Container freight futures continued to see-saw, as the large drop on 4 March after last week’s 6.2% decline in the SCFIS index was followed by a rebound on 6 March as Maersk’s General Rate Increase (GRI) notice sparked a minor rally. Over the past week, the EC contracts were generally down apart from the April 2025 and February 2026 contracts that traded flat. Average daily trading volumes remained robust, while open interest dropped slightly by 3%. The forward curve remains optimistic, with Ju
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