In the past two years, shipping freight prices have risen, and it has been difficult to find a cabin, which has put considerable pressure on foreign trade companies. At present, the pressure on shipping prices has been greatly alleviated.
Now is the peak export season, and many industry insiders say that freight rates on most popular routes have dropped to varying degrees compared with the same period last year.
A buyer in Yiwu, Zhejiang said that before, freight rates were high and shipping space was tight. His customers were less willing to place orders and even temporarily suspended shipments. Now the situation has improved. The goods are shipped out quickly, customers sell quickly, and we return orders quickly.
The latest Shanghai Container Freight Index (SCFI) was 3887.85 points, down 108.92 points or 2.7% from last week. It has fallen for the seventh consecutive week.
In the latest period, freight rates on major routes all fell:
• Far East to West America fell $28 to $6,694/FEU, a decrease of 0.4%;
• Far East to US East fell by US$98 to US$9,348/FEU, a decrease of 1%;
•The freight rate from the Far East to Europe was US$5,416/TEU, a decrease of US$154 or 2.7% from last week;
•The freight rate from the Far East to the Mediterranean was US$5,971/TEU, down US$230 or 3.7% from last week.
•For Southeast Asian routes, it was US$968/TEU, down US$48 or 4% from last week.
•Persian Gulf route, the freight rate was US$2,789/TEU, down 6.1% from the previous period.
•The Australia-New Zealand route continued to fall, with the price at US$2,997/TEU, down 4.6% from the previous issue.
•The South American route fell back after rising for several consecutive weeks, with the freight rate at US$9,439/TEU, down 0.5% from the previous issue.
Among them, the Southeast Asia to Singapore route on the short-ocean route continued to have the deepest decline. After last week’s decline of 3.6%, the latest week’s decline reached 4%, falling below 1,000 points.
Industry insiders pointed out that freight rates on Southeast Asian routes fluctuate greatly. As long as the cargo increases, the freight rates will immediately rise. Once the cargo decreases, the freight rates will easily fall.
The latest data released by other major freight indexes show that freight rates in the spot market continue to decline.
Drewry’s World Container Freight Index (WCI) has declined for 22 consecutive weeks. The latest WCI composite index fell 0.9% on a weekly basis to $6,761.63/FEU, down 28% from the same period last year.
Drewry expects freight rates to continue falling in the coming weeks.
At the same time, in order to curb the decline in freight rates, the number of sailing suspensions by liner companies has increased significantly compared with the same period last year.
According to analysis by the Ningbo Shipping Exchange, in order to curb the decline in freight rates and protect profits, liner companies have adopted and may use measures to adjust shipping capacity in the long term.
Easy shipping schedule data shows that from June to July this year, liner companies suspended 114 voyages, 36 voyages, 24 voyages, and 22 voyages in Asia-US West, Asia-US East, Asia-North Europe, and Asia-Mediterranean respectively. The total number of suspended flights was approximately 2.8 times that of the same period last year.
According to the latest data released by Drewry in this issue, in the next five weeks (weeks 31-35), the world’s three major shipping alliances have canceled a total of 76 voyages.
Among them, the 2M alliance has canceled the most voyages, with 30 voyages; THE alliance has canceled 25 voyages, and the Ocean Alliance, which has the least cancellations, has canceled 21 voyages;
Of a total of 756 scheduled sailings on major trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, Asia-North Europe and Asia-Mediterranean routes, 100 sailings were canceled between weeks 31 and 35, a cancellation rate of 13%.
According to Drewry data for this period, 68% of empty flights will occur on the eastbound trans-Pacific trade route during this period.
Flexport also pointed out that empty lines have become common in the market and have become a means for carriers to cope with low spot freight rates and low demand.
Drewry said that high inventory levels in Western countries (especially North America), coupled with inflation and the impact of the epidemic, have suppressed demand for Chinese goods. Shippers and BCOs appear to be awaiting developments in the coming weeks before placing new orders.
Recently, the shipping company HMM issued a notice saying that due to the increasing congestion of European terminals and the increase in the detention time of imported containers, the yard utilization rate continues to increase and the workload is high, which has an adverse impact on the operation, throughput and resources of the terminal.
As a result, an increasing number of terminals are attempting to address the issue of long-delayed containers through a variety of measures, including moving containers to separate storage areas and/or implementing additional one-time and/or daily checks on imported long-delayed containers. TOLL.
HMM said that although concerns and rejections of these surcharges have been raised with the terminal, the company reminds customers to pick up import containers within the free period as soon as possible to avoid this surcharge, otherwise, the additional surcharge imposed by the terminal will be�Moved to client.
Backlogs continue to plague North America and Europe. Clearly, current market conditions will take time to return to normal.
Previously, a platform released a report stating that shipping companies are adopting more aggressive empty shipping strategies to cope with the decline in demand.
It added that shipping lines would also use “other strategies” including slower sailings to support freight rates and mitigate the impact of soaring fuel costs.
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