Rates to North Europe continued their sharp falls with the SCFI assessed rates falling by 8.8% to North Europe and 12.2% to the Med. Carriers continue to slash rates, with THE Alliance carriers particularly aggressive with the rate cuts last week with quotations falling below $4,000/feu. Although departures from Shanghai have been severely disrupted in the last 2 weeks due to congestion following Typhoon Bebinka, the reduced capacity available did not stop rates from dropping with demand remai
Asia-Europe spot rates continued to slide in the last week of August with the SCFI rates to North Europe slipping by 11.9% while rates to the Mediterranean dropped by 9.7%. Carriers continued to undercut each other with FAK rates dropping to the $5,500/feu level with no action to cut capacity in September as blanked sailings are only planned in October. These measures would come too late to arrest the rate decline, with current EC futures already pricing in a 50% reduction to current levels by
Continued spot rate weakness and renewed Gaza ceasefire talks brought the longer dated EC futures contracts down to their daily limit on 19 August. EC2408 contracts held up with the SCFIS falling by less than expected, down by 2.3% WoW after market close. EC2410 also largely held its ground as the October contracts are already trading at a 48% discount to current spot rates. The latest EC2410 closing price has built in weekly drops of 7% each week over the next 2 months against the SCFIS’ 1-2%