Markets/Trades

Container freight futures dropped in mid-week trading on 19 March after Maersk extended their $2,000 per FEU rate through early April, mirroring a similar move by MSC the week before. The 1 April rate hike has effectively been abandoned even before it started with the EC2504 contracts taking the biggest hit. The EC2506 and EC2508 contracts remain relatively unscathed and are still trading at a 29-37% premium over the SCFIS from last week with open interest up by 4% week-on-week. Average utiliza

Carriers are reducing Asia-North Europe rate quotations for the first week of April, sparking yet another round of failed rate hikes on this route. Although capacity utilization picked up in week 10 due to a large number of sailings skipped, the reprieve will be temporary as carriers are bringing back capacity over the next few weeks including the launch of the Ocean Alliance’s new NEU3 service from week 15 that will add another 8,000-14,000 teu per week . The repeated failures to push through

Container freight futures retreated over the past week with growing concerns over the carriers’ persistent rate cuts. Despite MSC’s announcement on 12 March to raise its Asia-North Europe base rates to $4,000 per FEU from 1 April, it has provided rate offers at $2,090 per FEU until 6 April, effectively undermining their planned rate hike. Trading volumes fell by 17% week-over-week, while open interest remained largely unchanged as trader wait for fresh directions. Despite last week’s sharp decl

Capacity utilization on the Asia-North Europe services fell to their lowest levels since 2020, with no signs of a rebound in cargo volumes. Average utilization has dropped below 90% forcing carriers to slash rates with the SCFI tumbling by a further 15.2% last week. Although carriers are gunning for another round of rate hikes to bring base rates back up to $4,000/feu, it will be a tall order as current spot rates have already dropped below $2,000/feu with some carriers even extending the curre

Futures contracts in Shanghai fell by 5-8% this morning as traders opted to follow the liners' daily online freight rate reductions rather than their April 1 GRI announcements. Over the past two days, liners have largely been cutting their online quotations. With insufficient volume and utilization, there is no immediate support for any freight rate increases.

The widening disconnect between faltering container freight rates and the continued strengthening of containership charter rates is unsustainable, with the ratio of the charter rate index to the CCFI currently at a historic high. Although charter rates and freight rates tend to move in tandem, there have been various periods in the past where they have diverged due to differences in demand and supply dynamics in the charter and freight markets. The Red Sea diversions have driven the widening di

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

The SCFI rebound on the North Europe route proved to be short-lived as carriers continued to slash rates. The SCFIS is also expected to resume its slide after the surprise 6% gain on 10 March, mirroring the weakness in the spot market where average survey rate quotations are still falling. Capacity utilization remains stubbornly poor, with no pick up in demand to be seen. Capacity discipline remains scarce, with the OCEAN Alliance still planning to proceed with the launch of their new NEU3 serv

The EC contracts gapped down at the open but recovered throughout the day, with longer-dated contracts even closing in positive territory as traders believed MSC Lion's capacity reduction signaled discipline from the liners. However, Lion's capacity adjustment had already been reflected in the sailing schedule ten days prior, and our latest Deployment Watch (based on 22 Feb schedule data) suggests weekly capacity in March would still amount to 288k per week with smaller ships for the Lion servic

Wild swing for the main EC contract, EC2504, this morning going from being 3.8% up in first 30m minutes at market open to down 3.8% before recovering by lunch break. Overnight, CMA CGM dropped its online quotation to below $3,000 per FEU for all March shipments. Maersk released $2300 per FEU after lunch break that put the EC2504 decidedly in the negative territory for the day.