The industry is eager for a rebound in cargo volume after Shanghai reopens, but so far, it has not happened.
Recently, some U.S. media stated that U.S. import demand is declining sharply, causing quite a stir in the industry.
The capacity base of European routes is relatively large. Due to limited freight demand, loading rates have performed poorly recently. Some liner companies have been under pressure and have proactively lowered freight rates to strengthen cargo collection, causing booking prices to fall in the spot market.
WCI’s major route indexes remained stable, with a significant decline in the Western United States; routes in the Eastern United States and Europe continued to decline slightly;
According to the latest data from DeRussy, there will be approximately 759 scheduled sailings on major routes such as trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, Asia-North Europe and Asia-Mediterranean in weeks 25 to 29 (June 20 to July 24). 67 voyages have been cancelled, and the world’s three major shipping alliances have canceled a total of 48 voyages.
Among them, the 2M Alliance has canceled the most voyages, with 23 voyages; THE Alliance, with 19 voyages; the Ocean Alliance, which has the least cancellations, has canceled 6 voyages; 73% of the empty flights occurred on the eastbound trans-Pacific route, mainly to the West United States.
The Drewry Composite Average Index WCI fell 1% to $7,502.43/FEU, which is close to the same period last year and only 8% higher than a year ago.
•Shanghai-Los Angeles freight rates fell 3% to US$8,378/FEU respectively;
•The freight rate from Shanghai to New York dropped slightly by US$27 to US$10,695/FEU.
•The spot freight rates of Shanghai-Genoa and Shanghai-Rotterdam dropped slightly by US$40 and US$15 respectively to US$11,445/FEU and US$9,784/FEU.
Drewry expects the index to continue its slow decline in the coming weeks.
Drewry said: After easing lockdown restrictions on June 1, Shanghai re-implemented a partial lockdown due to the discovery of new coronavirus cases.
Shippers and freight forwarders will be concerned about the development of the epidemic, which may affect the inland transportation network that is still recovering.
Although shipping activities in Shanghai have resumed, the momentum and timing of the recovery in cargo volume are still unclear.
SCFI’s Shanghai Export Container Comprehensive Freight Index, which has been rising steadily for several consecutive weeks, fell back. Freight trends on different routes continued to diverge. The latest SCFI freight index was 4221.96 points, a slight decrease of 0.3% from the previous issue. Major European and American routes are still declining continuously.
European routes: Affected by geopolitics, European market demand has declined slightly compared with the previous period. In the latest period, the freight rate (shipping and shipping surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to European basic ports was US$5,793/TEU, a slight decrease of 0.9% from the previous period.
Mediterranean route: Booking prices in the spot market fell slightly. In the latest period, the market freight rate (shipping and shipping surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to the Mediterranean Basic Port was US$6,487/TEU, down 1.1% from the previous period.
North American routes: The COVID-19 epidemic in the United States is still at a high level. The disadvantages of low efficiency of the U.S. collection and distribution system under the epidemic situation still exist. In addition, recent geopolitical factors have led to a sharp rise in the prices of some international commodities; the U.S. economy is facing a situation of stagflation. Last week, market freight rates continued to fall.
The market freight rates (shipping and shipping surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to the basic ports in the West and East US were US$7,489/FEU and US$10,073/FEU respectively, down 1.8% and 0.2% respectively from the previous period.
It can be seen from this that the latest quotations have not rebounded significantly due to the approaching peak season. Instead, the three major routes of the United States, Europe and the Mediterranean have hit new lows in the band.
Persian Gulf route: The market freight rate (shipping and shipping surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to the basic port of the Persian Gulf is US$3,417/TEU, an increase of 4.6% from the previous issue.
Australia and New Zealand routes: The market freight rate (sea freight and sea freight surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to the basic ports of Australia and New Zealand is US$3,402/TEU, which is basically the same as the previous period.
South American routes: The market freight rate (sea freight and sea freight surcharges) exported from Shanghai Port to South American basic ports is US$7,362/TEU, an increase of 5.8% from the previous issue.
From June 11 to June 17, the Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) released by the Ningbo Shipping Exchange was 3473.6 points, down 1.9% from last week.
The freight index of 9 of the 21 routes increased, and the freight index of 12 routes fell. Among the major ports along the “Maritime Silk Road”, the freight index of 5 ports increased and the freight index of 11 ports fell.
The key route index conditions are as follows:
European routes: The capacity base of European routes is relatively large. Due to limited freight demand, the loading rate has performed poorly recently. Some liner companies have been under pressure to proactively lower freight rates to strengthen cargo collection, and booking prices in the spot market have fallen.
•EuropeThe route freight index was 4141.8 points, down 3.7% from last week;
•The freight index for the Didong route was 4025.1 points, down 1.6% from the previous period;
•The freight index for the West-West route was 4938.3 points, down 1.1% from the previous period.
North American routes: Freight rates on the East and West routes of the United States have declined to varying degrees. Among them, the transportation demand on the US-Western route has not improved, the supply of space is sufficient, and the decline in booking prices in the spot market has expanded.
•The U.S. East Route Freight Index was 3404.6 points, down 0.9% from the previous period;
•The freight rate index for the West Coast route was 4376.9 points, down 6.2% from the previous period.
Middle East route: The demand relationship is generally stable, and some liner companies have slightly increased freight rates.
In addition, the overall demand for cargo on the Philippine route is strong, but the unstable shipping schedule has resulted in limited actual available space, and the booking price in the spot market has increased significantly. The Philippine route freight index was 131.7 points, an increase of 12.6% from last week.
</p
