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
Register Free Trial Market focus is shifting to the new Alliances’ services to be launched in February, when the currently buoyant container freight and charter market will be keenly tested. Freight futures to Europe have slumped in the past week with carriers already rolling back their recent rate gains even as forward rates are expected to fall continuously through the rest of 2025. The Transpacific market is moving in the opposite direction, with carriers able to secure an early January rate
TS Lines has revised the port rotation of its self-operated Asia West Coast 2 (AWC2) service from October 2024 to call at Xiamen, Nansha, Shekou, Yantian, Los Angeles, Xiamen. The revised AWC2 replaces the previous AWC2 rotation that called irregularly at Nansha, Xiamen, Los Angeles, Nansha with ad hoc calls at Hong Kong, Kaohsiung and Busan. The service currently deploys 4 ships of 1,700 teu on a 42 day rotation with 2 skipped sailings in the cycle.
Kawa Shipping and Zhejiang Seaport Logistics Group have launched a new China-Europe Express (CEX) service connecting Ningbo, Wilhelmshaven, Ningbo from 29 December 2024. The CEX service will offer a 26 day transit time between China and Germany which is currently the fastest service on this route as it will use the Suez Canal while all the other services are on the Cape route. The maiden sailing started with the 2,496 teu KAWA NINGBO that departed from Ningbo on 30 December and is scheduled to
CMA CGM will add a new Odessa Express (ODX) service connecting Piraeus, Odeassa, Ambarli, Piraeus from 24 January 2025. The ODX service turn in 14 days and will deploy 2 ships of 1,100-1,500 teu starting with the 1,118 teu LILA CANADA at Piraeus on 24 January followed by the 1,550 teu TJ ORHAN on 31 January.
EC2502 broke below 2200 this morning as Maersk has lowered its quotations for shipments departing in the second half of January to below $4,000 per FEU, prompting other liners to reduce their online FAK rates. As of yesterday (January 2), the latest utilization rates remain high, though the peak may have been reached on December 22, 2024. January's average weekly capacity, which is up 17% month-over-month, may be too high for Maersk to believe that liners will be able to achieve further freigh
Hapag-Lloyd will launch a new Vietnam Cambodia (VCS) service connecting Sihanoukville, Cai Mep, Haiphong, Yantian, Shekou, Sihanoukville from 18 January 2025. The service will turn in 14 days using 2 newbuildings of 1,930 teu that Hapag-Lloyd has taken on 2 year charters from Reederei Nord starting with the NORDATLANTIC at Sihanoukville on 18 January 2025 followed by the NORDBALTIC on 25 January 2025.
2024 has been turned out to be a highly profitable year for charter owners with the Linerlytica charter rate index up 160% year over year at the end of December. The 4,200 teu panamax segment registered the largest gains over the last 12 months, with a YoY gain of 211%. Although demand has been very strong for all ship sizes of over 4,000 teu, there were limited numbers of open ships in the larger segments above 5,000 teu that were available to take advantage of the increased demand. The longer
Global port congestion worsened over the Christmas holidays with high traffic volumes, poor weather conditions, port labour issues and capacity constraints causing a surge in berthing delays at ports in Europe, North America and certain parts of Asia. The total capacity waiting at anchorages worldwide rose to a 2 year high of 10.8% on 26 December before easing to 8.6% at the end of last week. European ports continue to witness high congestion levels with Antwerp, Hamburg, Rotterdam, London Gate