Container freight rates continued to fall sharply, driven by port congestion and excess capacity and the widening gap between supply and demand caused by inflation. Freight rates, volumes and market demand on the trans-Pacific eastbound Asia-North America route continued to decline. The peak season of the Asia-Europe route from the Far East to Northwest Europe has not yet come, the demand has slowed down, and the congestion of European ports is extremely serious. The latest issue of the world’s four largest container freight index all fell sharply.

l The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) was 2847.62 points, down 306.64 points from last week, with a weekly decline of 9.7%, the largest weekly decline since the epidemic, and has been declining for 12 consecutive weeks.

l Drewry’s World Containerized Index (WCI), which has fallen for 27 consecutive weeks, extended its decline to 5% in the latest period to $5,661.69/FEU.

l The Baltic Sea Freight Index (FBX) global composite index was $4,797/FEU, down 11% for the week;

l The Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) of Ningbo Shipping Exchange closed at 2160.6 points, down 10.0% from last week

The freight rates of the latest SCFI main routes continue to fall

l The freight rate from Far East to West America fell sharply from US$5,134 last week to 3,959/FEU, a weekly drop of US$1,175, or 22.9%;

l The freight rate from Far East to US East was US$8,318/FEU, down US$483 or 5.5% for the week;

l The freight rate from Far East to Europe was US$4,252/TEU, down US$189 or 4.3% for the week;

l The freight rate from the Far East to the Mediterranean was US$4,774/TEU, down US$297 or 5.9% for the week;

l The freight rate of the Persian Gulf route was US$1,767/TEU, down US$290 or 14.1% for the week.

l The freight rate of the Australia-New Zealand route was US$2,662/TEU, down US$135 or 4.8% for the week.

l The South American route fell for 6 consecutive weeks, and the freight rate was US$7,981/TEU, down US$847 or 9.6% for the week.

Lars Jensen, chief executive of liner consultancy Vespucci Maritime, said the shortage of capacity that had underpinned the surge in ocean freight rates over the past two years was over and rates would continue to fall. “Current data shows that the basic support for high freight rates has now largely disappeared, and is expected to weaken further.” The analyst added: “Although there are still rebounds in the process of falling freight rates, such as sudden short-term demand surges Or the emergence of unexpected bottlenecks may lead to a temporary rebound in freight rates, but overall freight rates will continue to decline toward more normal market levels. The question is just how deep will it fall?”

Drewry’s World Containerized Index (WCI) has declined for 27 consecutive weeks, and the latest WCI composite index continued to fall sharply by 5% to US$5,661.69/FEU, down 43% from the same period last year. Shipping rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles decreased by 9% or $565 to $5,562/FEU. Shanghai-Rotterdam and Shanghai-Genoa rates fell 5% to $7,583/FEU and $7,971/FEU, respectively. The Shanghai-New York rate fell by 3% or $265 to $9,304/FEU. Drewry expects rates to continue falling in the coming weeks.

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