Markets/Trades

The US-China standoff continues to keep container market sentiment poor with US tariff concessions far from sufficient to restore Transpacific volumes with cargo bookings in the next 3 weeks reported to be down by 30-60% in China and by 10-20% in the rest of Asia. The Labour Day holidays will further dampen cargo demand in May, and could force carriers to cancel additional sailings over the coming weeks in order to stop further freight rate erosion. Only 3 Transpacific services have been withdr

Asia-Europe rates received a much needed boost with gains on both the North Europe and Med routes as carriers pushed ahead with the mid-April rate increase of $200-300/teu that is holding for now on improved capacity utilization rates. With Chinese volumes shifting away from the US in the weeks ahead, carriers are eyeing increased demand to Europe as well as to the other markets to provide some relief from the turmoil in the US, with the overall SCFI edging up by 0.1% at the end of last week.

Container freight futures continued their retreat after last week’s US tariff turmoil. Apart from EC2504 which expires in 2 weeks, prices for longer dated contracts fell by 7% to 14% over the week, driven by short sellers in heavy trading with average daily volumes rising by 59% week on week. The SCFIS edged lower by 1.4% to 1,402 points on 14 April but could see some marginal gains in the next 2 weeks from the planned mid-April rate hikes with EC2504 trading at a 6% premium. Although EC2506 ra

Following a strong start in the first 2 months of the year, container cargo demand has fallen back in March with the volume rebound after the Chinese New Year failing to materialise. Current projections suggest full year container volumes will drop by 1.1% in 2025, as the muted cargo demand is expected to last through the summer peak season. The demand outlook for the rest of this year remains uncertain, with the threat of additional US tariffs that will be unveiled on 2 April expected to furth

The US tariffs announced on 2 April will have a larger impact on container markets, relative to other shipping segments, due to the heavier import duties on China and Vietnam which together account for 51% of total US container imports in 2024. The trade-weighted tariff rate is more than 36% based on Linerlytica’s calculations derived from each country’s share of total US container imports. The high import duties on other Southeast Asia and South Asia countries leaves little room to substitute c

Container freight futures tumbled on 7 April as concerns over a potential global recession following Trump’s tariff announcement. Apart from the short dated EC2504, all the other EC contracts have declined by 10-15% since the tariffs were announced on 2 April. However, the sell-off was less dramatic than the 20% correction in liner equities over the same period. Trading volume surged to 120,000 lots on 7 April on heavy trading but open interests dropped by just 3% today, as the futures largely a

The 1st April Asia-Europe rate hike flopped, with carriers failing to push through their announced rate increases with cargo demand showing no signs of strength. The SCFIS registered its 4th consecutive weekly decline with carriers more willing to slash rates than to cut capacity despite the deteriorating market conditions. Carriers are hoping that worsening port congestion at both Chinese and European & Mediterranean main ports could provide support for another attempt to hike rates, while car

Freight futures opened lower following the announcement of new tariffs by President Trump, which have raised the cumulative tariff on Chinese imports to 54% since the start of his presidency. However, futures recovered throughout the day, ending broadly unchanged as short sellers closed their positions ahead of the long weekend holiday in China. The main contract, EC2506, gained 1.29% for the day. Linerlytica's online quotation system also showed marginal improvements over the past two days, al

Container freight futures edged up by 1–5% week-on-week, driven largely by short covering rather than fresh buying. Overall open interest fell below 90,000 contracts for the first time since the Lunar New Year holidays, a sign of waning market enthusiasm. Open interest in the main EC2506 contract that expires in 3 months dropped by 25% over the week. Trading sentiment has cooled further, with weekly trading volumes tumbling by 24%. The SCFIS released after the close of trading on Monday slipped

The SCFI rates for Asia-North Europe have edged up at the end of last week, rising marginally by 0.9% as carriers’ 1 April rate hike takes hold. However, market conviction remains low as carriers continued to slash their online spot rates to below $3,000 per FEU for April departures, underscoring the widening gulf between rate-hike announcements and market realities. SCFI rates to the Med continued to slip, dropping by 5.4% with no capacity discipline in display after MSC switched their 24k teu