EC contracts continued to decline throughout the day due to the possibility of a ceasefire following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Near-term contracts continue to outperform, fueled by hopes of another round of freight rate increases in December. Average utilization remained largely unchanged overnight. Evergreen and HMM raised their quotes by a few hundred dollars for shipments departing in the second half of December.
OOCL and Yang Ming will jointly launch a new China-Laem Chabang (CHL2)/China-Thailand Express (CTE) service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, Nansha, Laem Chabang, Shekou, Shanghai from 10 January 2025. The CHL2/CTE will turn in 3 weeks and will deploy 3 ships of 2,700 teu with OOCL's 2,782 teu DEAR PANEL and SYMEON P, both chartered from Euroseas who will join the service at Shanghai on 10 January and 24 January respectively upon delivery from the Hyundai Mipo shipyard while Yang Ming will
Taiwanese carriers reported lower revenues in November with a 11% month-over-month decline. Wan Hai registered a relatively smaller sequential drop of -3% which was in line with the CCFI’s fall while Yang Ming fell by 8% and EMC dropped by 13%. SEAFI cover Freight Rates for Shanghai to ASEAN Based Ports. Source: SSE
EC futures dropped across the board over the past week, with the earlier exuberance over the December rate hikes cooling off as spot market rates settle into a tighter range which will likely hold for the rest of the month before carriers attempt another round of rate hikes on 1 January. The SCFIS rose by 7.2% in the latest 9 December release to reach 3,033 points, but EC2412 still trades at a 12% premium at 3,398 with possible downside pressure as the mid-December rate increases appear to have
Asia-North Europe spot rates stabilized last week with rates settling into a tighter range of between $5,200 to 5,600 per FEU. The SCFI slipped marginally by 0.3% on Friday after the 22.5% surge the previous week, reflecting the roll back from the higher rates that carriers had initially targeted from the 1 Dec rate hike. The lagging SCFIS index rose by 7.2% on 9 December as the higher rates are registered. The current rates are expected to largely hold through until the end of the month, with
The containership charter rates remain firm with limited availability in all segments. Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are still scrambling to assemble sufficient ships for the launch of their new joint services starting in February 2025 with more than 20 open vessel slots still to be filled. The published schedules for February shows a large number of blanked sailings that will coincide with the port Chinese New Year slack period, but also reflects the partners’ tonnage short
Port congestion rebounded sharply over the past week with both Chinese and North European ports experiencing severe delays. The Yangtze River delta ports of Shanghai and Ningbo are experiencing a significant surge in the number of ships waiting at anchorages, with the situation in Shanghai being particularly bad due to high vessel traffic and weather related delays. North European main port congestion has also worsened with very high yard occupancy reported in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and So
COSCO remains the largest carrier on the Transpacific market, with a 16.5% share of total container volumes shipped on the Far East-US route for the 2024 contract season from May to November 2024. COSCO’s larger capacity share on the US West Coast allowed it to dominate the market compared to their European rivals (CMA CGM and Maersk) who deploys a larger proportion of their capacity on the US East Coast.
EC2502 briefly dipped below 2500 before recovering some losses. The main support for this contract hinges on the anticipated freight rate increase to $6,000 planned for December 30. However, the success of this increase will depend on vessel utilization, which has been trending downward since mid-November. Overnight, CMA CGM reduced their quotations for shipments scheduled in the second half of December by $400 to $600 per FEU.
Register Free Trial [https://www.linerlytica.com/register/?utm_source=W202450] It was a mixed week for container freight rates with carriers able to hold on to their early December rate gains on the Asia-Europe, Middle East and Latin America routes but continued to lose ground on the Transpacific. Price competition on the transpacific route remains very keen with none of the main carriers willing to give up market share ahead of the alliance reshuffle in February even as newcomers such as Hede,