Total 239 Posts
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
All EC freight futures retreated last week on concerns that market rates have peaked, with the escalation in the Middle East crisis over the weekend doing little to reverse the negative trading sentiment. Apart from the August 2024 contract, all of the other contracts dropped by double digits. The SCFIS defied market expectations and recorded a 5% WoW gain after market close on 22 July which could lift the August contracts for the rest of this week but the near term sentiment continues to be fo
More signs of Asia Europe freight rates being peaked has emerged: 5 out of the 7 departures from Far East to North Europe over the last few days were below trend and the latest trend (on 2-week moving average) has been below the average of the past year. AE10 MAYVIEW MAERSK Departed Tanjung Pelepas on 17 July was only 79.41% full comparing to the 2-week moving average of 94.9%. FE4 HMM GARAM departed Singapore on 16 July was only 90.7% full, comparing to the 2-week moving average of 94.3%. T
MSC has taken 2 more secondhand purchases last week, as its total capacity operated edges closer to the 6m teu mark. The vintage 25 year old 5,364 teu EVER UNITY has joined MSC last week as the MSC UNITY VI for deployment on its South Africa Ingwe service while the 2,867 teu AS CLARITA will join MSC after its current drydocking as the MSC CLARITA III for deployment on the Upper Gulf Express service in the Middle East. MSC’s aggressive vessel acquisition drive has allowed it to avoid the charter
The Far East to the Indian Subcontinent, Latin America and US West Coast routes have seen a significant increase in new capacity injections in the last month, with capacity rising by 9.0%, 6.0% and 4.7% respectively with a slew new services and extra loaders added since June. These capacity additions will continue through August, keeping the charter market tight as carriers are still short of tonnage needed on these routes. However, the incremental capacity added has put a cap to recent freigh