MSC has restarted the Sunrise service connecting Busan, Vostochny, Busan from 6 January 2025 deploying the 1,121 teu MSC KANU F and 1,118 teu MSC FORTUNE F. The service will replace the previous call at Vostochny on the Golden Horn service that has been dropped. The revised Golden Horn service calls at Shanghai, Ningbo, Rizhao, Vladivostok, Busan, Shanghai from January 2025.
The freight futures made a same-day U-turn yesterday and edged up a bit more today after the OCEAN Alliance yesterday announced additional blank sailings for February. However, the liners continue to slash their freight rate quotations for shipments leaving in the next few weeks. Utilization has continued to trend downward as weekly capacity reached a 12-month high. The SCFI Europe is expected to report a double-digit decline after the market closes today.
MSC will revise the port rotation of its NWC to South Africa service from 20 January 2025 to call at London Gateway, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bremerhaven, Le Havre, Sines, Las Palmas, Walvis Bay, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Cape Town, Las Palmas, London Gateway. The revision will involve the at Walvis Bay to provide direct connections between Europe and Namibia. The NWC to South Africa service turns in 10 weeks and deploys 10 ships of 5,000 to 12,000 teu. MSC will also add a new Namibia Express service
SeaLead has updated the port rotation on its Far East Asia-Middle East (FAM) service to call at Qingdao, Xingang, Dalian, Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Khor Fakkan, Jebel Ali, Hamad, Khor Fakkan, Nansha, Qingdao. A new call at Hamad has been added from 13 December 2024, replacing the previous call at Sohar.
SITC has revised the rotation of the China Vietnam Malaysia 2 (CVM2) service from December 2024 to call at Nansha, Chiwan, Xiamen, Kota Kinabalu, Bintulu, Ho Chi Minh City, Nansha. The previous northbound calls at Qinzhou and Haiphong are removed and replaced by a new call at Ho Chi Minh City from 16 December 2024. The CVM2 will retain a 21 day turnaround using 3 ships of 1,000 teu.
The EC contracts continue to decline due to aggressive pricing from the largest shipping lines and concerns about a potential resumption of Red Sea passage under the Trump administration. On the liners' pricing, Maersk has offered the lowest quotation at $3,400 per FEU for shipments departing on January 20 and January 22. Tianjin - North Europe freight index, being published daily by Tianjin Shipping Exchange, dropped 5.65% overnight today.
Charter market activity has been muted in the last 2 weeks due to the Christmas and New Year holidays with attention mostly focused on the smaller sizes. Rates for both the 1,100 teu and 1,700 teu classes continue to firm on healthy demand across all markets. Above 2,700 teu, there are very few open candidates apart from takers willing to accept forward fixtures that now extend to the 2nd half of the year. COSCO has been most active in the past week with charter renewals and new fixtures that we
Port congestion persisted over the New Year holidays especially across certain key ports in Europe and North American ports where long berthing delays remain unresolved. Congestion at European ports remain at a 2 year high with very serious delays at Antwerp, Hamburg, Le Havre, Rotterdam and Southampton in North Europe and at Ambarli, Genoa, Piraeus and Valencia in the Mediterranean. Severe weather conditions coupled with labour shortages have badly disrupted operations at these ports, with only
EC container freight futures plunged between 4% and 11% week on week, with April contracts taking the hardest hit. Although average daily trading volume ticked up by 4%, it is 29% lower than the 2024 full year average of 87,000 lots per day. The EC2502 February contract dropped 9% WoW and is currently trading at a 40% discount to the latest SCFIS index released after market close on 6 January, with rising concerns over carriers’ aggressive pricing in January with further rate cuts expected post