Total 211 Posts
The erosion in charter rates continue, with further drops expected as the market slips into the traditional cargo slack season in October. Capacity utilisation on all key routes are trending lower and this could kill carriers appetite for further tonnage. SeaLead has chartered its largest ship taking over the 10,114 teu EXPRESS BERLIN from Danaos. COSCO has also received last week the first 7,092 teu newbuilding that it has chartered for 3 years from X-Press Feeders. Russian operators continue
The 1 September rate gains on the transpacific have all but evaporated, with rates to the US East Coast falling sharply with the SCFI assessment registered a 8.4% drop last week. Capacity utilization has dropped on the East Coast with average capacity deployed in September reaching a record high of almost 250,000 teu per week or 12.5% higher compared to August. In contrast, average capacity to the West Coast is 7.4% lower in September, which has only partially stemmed the rate fall. Rates to
CoFIF closed another week up only 1-3% across its 5 contracts while average daily turnover was up 46% WoW back to $1.9bn a day. Although the spot SCFIS reported 8% WoW drop after market on 4 Sep, the CoFIF market saw a huge boost of liquidity the next day (5 Sep) where total trading volume jumped to 400,000 lots, the highest since the launch of CoFIF, while the price of most traded contracts, EC2404, went up 7% for the day. Though, the market quickly gave up most of those 7% gains in the follo
Transpacific freight rates rose by $100 after the 1 September GRI but the rates gains were lower than expected and carriers have already started to cut rates with the outlook turning negative. Several carriers have already withdrawn their transpacific peak season surcharges (PSS), signifying the early end of the peak season even before the Golden Week holidays in China in October. East Coast and PNW rates are under pressure with capacity still in excess supply on these 2 routes compared to the
The CoFIF container freight futures closed mixed at the end of its 2nd trading week on 1 September with short dated contracts holding relatively better than the longer dated contracts, after taking a dip on 28 Aug. The North Europe EC2408 contract remain in contango at 1,010 relative to the SCFIS spot level of 975 last week, and the latest SCFIS reading of 897 as at 4 September. Although average trading volume dropped 30% WoW to $1.3bn, it remains highly liquid compared to other container freig
Transpacific freight rates are holding at the $1,800-$1,850 per feu level to the US West Coast, with sentiment turning downwards ahead of the 1 September GRI (General Rate Increase). Although carriers will be able to lift rates above the $2,000 level in the coming week, there is considerable skepticism that the rates can hold through the rest of the month. Rates to the East Coast have also started to slip, with more capacity available from extra loaders and limited number of blank sailings thro
CoFIF's (Containerized Freight Index Futures) closed the first full week of trading mostly up despite of bad Euro zone PMI print that came out a day ago and the 6% WoW drop in spot SCFIS on Monday. The SCFI, which usually leads all freight rates indices in container shipping sector, came out at 3pm today down for second week in a row after showing some strength in mid August. While EC2404 (Apr 2024 contracts) are down 6% WoW and EC2406 (Jun 2024 contracts) are flat WoW, other three contracts
Transpacific carriers failed to hold on to their mid August rate increases and have given back part of their recent rate gains with spot rates falling back to the $1,800/feu level to the US West Coast compared to the latest SCFI assessment of $2,003/feu. Rates to the US East Coast were more resilient, with capacity reduced due to Panama Canal draft restrictions. Maersk has added 9 extra East Coast sailings since July but will be cutting back on these East Coast loaders which will be diverted to
After nearly 6 years of suspension, container freight futures are returning to the Shanghai market today. The turnover reached Rmb3.8bn ($500mn) in the first 30 minutes of trading, which is similar to the weekly freight revenue of the FE-NEUR route. source: BANDS FinancialThe product is now called Containerized Freight Index Futures (CoFIF). This product is being traded at INE (Shanghai International Energy Exchange), a subsidiary of Shanghai Future Exchange and is regulated by CSRC (China Sec
Carriers are holding firmly to the transpacific rate increases, with the West Coast rates staying above the $2,000/feu level to the US West Coast and $3,000/feu to the East Coast. Bookings remain strong on lower capacity available through August, but weakness is starting to show with the mid-August gains smaller than initially expected. Transpacific rates will receive another boost from the 1 September rate increase but further increases will be limited unless trade demand rebounds significant