 8-month run that has seen average rates rising by over 150% since
Freight futures to North Europe dropped across the board last week, with US recession concerns weighing negatively on market sentiment. The emergence of some sub-$8,000/feu quotations for shipments departing in second half of August for Asia-North Europe route triggered a fresh round of sell-offs for the EC2410 contracts last Thursday, as the rate erosion appears to be accelerating even though capacity to North Europe remains tight. Preliminary vessel utilization for the Asia-North Europe route
MSC’s planned newbuilding orders will bring its overall fleet to 7.5m TEU by the end of 2028 as it continues to widen the gap with their main rivals. The latest MSC orders is expected to include 10 units of 21,000 teu at Hantong, as well as a series of 12,000 teu units at Rongsheng and 11,000 teu units at Penglai Jinglu to be delivered from 2027. Although CMA CGM’s new vessel delivery pipeline will allow it to surpass Maersk by 2027, it will still trail MSC by more than 2m teu by the end of 2028
Charter market activity has slowed down with very no new fixtures in the large sizes of above 4,000 teu in the past 2 weeks, with all of the recent charter deliveries in the past week concluded several weeks in advance. CMA CGM took the 7,092 teu KOTA CALLAO on 4 August on a short term fixture for a China-Panama trip at a reported rate of around $105,000 in a deal concluded in early June. Demand has cooled noticeably since then, but with very limited vessel availability the charter rate indices
Rates to North Europe continue to hold up much better than the Transpacific, with the SCFI falling just 2.9% from this year’s peak compared to the 22.9% decline on the US West Coast and the 7.9% decline to the Med. Although EC freight futures continue to weaken, carriers are still in a strong position as overall capacity to North Europe remains limited with the 13 week moving average (13wma) still down 3.4% compared to last year despite recent new capacity additions. Actual departures from Asi
Freight futures contracts retreated across the board on volatile trading last week. The near-term contracts led the decline for most of last week before the longer dated contracts caught on 5 Aug on the US recession fears. Trading volumes are shifting from EC2410 to the later contracts with EC2504 gaining the most market interest. Based on the EC2408 and EC2410 latest closing prices, the futures market is pricing in a 4.46% decline each week in the next 3 weeks to the end of August, to be follo
Carriers are pushing for a mid-August rate hike to the US West Coast in an attempt to reverse the recent rate slide on that route. The carriers’ resolve will be keenly tested as recent capacity additions on the Asia to US West Coast and Mexico routes have tilted the supply-demand balance on the previously tight market with capacity utilisation falling despite strong peak season cargo demand. The carriers’ ability to hold Asia-Europe rates last week gave the freight futures market a much needed b
The October futures contracts rose sharply with the longer dated contracts trading limit up on 29 July to hit the maximum daily limit of 16%, ending its 3 week losing streak. Trading sentiment were boosted by the smaller than expected drop in the SCFI assessment for North Europe on 26 July with carriers largely able to hold the rates. Although the SCFIS Europe index that was published after market close on 29 July recorded its first WoW drop of 1.5% after 13 consecutive weekly gains, traders are
SCFI spot rates to North Europe slipped marginally by 1% to $5,000/teu but further drops are expected with capacity utilization falling sharply last week. The 3 recently launched services by Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM and MSC sailed light while the other main Alliance services also recorded sub-par utilization compared to their recent performance. The gap between Med and North Europe rates have narrowed further, with the current Med premium falling to just $360/teu compared to a high of over $1,000/t