Total 194 Posts
The Containerized Freight Index Futures (CoFIF) traded on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) is the second attempt by China to build its container freight futures market. Unlike its predecessor, called the Container Freight Derivatives (CFD) that was launched in June 2011 by the Shanghai Shipping Freight Exchange Co., Ltd. (SSEFC) and only available to domestic on-shore traders, CoFIF is accessible to off-shore traders outside of China. Initial CFD trading saw high daily turnover
The longer dated CoFIF contracts rallied last week with traders building long positions after several carriers pushed for another Asia-Europe FAK rate hike in mid-April. Despite continued liquidation, prices for EC2404 contracts that will expire in 2 weeks were unchanged at 2,120 and remains slightly lower than the SCFIS rate at 2,174 last week (before settling slightly lower at 2,172 based on the latest assessment on 8 April). The latest CoFIF rates implies April-August rates that are equivale
Short covering on the first freight futures that will expire on 29 April kept EC2404 prices up, although futures contracts for rates expiring after April registered small declines. Traders liquidated another 37% of their positions to cut the open interests (OI) for EC2404 from 11,899 lots to 7,511 lots. The EC2404 open interest peaked at 134,537 on 22 Dec 2023 and has been sliding since then. At 7,511 lots, the open interests for EC2404 amounted to some $110m. Since only the losses/profits of th
Transpacific rates continue to fall sharply, with increasing pressure on carriers to lower their contract rate offers. The gap between current spot rates and asking rates for the new 1 May 2024 contracts remain very wide, with the majority of contracts still not concluded. After failing to push through the 15 March GRI, carriers are also facing similar resistance to the 1 April GRI of $1,000-2,000/feu with the low market conviction that the hikes will stick. Although Transpacific freight volume
CoFIF freight futures staged its first rebound since the end of 2023, with price, daily trading volumes and Open Interests rising in tandem. Last week’s buying interests in EC2404 for contracts expiring on 29 April were driven by both short covering and profit taking in response to the planned April rate hikes to Europe, with quoted rates already starting to tick up for the first time since January with various Asian carriers raising their spot rates from 3,000-3,100 per feu to $3,600 while the
Zim has confirmed the purchase of 5 ships of 8,400-10,000 teu ships in February that were previously chartered from NSC Schiffahrt by exercising a purchase option for a total consideration of $129m. It brings Zim’s total owned fleet to 14 units, compared to just one ship in 2020. Zim’s owned fleet comprises just 11% of its current operated fleet – still the lowest ratio of owned ships amongst the Top 12 carriers. The charter market continue to trend upwards with demand still strong across all s
Spot freight rates tumbled for the 6th consecutive week as the SCFI shed a further 6% last week with more cuts still to come. Carriers failed to push through a mid-March rate increase, with hopes for an April rate hike also fading quickly. Transpacific rates continue to fall sharply, with both the West Coast and East Coast rates tumbling by more than 6% last week. There is still room for rates to fall, with spot rates still 10-20% lower than the current SCFI assessments. Contract rate negotia
Asia-Europe futures CoFIF prices stayed broadly unchanged for the past week on flat trading volumes with spot SCFIS rates dropping further on 18 March to 2,437 points to close the gap with current EC2404 futures which closed at 1,826 points. International Energy Exchange (INE), the exchange where CoFIF contracts are being traded, announced new measures to spur trading volumes after market close on 18 March for EC2406-EC2412: (1) drop the margin requirement from 22% to 18%, meaning for every dol
The Red Sea disruptions continue to drive charter rates, with average charter rates rising by a further 3% last week with healthy gains across all size segments. The larger sizes continue to enjoy the biggest gains, with vessel availability failing to match demand. Activity in the panamax segment remains active, with last done rates rising above $25,000 for the first time in 9 months. The availability of ships larger than 5,000 teu remains very limited, with demand still uncovered which will c
Conflicting signals abound in a market looking for fresh directions, with freight rates continuing to slide as the SCFI dropped by 4.7% last week bringing the cumulative decline to 15.8% since its January peak. However, charter rates continue to firm while second hand vessel prices are still rising as demand for tonnage remains high. The recent freight rate correction has not deterred new entrants, with another Chinese carrier set to launch a transpacific service in March. Total containership