Total 328 Posts
EC contracts continued to rally as traders anticipate a recovery in freight rates over the next two months, despite the liners' target of $4,000 per FEU by March 1 not being fully achievable. Half-day trading volume has already reached 86,000 lots, with open interest increasing by 7,000 lots. Weekly capacity departing from Singapore and Malaysia will hit a trough this week due to blank sailings. Utilization for the few vessels that recently departed Singapore and Malaysia has begun to drop, refl
The charter market remains very active with rates still holding very firm on very strong demand across all size segments. Last week saw notable gains in the Bangkokmax segment where demand has picked up especially for intra-Asia deployment. In the past week, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd dominated the fixtures list as they continue to fill the open vessel slots in their new Gemini network. Maersk’s recent capacity additions have seen it breach its own self-imposed fleet cap of 4.3m teu that it has mai
SCFI spot rates to Europe continue to weaken in the week ended 14 February with no pick up in cargo volumes after the Lunar New Year holiday in the Far East. SCFI spot rates fell by 10.9% with actual spot rates slipping to $2,400-$3,000/feu to North Europe although carriers are aiming to raise rates above $4,000/feu again on 1 March as bookings are resuming after the holidays. Port congestion in Europe could disrupt the schedules of the ships returning to Asia in the next 2 months, which could
The underlying SCFIS index slumped by 19% on 17 February, reversing last week’s unexpected gains. The forward curve has returned to contango for the first time since November 2024, as EC freight futures strengthened over the past week with rates expected to rebound over the March to September period. Trading activity was mainly focused on the principal EC freight futures contract for April 2025 (EC2504) which rose 10% as both MSC and Maersk joined other carriers in raising their quotations for
Container freight futures have rallied sharply, with December 2025 contracts surging by 53% over the past week as hopes for an early return of containerships to the Suez route fade. Since the 19 January ceasefire agreement in Gaza, there has been no ships diverted back to the Suez route with all main carriers retaining their Cape routing at least until March. The potential return of the diverted Suez ships would release up to 7% of the global containership capacity with the resumption of slow s
The EC futures contracts continued to decline, accompanied by slightly lower trading volume. Open interest also began to decrease. Overnight, HMM reduced its quotation for February shipments to $2,200 per FEU, down from $2,400 per FEU. Utilization edged up with two above trend line sailings.
The EC container freight futures dropped this morning on strong volume, as the relief rally from the previously bearish sentiment has completed. Traders will now need to see some level of success from the March 1 GRI to validate the 20-50% rally that occurred last week. Utilization for ships that departed this week remains at a decent level; however, the extremely light MSC VENICE has dragged down the moving average. Liners continue to reduce their online quotations overnight. CMA CMG join Hapa
Charter rates have resumed their tentative climb after the holidays in the Far East, with a shortage of prompt tonnage keeping rates at elevated levels across all size segments. Improved rates were recorded in the feeder sizes where most of the chartering activity have been focused especially in the Atlantic. There are limited deals in the larger sizes, with one notable fixture last week for the 4,957 teu X-PRESS BARDSEY on a short 2-3m charter to CMA CGM at a relatively strong rate of $63,000 t
EC freight futures surged following the Chinese New Year holidays, with April-December 2025 contracts rising by 20% to 53% in the shortened 4 day trading week. Average daily trading volumes and open interest positions both increased by 19% on strong trading interest sparked by the potential escalation of the conflict in the Middle East after the US proposal to take over Gaza was rejected by the majority of the Arab states. Several EC contracts hit their upper daily trading limits on 7 and 10 Fe
SCFI spot rates to North Europe fell sharply last week, dropping by 15.9% from the pre-holiday level with blank sailings unable to keep pace with the drop in cargo volumes across most Far East origins. Rates to the Med have held up relatively better, with the Med rate premium over the North Continent widening to 68% with the strong demand in the Red Sea taking away some of the Med capacity operated by niche carriers that are using the faster Suez route. Although Hapag-Lloyd announced a speculat