Container spot rates from China to Europe and Med fall to new lows

Rates from Shanghai to the U.S. West and East Coast, however, have risen in the wake of recent GRIs.

   Container spot rates on key routes from Shanghai to Northern Europe as measured by the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index fell $45 to what FIS freight analyst Richard Ward called “an all-time low of $466 per TEU, 60% lower than the corresponding period of 2014.”
   “Carriers have been left to observe as rates have dwindled over the past 11 weeks, seemingly powerless to react as cumulative declines reached $790 since January,” he said in a recent industry update, adding that recent efforts by carriers to prop of rates to Europe with GRIs seem to have failed. The spot rate from Shanghai to the Mediterranean as estimated by SCFI panelists also fell $56 this week to $607 per TEU.
   On the other hand, spot rates from Shanghai to the U.S. West Coast rose $297 to $1,932 and to the U.S. East Coast rose $24 to $4,054, according to the SCFI. The TransPacific Stabilization Agreement, to which 15 container carriers belong, had recommended a general rate increase (GRI) of $600 to go into effect April 9.
   Ward wrote, “As usual the increase is unlikely to last, but at least it offers carriers some respite from the recent declines.”