The planned Asia-Europe general rate increase in March is falling flat with rampant rate cutting jeopardizing plans to raise rates to $4,000/feu. Maersk was again singled out for its aggressive price cuts, with rate offers below $3,000/feu being offered through the end of March. Despite its much touted 90% reliability target for the new Gemini Cooperation network, Maersk has evidently failed to convince its customers to pay a premium and had to resort to price cuts to fill its ships. Forward c
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
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
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%