Markets/Trades

EC contracts dropped 15-17% during the morning session on the first trading day after the Golden Week holidays, influenced by the SCFIS report from the previous night and movements in the Chinese equities market. Carriers' on-line FAK freight rates quotations released today, compared to the same from last working day (30 Sep) before Golden Week, mostly remain lower. Hapag Lloyd and ONE raised their quotations since 30 Sep, which however  have not been followed by Maersk and MSC. Lunar New Year

The escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict in the Middle East has sparked fears of a potential disruption to vessel traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. The impact on the container markets will be far less severe compared to the tanker and LNG markets, as the Middle East Gulf is mostly an import market with very little exports of any strategic importance that are shipped in containers. Middle East Gulf ports located north of the Strait of Hormuz handled a total of 29m teu of containers in 2023, acc

There is no SCFI assessment last week due to the Golden Week holidays in China. The SCFIS recorded a 15.9% drop on 7 October, marking its 11th consecutive weekly decline. 5 out of 18 regular sailings to North Europe were blanked last week, with a similar number of blank sailings expected in the next 2 weeks. However, the 15% reduction in overall capacity is insufficient address the lower market demand and the number of blanked sailings are also lower compared to the previous 2 years. Freight r

China’s onshore container freight futures market was closed for the Golden Week holidays from 1 to 7 October but is poised to trade weaker when it re-opens following the SCFIS’ 16% week-over-week drop on 7 October. The end of the USEC port strike also removes the last remaining hope for supply to remain tight for the remainder of the year, with a further correction in freight rates now inevitable. Carriers’ rate quotations remain largely unchanged over the past week at around $3,000/FEU with in

Carriers remain on track to report bumper 3Q earnings with COSCO Shipping setting the early pace after it issued a profit alert on 7 October showing 3Q 2024 net income improved by 286% YoY to RMB 21.3 Bn. COSCO subsidiary OOCL also released its 3rd quarter trading update with revenue rising by 74% compared to a year ago, and is also up 35% compared to the 2nd quarter led by increased rates on the Asia-Europe route (up 51%) and Transpacific (up 29%).

The US East Coast port strike has just ended. As of October 1, the container vessel capacity waiting outside the US East Coast and Gulf region amounted to 346,185 TEU. This is one of the key factors contributing to the global container vessel capacity affected by port congestion, which now stands at 2.8 million TEU. No SCFI today (4 Oct) as China is on a week-long holiday, but based on the liners' online quotations, FE-WCNA freight rates was lower since last Friday with Maersk reduced its quota

Charter rates continue to move on 2 different tracks with the larger sizes of over 4,000 teu continuing to power ahead while the rates for the smaller sizes are easing gradually. Carriers are still scrambling to secure all available tonnage in the larger segments with forward deliveries now stretching into 2Q 2025. CMA CGM, COSCO, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk were the most active carriers with various extensions and forward fixtures concluded in the last 2 weeks. Hapag-Lloyd has taken 4 units of the

EC freight futures traded sharply higher on 30 September with all contracts from December 2024 to August 2025 hitting their 20% maximum daily limit, bringing their weekly gains to 41% to 55%. The US East Coast ports strike is driving the bullish short-term sentiment despite continued weakness on the Asia-Europe freight market as the SCFIS fell by 3.7% on 30 September while the SCFI dropped by 13% last week as carriers continued to slash rates ahead of the October Golden Week holidays. Average E

Spot rates to North Europe and Med dropped sharply last week, with the SCFI falling by 13.2% and 14.0% respectively as carriers continued to slash rates at an aggressive pace. Latest market rates surveyed to North Europe ranged from $2,900/feu to $3,500/feu down from $3,400/feu to $4,200/feu a week ago with the 2M and OCEAN Alliance carriers forced to match the aggressive rate cuts by THE Alliance carriers. Although port congestion remains serious across key Chinese and European ports, this ha

Short-covering continue to be the driver moving up prices of the container freight futures as traders close their freight futures positions to rotate to equities. Open interests fell 23% in a week. Main contract ie EC2412 rallied again this morning after have moved up 8% in the previous 2 trading days. Liners are still cutting their freight rates, which on average dropped 5% over the past weekend. The lowest quotation have broken below $3000/FEU with the THE Alliance liners leading the freight