Carriers’ reluctance to pull out more capacity in the last 2 weeks have hurt their efforts to hold rates post Golden Week as Asia-Europe rates continue to weaken with the SCFIS registering a 10.2% decline on Monday following last week’s 15.9% decline. Although rate surveys suggest a small uptick in carriers’ quotation, there are still some carriers offering aggressive rate discounts of below $3,000/feu. Several carriers have announced rate hikes from 1 November aimed at raising spot freight ra
Rates to North Europe dropped by over $1,000/feu in the past week as carriers continued to slash rates in their futile attempt to secure additional cargo ahead of the Golden Week holidays on 1 October. The rate restraint at the beginning of last week was short lived, with further rate cutting still to come. Departures from Shanghai will be erratic following the aftermath of typhoon Bebinca due to serious vessel bunching that would also cause serious disruptions to vessel schedules at downstrea
The new Asia-Europe network announced by MSC and Premier Alliance along with the planned Gemini Cooperation will result in one additional Med string in 2025 while the number of services to North Europe remain unchanged. Carriers continue to jostle for market share amidst a rapidly declining rate environment with the SCFI slipping by a further 10.8% last week, while Med rates dropped by 6.4%. The pace of the declines is quickening with carriers keen to cut rates ahead of the Golden Week holida
Asia-Europe spot rates continued to slide in the last week of August with the SCFI rates to North Europe slipping by 11.9% while rates to the Mediterranean dropped by 9.7%. Carriers continued to undercut each other with FAK rates dropping to the $5,500/feu level with no action to cut capacity in September as blanked sailings are only planned in October. These measures would come too late to arrest the rate decline, with current EC futures already pricing in a 50% reduction to current levels by
Carriers continue to slash Asia-Europe rates with the SCFI slipping by 4.6% to North Europe and 2.6% to the Med. Maersk’s announcement on 26 August that it will slash its Peak Season Surcharge for cargo to North Europe from $4,000/feu to $3,000/feu from 15 September is a further negative signal for the market as capacity utilization continues to come off its early peak season high. The weaker market sentiment has driven some capacity withdrawals but these moves are insufficient to check the dr
Asia-Europe rates are faltering with the capacity overhang in play while demand has started to slow. Port congestion along the Asia-Europe corridor is still keeping capacity growth in check. Although capacity utilization remains healthy and is still running at 3% higher compared to a year ago, the earlier space pressure has eased with average utilization for the week before falling to 92% as opposed to the preliminary reading of 96% reported last week as a few late sailings departed from the las
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
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
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
The SCFI retreated last week by 1.6% after 14 consecutive weekly gains in a further sign that the market has peaked. While demand remains firm, supply has also risen with capacity injections most notably in the Indian subcontinent, Latin America and US West Coast routes where freight rates are the most lucrative currently. This has capped freight rate increases on those routes, but overall capacity utilisation remains tight, with rates still rising on the Asia-North Europe route as schedule disr