In the past month, freight rates in the container shipping market, which had continued to soar, showed signs of falling.
The Shanghai Export Container Comprehensive Freight Index (SCFI) released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange fell from 4614.10 points on September 30 to 4535.92 points on November 5, continuously It fell for four weeks, with a decrease of 78.18 points.
Among them, the market freight rate (shipping and shipping surcharges) exported from Shanghai to the Mediterranean basic port fell from US$7,444/TEU on September 30 to US$7,444/TEU on November 5. USD 7,269/TEU, in a continued downward trend.
“Maritime Silk Road” Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) trend
Coincidentally, The “Maritime Silk Road” Ningbo Export Container Freight Index (NCFI) released by the Ningbo Shipping Exchange also fell from 4092.0 points on October 8 to 3964.5 points on November 5, a decrease of 127.5 points.
In this regard, analysts at the Shanghai Shipping Exchange said that the epidemic in Europe has recently shown signs of rebound, and future economic recovery will still face greater challenges.
An analyst at the Ningbo Shipping Exchange analyzed that demand in the European market has weakened, and some liner companies have lowered freight rates in order to increase solicitation of cargo, causing market booking prices to fall slightly.
Some people in the industry believe that since it is the traditional off-season, the decrease in demand in the container shipping market is a normal phenomenon. The drop in the index and freight rates is not unexpected, and there is no cliff-like drop. It is a mild correction based on market demand.
Shifl China-US West Route freight rate trend
According to data from container data company Shifl, Currently, the freight rate on the China-US West Coast route has dropped to approximately US$8,000/FEU, which has dropped by half compared to the highest point of nearly US$18,000/FEU in September. The freight rate on the China-US East route has also dropped significantly, from US$19,500/FEU in September to the current US$13,800/FEU, a decrease of approximately 30%.
Shifl CEO and founder Shabsie Levy believes: “The holiday shopping boom seems to be over, and spot market freight rates in November will continue to fall. However, in February 2022 Before the Chinese New Year in October, freight rates will rise slightly again, and then continue the downward trend.”
He said: “After the Spring Festival, we will enter the traditionally quieter months. , I believe we will see interest rates move steadily downward.”
However, this does not mean that congestion is over.
Maersk: There is no end in sight to the supply chain crisis
UK ” The Financial Times reported that Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping group, pointed out that there is no end in sight to the global supply chain crisis.
Last week, Maersk CEO Soren Skou said that shore logistics in the US and UK markets, which are mainly imports, cannot keep up with the cargo flow in Asia, and the current situation still cannot Quick unloading as expected. “The entire system has become a huge bottleneck.”
Maersk expects this congestion to continue into next year. Many of its customers are planning the same timeline. On earnings calls, companies like HP and Under Armor have been telling investors that they are preparing for supply chain disruptions in the first half of 2022, if not longer.
COSCO Shipping: Global container shipping capacity was wasted due to congestion in the first three quarters 17%
At the 2021 North Bund International Shipping Forum·International Shipping Parallel Forum held on the 4th, Fu Gangfeng, Managing Director of China Ocean Shipping Group, said that the impact of the epidemic on the global supply chain has triggered varying degrees of Logistics bottleneck.
In the first three quarters of 2021, the global container shipping capacity increased by approximately 25% compared with the average of the three years before the epidemic, while the wasted shipping capacity due to port congestion was as high as 17%.
At the same time, he pointed out that open cooperation is still an important way to solve challenges, and a higher-quality supply chain logistics system must be established to meet the needs of customers’ industrial chain upgrades. </p
