EC2502, the main contract of EC, rose 10% yesterday (November 5) on strong volume and maintained this gain through the morning session today, despite increasing concerns about the impact of the Trump administration on Chinese exports. Since our last daily update on November 1, COSCO and Evergreen have also raised their quotations for Asia-North Europe shipments to over $5,000/FEU. However, utilization has been declining since November 1. Far East - North Europe Head Haul
SeaLead has launched a new Djibouti-Red Sea-Asia Express (DRAX) service connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Nansha, Cai Mep, Port Klang, Colombo, Djibouti, Cai Mep, Shanghai from 7 November 2024. The DRAX service will turn in 7 weeks and will deploy initially 3 ships of 3,400-4,600 teu starting with the 3,451 teu LIDIA at Shanghai on 7 November 2024 followed by the 4,636 teu ZHONG GU XI AN and ZHONG GU YIN CHUAN that will join on 23 November abd 24 November respectively. Port rotation of the new DRAX
Register Free Trial [https://www.linerlytica.com/register/?utm_source=W202445] Carriers have pushed ahead with the 1 November rate hikes with smaller increases than initially planned but they have at least reversed the continuous declines since July that has seen the SCFI and CCFI shed 45% and 37% of their values. Carriers will struggle to retain the rate hikes with cargo demand still weak in the seasonally weak November period in the absence of more capacity cuts. Although capacity utilisation
Further turmoil on the transpacific market is expected next year with potential US import tariff hikes dampening the buoyant demand that has seen eastbound container volumes from Asia to the US jump by 14.7% in the first 9 months of 2024. US imports have been particularly strong in the 3rd quarter, with average monthly volumes matching the COVID peaks in 2021-2022. Imports from Vietnam have increased by 26%, with its share of US imports from the Far East reaching 14% compared to just 5% a decad
Unimed Feeder Services (UFS), the Med and Black Sea feeder arm of Unifeeder, has launched a new Turkey-Ukraine feeder service calling at Tekirdag, Odessa, Tekirdag from 30 October 2024. The service will turn in 7 days with the 1,216 teu HARRISON whose charter has just been renewed for 10-12 months and respositioned from North Europe.
Europe Contracts (EC) saw an increase of 3-10% during the morning session, with 47,174 contracts traded. EC2502 emerged as the main contract by volume, rising by 10% today following MSC's announcement to raise the FE-NEUR freight rate for the second half of November shipments to $5,500 per FEU. ONE also increased its quotations for the second half of November to $5,000 per FEU, up from $4,600 per FEU quoted yesterday. The CMA CGM CHAMPS ELYSEES departed yesterday (October 31) at 101% utilizatio
Futures contracts were mostly up by 2-5% in the morning session, with just 33,474 contracts traded in half a day, compared to an average daily volume of about 100,000 in October. Regarding freight rate quotations, HMM increased its rates for early November shipments from $4,100 to $4,300 per FEU, while OOCL reduced its rates from $4,300-4,400 per FEU to $4,100-4,200 per FEU. There were no new departures between October 29 and October 30 for updated utilization data.
The EC2412 dropped to a low of 2,900 at the open yesterday (29 October) and then continued to recover as traders digested the conflicting freight rate quotations from different liners. Average utilization continued to improve as shippers rushed to send out their shipments ahead of the general rate increase scheduled for November 1, this Friday. On October 28, four ships departed Singapore for Northern Europe with over 96% utilization. Over the past two days, online quotations from the liners
Shanghai-North Europe freight futures slipped marginally by 1-2% at the start of the week with doubts emerging over the sustainability of the 1 November rate hike. The SCFIS index finally ended its 13-week losing streak with settled rates to North Europe holding up by 0.1% on 28 October just ahead of the planned 1 November rate increase while the SCFI pre-empted the increase on Friday with a 14% week-over-week rebound. Although the SCFIS is set to rise next week on the back of the November hike
The SCFI assessment to North Europe jumped by 14.2% last week ahead of the planned 1 November rate hike but actual rates are still weak with the CCFI dropping by 6.4% while the SCFIS barely held out for a 0.1% rise after 13 consecutive weeks of declines that have seen the settled index slump by 65% since July. Although the SCFI is expected to post another hefty increase this week, cracks are already appearing on the carriers’ resolve to push through the 1 Nov rate hike, with several carriers al