Markets/Trades

There is no fresh direction on the transpacific, with rates continuing to erode. Although the SCFI rates to the USWC held above $4,000 per feu, carriers are offering special rates that were as much as $500 lower than these FAK rates in order to secure additional volumes. The recent rate correction has weakened carriers’ bargaining position for the new service contract that will start from May 2024 with final contract rate levels expected at below $2,000/feu against benchmark rates of $1,200-1,6

CoFIF trading volume slumped to a new low of 10,101 lots last Friday (9 March 2024) as speculative sentiment cooled. Based on an estimated ratio of one lot to 10 teu, the reduced CoFIF daily trading volumes still amounts to 100,000 teu, which provides significant market liquidity that matches the daily turnover of the dry bulk FFA which has a longer trading history. However, CoFIF is digitally traded as opposed to dry bulk FFAs that trade over-the-counter. Open interest, an indicator of traders

The OCEAN Alliance partners (CMA CGM, COSCO, OOCL and Evergreen) have extended their 10 year cooperation agreement that started in April 2017 for 5 more years until 31 March 2032. The move will cement the group’s dominant position as the largest global carrier alliance, with a significant lead over their rival alliances on both the Transpacific and Asia-Europe routes. The move also leaves the remaining members of THE Alliance partners stranded as they will not be able to draw one of the OCEAN A

The freight rate correction gathered pace after carriers failed to defend their pre-Chinese New Year gains with the SCFI shedding 6.2% last week. Although the Red Sea dividend remain in play with spot rates still 96% higher compared to December last year, cargo demand has not rebounded sufficiently after the Chinese New Year holidays to provide rate support with carriers unable to mount a serious 1 March GRI attempt on the transpacific route ahead of the crucial annual contract negotiations. Tr

The CoFiF market shrugged off the 9% drop in the SCFI Asia-North Europe rates last week as the drop was already widely anticipated with forward rates still trading at a discount to spot. The latest SCFIS (Europe) index on 4 March dropped by 3.0% after the previous week’s 9.5% fall with the smaller decline helping to curb further selling in the CoFiF market. With the EC2404 expiration date drawing closer, trading volumes have dropped amidst uncertainty over the extent and speed of further rate

There are basically two freight futures products one being Freightos Baltic's CFFA(container freight forward agreement) being traded at SGX (Singapore Exchange) and CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), and INE's CoFIF (container freight index futures). INE (International Energy Exchange) is the exchange that faces offshore traders/users under Shanghai Futures Exchange. Key findings: 1. CoFIF has liquidity while CFFA doesn't. Liquidity is probably 99.9% of the determining factors about whet

Containership charter rates continued their rise with the Red Sea crisis still pushing up demand. Rates for larger ship are edging up at a faster pace with demand remaining high while supply is limited. Rates are 15-30% in the larger segments above 4,000 teu are 15-30% higher compared to a year ago, with charter periods lengthening to up to 3 years. Carriers are taking advantage of increased demand and high freight rates to the Red Sea region (including Aden, Jeddah and Djibouti) to add new ser

The Red Sea crisis continues to drive the container market as the number of ships diverted to the Cape route hit a fresh high with no signs of abating. This will continue to create a capacity shortage across all routes, with the Cape diversions and incremental capacity needed to connect to Red Sea and Med ports already soaking up more than 7% of the global containership fleet. Freight rates retained most of the January gains, with the SCFI shedding only 5.8% of its pre-Chinese New Year peak whil

Asia-North Europe forward rate contracts on Shanghai’s CoFIF has traded at a discount of over 50% to the spot rate for over a month and last week’s SCFI drop triggered a further 4% decline in the CoFIF rates on 26 February. The drop has been widely anticipated after CoFIF’s April contracts edged up 4% on 19 February, the first trading day after the Chinese New Year holidays but quickly qave up the gains the next day before flat-lining for rest of the week on relatively low turnover with traders

The number of containerships diverted from the Suez to the Cape route has rebounded to a record high of 403 units for 5.14m TEU as at 25 February 2024. The recent surge was partly due to CMA CGM’s decision to reroute from the Red Sea since 1 February 2024 even though the French carrier has backtracked since then with the 16,022 teu CMA CGM JULES VERNE making an eastbound Red Sea passage last week, with a second ship (the 14,414 teu CMA CGM T. ROOSEVELT) scheduled to follow later this week despit