The Shanghai Shipping Exchange shows spot rates to Europe at low of $399 per TEU.
Spot container shipping rates as published by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange dropped on major routes Friday.
Rates fell by $67 to $399 per TEU for shipments from Shanghai to ports
in Northwest Europe and by $67 to $540 per TEU for ports on the
Mediterranean, according to estimates by the panelists who help create the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index.
Richard
Ward, a container freight analyst at FIS in London, noted these are new
lows, and said “after last week’s failure to increase rates via a
planned GRI (general rate increase) carriers have stuck to past performance and have announced
additional GRIs from May 1.”
Rates also fell in the eastbound
transpacific trade despite a $600-per-40-foot container GRI that was
announced by the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, effective April 9.
The rate from Shanghai to the U.S. West
Coast was down $309 to $1,623 per FEU (the exchange quotes rates from
Shanghai to the United States using 40-foot rather than 20-foot equivalent units), while the rate to U.S. East Coast ports was down $356 to $3,701 per FEU.
Ward
said some carriers are announcing large general rate increases in the
Asia-Europe trade, describing one announcement as “nothing short of
ludicrous. Even more telling is that carriers are unable or unwilling to
manage supply for a long enough duration that would help them to prop
up rates for a prolonged period of time.
“Instead, their preferred
strategy is to combine ad-hoc sailing cancellations with GRIs, which
only affect pricing for a limited time period and offer no significant
or long term relief,” he said, adding “it is well understood – in the swaps market
at least – that since carriers are unable to control supply in a
meaningful way, they have little or no control over pricing.”
Spot container rates continue falling
